Deniz Nemli
Roman Empire DBQ The Roman Empire was one of the strongest and most significant empires in history. All good things, however, eventually come to an end. After prospering for over 200 years, the Roman Empire fell due to rise and expansion. The rise and expansion of the Roman Empire led to its fall because of lack of sufficient defense against invasion, economic problems, and absence of sufficient governing.
The rise and expansion of Rome led to weakened defense from invasions from outsiders, which caused the empire to fall. As the Roman empire expanded, the borders grew too large to be properly defended, leading to attacks from outsiders. When Rome grew and expanded after the punic wars took place, the boarders were greatly widened (Document 1), making the Empire of Rome an easy target for outside invaders such as the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths, and Huns, as well as several others (Document 5). One of the most significant groups of invaders, the Huns, were savage fighters who would “pillage the camp of their enemy almost before he has become aware of their
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An economic problem is defined as As the empire continued to grow and expand, it became increasingly more difficult for the the Roman empire to provide for themselves, which is an economic problem and was a contributing factor in it’s fall. A sign indicative of the Roman empire’s lack of economic independence was it’s need to trade with other areas such as Gaul, Africa, and Anatolia in order to get the goods they needed (Document 3). Additionally, the romans had other economic problems at the time such cost of defense and devaluation of currency due to inflation. With the rate of economic problems caused by expansion, “instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long” (Document 6) without completely
The Roman Empire was extremely large and difficult to maintain, which made it very weak. According to Doc: 2, “Borders became difficult to secure and the amount of gold needed to maintain roads and perform routine maintenance was never enough.” According to TCI chapter 13, section 1, “The huge size of the empire made it difficult to defend.” The empire’s size caused it to weaken, leaving it open to attack by the many enemies surrounding it.
The military in Rome emasculated and became too crippled to defend Rome and oppose foreign invaders, like the Huns, due to the incapability of enforcing conscription and the soldiers’ negligence to wear proper military armor. The excerpts found on Document B proclaim that the Roman infantry refused to wear protective head and chest armor during battles, thus resulting in losses of cities, battles, and soldiers. Document B also states that drafting of soldiers was not properly integrated into Rome, which lead to a shortage of infantrymen in the Roman army. Both of these issues caused the Roman military to falter because not enough men were in the military to defend Rome’s frontiers and the men that were in the military were defeated since armor was not in use. Correspondingly, because the military was weak and defenseless, powerful foreign invaders invaded Rome and defeated Rome’s military. The Huns were one of these powerful invaders that took over Rome. As presented in Document D, the Huns were savage and motivated through the aspiration to conquer other’s territory. Since the Roman military was weak, they could not withstand the force of the
Rome was a very powerful empire when it started they had conquered many empires at the time this is one of the reasons why we still study them to day. They had made many enemies and were at the top. Until one day they had became weak and lazy this will soon lead to what we call today the “fall”of Rome. First of one of the main problems were the case of foreign invasions.
The great Roman Empire expanded across all of Europe and into the Middle East. Its military was one of the finest. With major trading in Africa and Britain, the economy flourished with brining many citizens a healthy income. With amazing advancements in culture and technology, Roman society was at its finest. During the Pax Romana, the Romans had 200 years of peace and good ruling by level headed dictators and emperors. Despite Rome’s greatness in all of these areas, Rome would eventually fall. Surprisingly all of these qualities that led up to a flourishing empire were the same ones that led to its demise. As Germanic tribes invaded, the military weakened and the government became unstable.
The Roman Empire may have been massive and strong, but that didn’t always work out for them. With an empire stretching to it’s very limits there wasn’t a chance of doubt on whether it’s borders were hard to defend from raids and attacks. According to the DBQ, “Rome’s fall was an inevitable effect of it’s grand size…borders became difficult to secure…” (Doc 2). The Roman Empire was an incredible feat of the ancient world but it wasn’t also the easiest thing to defend.
The Western Roman Empire fell due to many flaws. However, it fell mainly due to invasions from external enemies, economics, and a discouraged society. Therefore, the empire began to slowly decline. This expansive empire fell not due to one, but many faults made over a time period. To this day the empire is remembered as one of the most advanced of its time.
Primarily social and economic factors influenced the downfall of the Roman Empire. External economic forces gradually brought their effects into the empire whilst internally Rome’s social fabric began to degrade. This socio-economic degradation seen in Ancient Rome is likely due to both Rome’s social and economic instability as well as the birth of the Christian faith in the Roman Empire. Part of the downfall of Rome can be attributed to external economic factors such as a lack of conquest and a large influx of slavery from without. Much of Rome’s economy “was fed by plundered wealth and by new markets in the semi-barbaric provinces” (Document 2.)
