Background:
Issue:
Despite 500 years of complete domination over the Mediterranean and much of Europe, the Roman Western Empire quickly collapsed in the 5th century C.E.
Research Question:
Why did the Roman Western Empire collapse?
Thesis:
Likely, the most convincing explanation is that the fall of the Roman Western Empire, was largely determined by the Empire’s economic instability after repeated invasions by Barbarian tribes.
Two Areas of Arguments:
First, the Empire’s economy was weakened as the government was overexpanding and overspending, which also led to the rise of the Eastern Empire.
Second and more importantly, the Barbarian invasions, which constantly put the Romans under attack, caused much trouble and devastation to
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Evidence Items:
There was a lot of overspending, to cover the costs of the army, weapons and defence.
The constant civil wars, rebellions, and attacks had required the constant increase of taxation on the people of Rome, which made the citizens poorer. In addition, many rich citizens fled to avoid tax collectors which in turn further weakened the economy by drawing wealth outside the empire.
The Western Roman Empire was so big (from the Atlantic Ocean to Middle East) that it was really hard to govern it and communicate throughout. With the lack of communication, orders were not able to reach the people/troops quite as quickly as hoped, which made it much harder for Rome to defend itself.
The constant civil wars, rebellions, and attacks, all required much military spending by the government, also links to the barbarian invasions as they caused many of the attacks.
Factor 2: Political power struggles led to civil wars, which affeted the trade, ultimately collapsing the economy.
Evidence Items:
Since the economy was already suffering, many citizens began making their own goods instead of trading, furthermore, the civil wars caused many merchants to lose their safe routes throughout the empire. The civil wars accelerated the failure of
Second, military purposes played another part in decay. Foreign invasions were a nightmare to the Roman Empire. People of barbaric descent constantly fought for their area, destroying precious buildings and decreasing prosperity. Government expenses were immense and took great effort to raise. The spending affected the craftsmanship of public housing and aqueducts. Citizens grew tried of defending their home simply because they worked hard and the money they earned was taken away by the government. As a result, the Roman government hired soldiers to fight for them and in return they would be paid. These were called mercenaries, yet they were unemployed people or foreigners, which was unfortunate because that meant they fought against their own people and he wasn’t something to be proud of. Not only was it undependable, but this group of army didn’t come cheap. Emperors were forced to raise taxes and eventually Romans would revolt. Americans are unhappy about the war in Iraq today and they are protesting to send out their message of what President Bush is doing is wrong. Their taxes are also increasing, which makes us angry.
Economics contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. According to Document 4, “Part of the money went into… the maintenance of the army and of the vest bureaucracy required by a centralized government.. The expense led to strangling taxation..” the Roman government had large expenses because it needed money for the army, the bureaucracy, and welfare. This lead to the increase of taxes. However, high taxation affected the people
The romans had became very lazy because of their success in military conquests. Since the romans became lazy there were more outbreaks and crimes happening. This lead to many problems in the money system. Rome became weaker economically because of this. Rome was also weakened by military issues.
Additionally, the Roman populace’s tax budget was not limitless, and, as evidenced by the emigration of wealthy Romans into rural regions, their willingness to pay off said taxes was also finite, so increasing the amount of taxes citizens had to pay was an incomplete, temporary solution at best. The poor financial situation of the Romans was exacerbated by the fact that the individuals who could afford to flee the cities were also the greatest source of tax money for the Romans due to their wealthiness. Therefore, as the power of the Vandals and other barbarian tribes increased, the funding available to the Romans decreased, contributing to the precipitous decline of the Roman
Well, Rome's army is another main reason that led to its fall. Indro Montanelli agrees, with a excerpt from his text Romans Without Laurels he states. “Rome, like all great empires, was not overthrown by external enemies but undermined internal decay... composed entirely of Germans.” (doc 5).
The collapse of the Western Roman Empire was primarily caused by a combination of external invasions by barbarian tribes and internal economic challenges resulting from the loss of vital agricultural land, which collectively weakened the empire's military defenses, strained its resources, and undermined its ability to sustain its population and institutions. Rome fell because of the collapse due to the “barbarians”. The invasions placed tremendous strain on the Roman Empire's borders and resources as soon as they entered Roman territory. The soldiers were unable to effectively defend their country. Due to the tremendous military pressure that barbarian tribes like the Vandals,Huns, and Visigoths put on the Roman borders, the empire had to divert resources from other crucial areas and bolster its defenses.
Another cause was the constant, scattered attacks on Rome from many separate civilizations (doc. 6). One last cause, was the massive debt they had fallen into due to the fact they spent so much money on the army, they had no economical structure in the empire, since they had used all their money on a solitary reason. The United States is similar to them in that case where they have put 611 billion dollars towards the army alone (doc. 7). That is a greater amount than eight of the leading countries combined. Not to mention, the massive size of the empire also
Due to the mass amounts of civil war taken place on Roman land, farming and agriculture greatly suffered. Land was over worked and overused causing the land to become infertile. Soon food shortages and diseases caused the population to decrease. From the cumulations of lost money to war and farming the economy weakened and inflation became high. The gap between the rich and poor gradually increased and the economy weakened. Between civil wars, high taxation, and food shortages, citizens lost a sense patriotism that once flourished throughout society.
Although political turmoil influenced the invasions, it was the economic problems, however, that made the empire unable to combat outside forces. The government had begun to pay its soldiers with produce instead of money, which dissatisfied Roman soldiers, thus, decreasing their loyalty and drive to fight for the empire. As Roman soldiers
All of this is important because the constant civil wars meant no problems were being fixed. The army declined in quality as Romans refused to join only to be slaughtered, and the borders became permeable to attack and invasion. In the end, the lack of unity and porous borders led to the collapse of Rome by ruining the unity to face its many
One theory I have on the rise and fall of Rome is the. Money spent on Roman Military. From the brief article ‘The Excessive Military Spending." From this section in the article, it states that. While Rome was at war, setting off to defend the borders from foreign attacks, the times were terrible. Most of the Roman money was spent towards the military. Which left only a few resources for other activities, including public education and maintaining the roads. Consequently, near the end of the Western part of the Roman empire, the Romans started to give up. The only other option was for the government to rely on the mercenaries for their defense. The Mercenaries were taken from unemployed mobs or foreign countries, conversely, they were expensive.
As you have read, many things attributed to the rise of the Empire. Many things also attributed to its fall as well. These included poor leadership, economic trouble, as well
Roman empire was perhaps the most prominent empire, it’s size and influence made its fall puzzling. What’s the crisis of the Roman empire in the west contributed to internal or external dysfunction? The complex historians over different generations debating whether the client was faulted by immigration, external invaders, Christianity, political policy, and economic policy. The fall of “A ancient civilization. . . Symptom Of economic decline and their inhabitants were displaying signs of a loss of civic initiative” over a considerable period of time. /20 Katz/ The notable work researched to Debate whether the fall was external or internal include the fall of the Roman empire by peter Heather, the decline of the Rome by Joseph Vogt and The decline and fall of the Roman empire by Edward Gibbons.
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).
Many anthropologists and historians have speculated about the different causes and effects of the fall of the Roman Empire. Some have even stated that Rome did not fall but instead, was merely transformed. However, there were many causes that did end this prodigious empire. Many seemingly small decisions made by powerful emperors over the course of just over a century lead to its destruction. In this paper it will be established that the Roman emperors, in an effort to save their political power, made adjustments to warfare/treaty practices and made political changes which over time lead to the inevitable collapse of the realm, this caused a drastic regression in the living standards of the Roman citizens, implying that the Empire did indeed collapse and not transform.