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Fall of the Western Roman Empire Essay Example

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Fall of the Western Roman Empire Essay Example
Fall of the Western Roman Empire

The fall of the Western Roman Empire was caused by many internal forces within the empire as well as brute military invasions from the outside. The Roman government had hard times controlling the declining economy and the ever growing population of the Western Roman Empire. As their own economy began to suffer, so did their military as well as its pride. The military crumbling as well as the decaying economy were not the only things that accounted for the fall of Western Roman Empire; the very presence of Christianity brought the epic demise of the empire as well. During the empire’s development, barbaric tribes were gaining power, and their own invasions of the Roman empire also aided in its downfall. The western Roman empire had a large, ever-growing economy that deemed hard to control (doc 1). It was so large that people lost hope in their own civilization, doomed to wallow in the empire’s downfall. The majority of the population were farmers (doc 1) who themselves could not support their own farms which then could not support the economic needs of the empire. As the growth of slaves increased, a large amount of latifundias soon surfaced. These great estates led the already suffering farmers to the city (doc 4) where their presence only increased the unemployment rate (doc 3). The surplus of slaves, with the economy the empire had going for them, of course kept wages extremely low (doc 3). Not enough money was going around to help with the economic problems of the Roman empire. Slaves were not the only factor that slowed down Rome’s money intake, the maintenance of the Roman empire’s inexperienced, unmotivated army also brought Rome’s economy to its downfall (doc 4). As the development of the empire began to die, the faith of its people died along with it (doc 1). None no longer cared for the empire’s development and survival. The western Roman empire then ceased to expand, and along with this halt came about the economic

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