The Huns were more hostile than most tribes from this time period. From early childhood they learn to adapt to freezing temperatures, hunger, and thirst. The Roman Empire became so large that there were not enough soldiers to protect every single area of it. The weak spots were easily attacked by tribes like the Huns. Since the empire’s land was so easy to invade, barbarians began to take over some parts. Some Roman citizens liked or didn’t mind being under the barbarians’ ruling. The Roman Empire needed a military that was able to keep their land away from people who wanted to conquer it, so that they could continue to expand their empire and conquer other
When the Empire stopped acquiring new lands, no new bases of wealth were available. The Empire began to be attacked by numerous tribes all over the huge empire (document 6).These attacks were not unified in nature, the entire Empire was open to attack. The loss of control in the army was one of the final pieces that led to the fall of the Roman
In 117 AD the Roman Empire was the most powerful empire in the world. Rome was a powerhouse! How can such an amazing empire suddenly turn into dust? The Roman empire reached north-western Europe all the way to the east at its peak. Once they had so much area to control, there was no room for error.
Whether you prefer to say Rome fell due to the invasions or simply morphed into the oppressive and the corrupt government, economic policies of the emperors had a heavy impact on the lives of the citizens of Rome. The Roman Empire acquired money by taxation or by finding new sources of wealth, like land. However, it had reached its furthest limits, so land acquisition was no longer an option. As Rome lost territory, it also lost its revenue base.In doc# 4: we can see how the economy and citizens were taken advantage of and how the economy was not stable enough, led to the fall of Rome. The empire's main focus was on expanding and funding towards the military and politics. They did not think of the flaws that came with expanding and soon realized that to expand they had to gain military strength, and that costs a lot of money. Immediately the government created high taxes taking advantage of the citizens that leaned on the government welfare system, forcing them to basically pay for advances in the military. This affected small business and companies to crash because they could not afford these taxes, leaving the economy weakened. Therefore the economy could no longer help provide for the military expansion and lead to military weakening. And when the military and the economy was down due to this “internal decay” Rome was easy to conquer and lost all power and eventually fell. Doc# 3 also shows that due to the expansion and Rome wanting to be a world power, it caused a distraction and the economy was used to fund the military success and power, with high taxes. The more it expanded the more the taxes cost and the weaker the economy was. Due to the money that was taken from the economy, Wages being low, slaves disappearing, great estates growing, agriculture was being dominated, it
“The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily discover some nice difference in age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinctio,” (Edward Gibbon) The first reason the Roman Empire fell was due to the different foreign invasions. The first way foreign invasions had contributed to the decline of Rome was through how the Huns were strong and savage. For example, “Fired with an overwhelming desire for seizing the property of others … Their destructive way amid the pillage and slaughter of those who live around them,” (Ammianus Marcellinus).The way this explains the fall of Rome through foreign invasions that the Huns invaded the roman territories
One trait every army must have to be successful is the willingness and drive to dominate. The Roman army took these traits to a whole different level. The Romans were very extreme in battle as well. They often enjoyed humiliating other city-states by burning them to the ground. In 264 B.C.E. a battle between other Greek city-states forced Rome and Carthage, who dominated the western part of the Mediterranean, into conflict. The First Punic War was for the control of Sicily.4 This battle lasted twenty-three years.4 The Romans were losing a lot of men, but they continued to battle on.4 Finally, the persistence paid off.4 The Romans learned how to fight by sea and cut off the Carthaginian supply line into
The Roman Empire was a massive empire that eventually collapsed over time. In 455 C.E the Roman Empire was its last straw. Rome's transition from a republic to an empire made it increase dramatically. This, of course, led to many other problems that caused the Roman Empire to decline and fall. The Roman empire did not depend on one thing for its decline but three major events. The Roman empire fell because of the rise of Christianity, economic trouble, and weak military.
In the later half of the fourth century the Western Roman Empire fell after nearly a five hundred years of dominance and is still widely considered the world’s greatest superpower (Andrews). Many people attribute the crumbling of the empire to multiple different reasons, like corrupt and insane leaders to overspending and inflation. As J.B Bury said once “the fall of the roman empire was a series of contingent events. In this paper we are going to cover the three main reasons. Political and Economical problems plus problems with the military(Wood).