Why Do Empires Fall

Jahvon Gomez
6th Hour
10­1­14

There has been countless successful empires that conquered large areas of land and it seemed inconceivable for them to fall but have. A few examples of empire’s that have fallen are the Han Empire, the Gupta Empire and the Roman Empire, all of these once powerful empires have fallen do to money problems, the military and corrupt government. One example of why an empire might fall is money problems, for example a key part of why the Han Empire fell was because taxes weren’t getting payed, the same also thing happened to Rome. The wealthy were not obligated to pay taxes but peasants were and couldn't afford to. Also the Han Empire was paying off other groups like the Xiongnu who threatened to invade if they didn’t pay up, soon enough the government would run out of money and not be able to meet the demands of other groups financially so they had to go to war. Not to mention the fact that the Xiongnu split into two different parts, north and south and when the South kept the northern parts payment they attacked both the southern faction and the Han.
This leads to the next reason why empires fall, some empires didn't have a strong enough military. The Gupta Empire was a very successful empire, they had all the characteristics of a sturdy and success bound empire, but their military wasn’t quite strong in numbers. The Hephthalites used the death of Gupta ruler Skandagupta to their advantage and quickly entered India destroying towns and villages. Another example is the Han Empire, they didn't have a strong enough military to fight off the Northern

Xiongnu. Without a strong military most empires will get bullied by empires looking to expand that have powerful military, this includes the number of soldiers and strategies and tactics to warfare.
The final reason why an empire might fall is a corrupt government, the government is the most important part of any empire without a well put together government they fall susceptive to money problems and a military unfit for battle. If the government is selfish and only cares about themselves then the empire will eventually fall. The Roman empire was very corrupt, 20 men took the throne as emperor over 75 years and sometimes they would kill the emperor and auction off the new emperor position. Imagine the United States auctioning the spot for our leader, it’d be horrible the richest bidder would win and most likely only worry about himself. Another empire that had a corrupt government was the Han Empire, they allowed the rich to own free land and be exempt from tax collection and if the rich wasn't paying taxes who would be left to pay them? One bug in the garden can spoil the entire patch and that's essentially what happened to the Roman and Han Empire’s.
In conclusion, empires fall because of many reason a few of those reasons are money problems, weak military and corrupt government. Without taxes a government won't be able to pay for things, without a strong large military empires are vulnerable to attack, and a corrupt government will always fall because nothing will last too long with bad leadership. History shows that all empires eventually fall, even the greatest ones and for many different reasons.