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Mistakes That Led To The Fall Of Western Rome

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During the late period of Western Rome (ca. 476 C.E.), many drastic mistakes were made that contributed to the fall of the empire. These mistakes included an insecure government, invasions, and lack of communications. However, while these problems occurred thousands of years ago, there are still many lessons America can learn from the downfall of the empire. There are also many potential aspects America possesses for solving these problems if they occurred today, including a more sophisticated security system, a stronger military, and a better communication system.

One major lesson America can learn from Rome is to have a secure government. In a span of about 50 years, ending in ca. 284 C.E., many emperors were being assassinated early in …show more content…

While Rome had been battling with invaders for decades, the empire had not invested enough time into proper defense systems for enemies, as stated in the following quote, “...By the 300s “barbarian” groups like the Goths had encroached beyond the Empire’s borders’ (Andrews 5). This quote implies that by the year 300 C.E., the Rome’s borders were successfully invaded by a Germanic group known as the Goths. The reason the Goths were able to breach the city is mainly due to an insufficient defense system. The effects of such attacks proved fatal to the city, and eventually led to its collapse in 476 C.E. One way America could learn from these mistakes would be to invest more time and money on proper border defense and military. By doing so, many invasions and attacks could be prevented. For example, in the article ‘Homeland Security,’ it says: ‘[The Department of Homeland Security] has deployed... detection technologies to seaports, land border ports...’ This quote indicates that a national organization, known as the Department of Homeland Security, has invested money on advanced border detection technologies for intruders. These electronically-powered sensors can greatly improve and alert ahead of time the military of possible …show more content…

The Roman Empire, at its height, stretched from the Atlantic to the Euphrates River in the Middle East (Andrews, 4). This led to an extreme delay of messages being received in locations far away from each other. This made it very difficult for people from the east to communicate with people in the west, thus leading to widespread confusion across the country and ultimately slowing any scientific breakthroughs. A lesson America could learn from this is to maintain a faster, more reliable network of roads across the country that could sustain a much faster means of convey for mail. One way to solve such a problem would be to raise speed limits on many highways to decrease driving times for mail delivery, as stated in the article Fastest Road in America: ‘Since 1995, 35 states have raised speed limits to 70 MPH or higher on some portion of their highways.’ This quote goes to show that many parts of America have already allowed for faster travel, thus decreasing the amount of time waiting for mail and other packages to arrive, and consequently greatly boosting communications throughout the

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