Thesis: Although the fall of the Western Roman Empire was caused by many different factors, the three most significant factors were excessive military spending, political corruption, and barbarian invasions. Topic: Excessive military spending left no money to spend on other public necessities. Excessive military spending was a primary reason for the fall of Rome because this left no money for other vital activities. Defending the border of the Empire from attacks was expensive and costly for the government. Military spending left little money for other necessities, such as providing public housing and maintaining quality roads and aqueducts. Romans lost their desire to defend the Empire. This forced the empire to hire soldiers recruited from the unemployed city mobs or foreign countries. This army was not only unreliable, but very expensive. The emperors were forced to raise taxes frequently to pay for the costs, causing the poor to be poorer. The citizens were angry because they were suffering and being neglected. This picture shows how the military in Rome is monopolizing all the use of money and taking it all for itself. Topic: Political corruption left the government unstable. Political corruption was a primary reason for the fall of Rome because the people were not happy with their government. Rome always had a problem with electing new …show more content…
Barbarian invasions was a primary reason for the fall of Rome because the soldiers could not defend their country properly. The barbarians put a lot of pressure on the Roman military and it was simply too much for them. The invasions caused a sense of insecurity to the people of Rome. Since the soldiers were the Romans that did not trust the government and were unloyal, they did not defend properly. They cared more about their lives and thought “every man for himself” instead of “fight for your country.” With each city being seized and conquered, the barbarians made Rome weaker and weaker leading to the fall of
What were the primary reasons for the fall of Rome? After examining these documents the primary reason for the fall of Romewas political instability, military management, and natural disasters. The first reason for the fall of Rome was political instability. The chart from document A. In document A the chart shows us how the Roman emperors died.
One of the biggest reasons Rome fell is because the military. The military started to become sluggish and weak. Since this happened soldiers fought the goths without any protection for their chests and heads (doc B.) This made it so soldiers were easily killed in battle by archers. Adding on to that Soldiers were exposed to wounds because they have no armour so they would think about running and not fighting (doc B.) Senators, bureaucrats, clergymen, cooks, bakers, and slaves all avoided the draft not giving enough people into to military (doc B.)
One important reason for the fall of Rome was natural disasters. In document F it shows that the population decreased from a million people to two hundred and fifty thousand because of the plague. This problem helps explain why Rome fell because it shows that thousands of people died, meaning there were less people. With less people in Rome many jobs are not being
Another reason Rome fell is because Rome grew too large. Rome included so many different lands and people, it started to add even more problems for Rome's economy. When Rome's expansion slowed, other conquered lands and people couldn't be part of the Empire, making them not under Rome's control. When the Emperor tried so solve the problem by raising taxes, normal living citizens couldn't pay for them and became poor. Soon Rome became too big and couldn't pay for itself, so when it couldn't pay for itself, it couldn't control itself.
One of the main reasons that caused the Roman empire’s downfall was due to their financial strains. This can be shown in the text where it says, “There was a noticeable decline in trade and small industry, and the labor shortage caused by the plague affected both military recruiting and the economy. Armies were needed more than ever, but financial strains made it difficult to pay and enlist more soldiers. By the mid-third century, the state had to hire Germans to fight under Roman commanders.” (Document 1).
This loss of population made it hard to find laborers and soldiers for war. This caused the empire to pay Germanic soldiers to fight for them. The need to pay for troops created a large debt for the Romans. Another reason that led to the decline of the Roman Empire was their water source coming in through lead pipes. Many people believed this poisoned the Romans which also led to low population.
There were three significant reasons for the fall of Rome. Military problems, legal injustice, and foreign invasions. Of these the most important reason was Rome’s military problems. One important reason that Rome fell was because of Rome’s legal injustice system. Evidence that this was a problem is that in Document E it states “Taxes are very severe...
Given these reasons, it can be concluded of how Rome fell. Rome was too big and when plagues were brought over and were spread, it decreased the population and hassled the economic life because they didn’t have the resources to pay back the Germanic soldiers. When social and military issues came into play, it led to great cities being lost. Lastly, the reason the contributed the most to the fall of Rome was the weak or selfish emperors and the state being ruined because the government was not following the spirit of past
Imagine the world's biggest statue ever begin to fall apart over many years. Essentially this is what happened to Rome. There were many reasons why this happened. There were three signifi cant reasons for the “fall” of Rome which include a weakening military, foreign invaders, and the most important of the three, natural disasters. One important reason that Rome fell was there weakening military.
I agree that Rome was not overthrown by external enemies but was defeated by its own internal problems. The fall of Rome was mainly due to internal problems because the Romans were only fulfilling their own needs, the law were not reliable and the struggle with the right emperor led to the end of Rome. These internal problems made the empire unstable and led to external problems. For example, in document C, Marcellinus, a Roman soldier criticizes the Romans for being selfish and only worrying about themselves.
First, the amount of casualties in numerous wars, such as the Punic Wars in which 300,000 were estimated to have died, negatively impacted the number of Roman farmers. The farmers were known as the backbone of Rome at the time. Land reforms called latifundias started developing. These estates would buy out small farms and turn the free workers into slaves. These reforms became really popular because they
“Why did the Roman Republic fall?” The Roman Republic did not fall simply from one cause, rather many external pressures that brought on political instability and destruction. There were multiple pressures that lead to the downfall of Rome including ambitious generals, changing politics, client armies, and a desolate Senate desperate to remain prominent. Many significant people of the time, who wrote letters and speeches on ancient Rome, help to build detailed recollections of the political warfare that took place between 78-31BC.
Legions started to demand higher pay resulting in raised taxes. Also the desire for goods from outside the empire grew making less economic growth within Rome. As more products were shipped to Rome pirates started to steal more and more items making stores go out of business back on the mainland. High tariffs were placed on imported goods in a desperate attempt to get money flowing back into Rome. Furthermore the lack of new conquests also instigated the decrease of money flow into Rome because they were not stealing gold.
While that was happening a civil war was going on. The military was in bad shape and was interfering with the politics. The three Major causes of the the Fall of Rome were Economic Problems, Socico-Politcal problems, and external invasions that lead to the country not being able to protect itself. Economically
How did an empire so big and powerful fall apart after all of the work and planning that was put into it? The once powerful Roman Empire fell apart for various reasons, such as the over expansion of land and military overspending which led to inadequate man power to cover all of the frontiers and insufficient funds. Also, the corrupt government system of the empire and the instability of its politics for an empire so large, the government was not fit to control