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Decline And Fall Of Roman Empire Essay

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The Roman Empire was beginning to crumble despite the 200 year period of peace and prosperity they had encountered (Pax Romana). As Rome spiraled into ruin, leaders and reformers alike did attempt to halt the erosion of the empire by tinkering with the currency and setting fixed prices on goods, which may have sped up the destruction. The question is, what exactly was responsible for the decline and fall of Rome? Though some may argue that the decline and 'fall' of the Roman Empire was caused by the invasions of barbarian tribes beyond the weakening borders (Andrews), this aspect of ruin mainly affected western Rome. What truly brought the Roman Empire crashing down was the gradual accumulation of the disloyalty from its military (this loyalty …show more content…

The Roman economy heavily relied on slave labor, and this put many small businesses and farmers out of business. The wealthier patricians that owned these slaves grew richer and so the gap between the rich and poor citizens grew. The empire, so large already, gradually halted in its expansion which ceased the import of more slaves causing the decline of Rome's primary agricultural workforce. Now, this was a problem. The support of the Roman economy was degrading, and there wasn't enough cash flowing in than what had already flown out (“The Fall of Rome”). The government is relentless and unwavering with his taxation policy, to the point where it drove Roman citizens to starvation and bankruptcy. These people fled Rome where tax collectors couldn't reach them. Not only that, the Roman government tinkered with the money itself, debasing their coins by using less precious metals and replacing them with cheaper copper. The purpose of this move was to have the power to make more money in circulation (by using cheaper materials) while maintaining the face value, which gives the government more spending power (“Us”). However, eventually the Roman citizens caught on to the deceit and demanded they be paid more to compensate for their work and services. Inflation skyrocketed and Rome plummeted into an economic

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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).

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a Roman quote; I'm never less at leisure than when at leisure, or less alone than when alone. The Roman empire started from 750 BCE to the end of the 5th century. The question being asked is What Were the Primary Reasons for the "Fall" of Rome? After looking at these documents I conclude that the 3 reasons for the fall of Rome are natural disasters, military management, foreign invaders.

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The Economy of Rome was a great reason as to why the Empire fell. The Economy of Rome was unstable due to the way the emperors had ruled and their unreasonably mistaken choices, leading to a lack of trade and poverty. The Leadership

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As a Roman citizen, watching the decline of the Roman Empire was frightening because of the constant worry. The Roman Empire lost its power due to simultaneous external and internal factors such as the lack of political stability, deterioration of the military, and constant invasions from outsiders. The first internal factor that led to the fall of the Roman Empire was the lack of political stability. This was due to the constant change of emperors, causing haphazard leadership. “The soldiers in various parts of the empire proclaimed fifty emperors in about the same number of years” (Lines 8-10, Document 3a, Third Century Crisis of the Roman Empire).

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This was a bad decision because it caused inflation. Another economic reason why the Roman Republic failed was because of taxes. The poor made up a large percentage of the Roman population. The government became oppressive and started to force everything on the people. Roman leaders came up with the forced labor which made peasants work on fields, roads, and bridges.

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People were not working. Everything was out of control; it was a free-for-all. Judges 21:25 accurately describes Rome at this time “All the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes” (NLT). There was not enough people holding political power and the empire was becoming unmanageable. There were rebellions and surprise attacks.

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Then, political strain started occurring in the heart of Rome. Roman leaders started focusing on using force instead of compromise to overtake land. Rome had started to get lazy, and was open for attack. Outside invaders infiltrated Rome, not completely destroying the empire, but destroying the city and heart of Rome. Foreign invasions was one of the main causes of

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The map of Foreign Invasions of the Roman Empire shows the territory of the Roman Empire and how many different people were migrating near Rome, some even reaching the city itself. All of these migrations of people led to Rome being invaded often, as everyone wanted a piece of Rome’s riches. (Doc C) This evidence means that Rome suffered greatly from the migrations of people around them. The constant invasions and attacks Rome had to defend itself against contributed to their fall.

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Think of the flaws in that ‘system’, if somebody robbed some money, they could theoretically bribe law enforcement out of punishing them with the money they had stolen! Along with people getting away with so much, this flaw led to decline of patriotic spirit among the lower-class citizens. They would be less willing to fight for the empire that they live in because of the unfairness and injustice of its law enforcement. All of this leads back to the fact of their weakening military, making the Roman Empire extremely vulnerable to the many invasions near its

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The people of Rome were shocked and scared by this catastrophe, and their fearful conceit led them to believe that there was a correlation between the signs of an imperial decline and the sinking world. This shows how Rome panicked when they saw they were falling short. The decline in population and land affected them tremendously. These are just a few examples of how the Western Roman Empire Fell. Although there is still another major reason for how it

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The Roman Empire was starting to diminish. Wars had to be fought, diseases spread across the land, many people died, causing the population to decrease. More and more people left Rome. The primary reasons for the “fall” of Rome were because of war, invasion, and natural disasters or diseases. One of the main reasons for the Roman Empire falling was because of war.

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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.

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Then due to this, the emperors had to start raising taxes and all of the money would go into the military. In conclusion, excessive military spending is one of the main reasons Rome might have

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Many people believed that the fall of Rome had to take place to end slavery, and for all social classes to become treated equally, there was still slavery after the fall of Rome. Their lower class citizens during the dark ages continued to live in poverty, but this was no major change as they were considered lower class just for that reason. Their day to day life changed very little because they were already at the bottom of the bottom which was farming and being the labors of the society. In a sense, these lower class citizens were the backbone of the community and made up most of the roman population. The fall of Rome was a major time during human history because even in today's society many ideas and preceding date back to Roman times.

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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

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