preview

Western Roman Empire Dbq Essay

Decent Essays

Over the course of several centuries, Rome built one of the largest empires the world have ever known. Rome for a period of time was considered the center of civilization. The empire was beautiful. It was often invaded but well protected by a powerful army. Some people believed the empire would last forever. However, at the end of Pax Romana, 180 A.D the empire began to decline. The fall of the western Roman Empire was due to many contributing factors in the political, social, economic, and military areas.

The decline on the economic areas also contributed to the fall of the western Roman empire. According to Document 4, “Part of the money went into… the maintenance of the army and of the vast 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 leads to the increase of taxes. However, high taxation affected the people, especially those who owned private businesses because it drove them out of business. The government was forced to take over. Agriculture faced serious problems. the soil in Italy and western Europe became increasingly overworked and lost its fertility, so harvests became more mature, years of war had destroyed much farmland finally due to meager harvests and less land to farm, serious food shortages and disease spread, leading to a decrease in population. …show more content…

came to dominate agriculture and ruin the free coloni (farmers)..” Document 3. Slavery took jobs away from the free peasants, and because they could not compete with slaves, they either became tenant farmers or unemployed city dwellers. The use of cheap slave labor discourages improvements in

Get Access