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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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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.)

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It is true that there are other reasons that explain Rome’s decline. For example. Political assassinations and natural disasters. However the three reasons above - foreign invasion, legal injustice, and especially military problems - provide the best explanation why Rome finally crumbled in the 5th century

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What were the primary reasons for the “fall” of Rome? Rome fell because of many other reasons but the main reason Rome fell were because of weak leadership, military weakness and economic problems here is why. One reason Rome fell was because of weak leadership. According to document A Roman leaders would die because of assassination, suicide and because of natural causes. Romans would become leaders and would die because of assassination and a few would die because of natural causes.

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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.

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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.

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Even with all the technologies that America attains, they can still be compared to Rome. Cullen Murphy’s question is fair more so on the fact that previous American leaders used “republican political models” and the examples he used for America becoming a “principate”. There has been controversies over “personal freedom” and the government keeping secrets. I like how he brought up how Rome was “overwhelmed by the consequences of its own growing size and might”. America grown tremendously, not to mention their power.

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Citizenship in Athens & Rome: Which Was a Better System? The Romans left a powerful legacy that impacts our modern-day society. It was founded in 753 BC around the center of the Italian peninsula. They took up 15% of the world’s population by conquering territories in western Asia, southern Europe, and northern Africa.

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While the Roman Empire was able to hold the Huns from attacking through making payments, this did not last long. Following the death of Rugila, the Huns became increasingly aggressive, and the areas they invaded were annihilated (Hunt et al., 2019). This destruction of infrastructure, as well as the loss of land and resources, greatly weakened Rome. Therefore, other Germanic tribes were able to attack, ultimately leading to the fall of West Rome in 476 AD.

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The Fall of the Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire was an inspiring empire that mastered architecture, engineering, trading, and many other things. But as the empire grew political problems went with it and followed economic issues, diseases and eventually foreign invaders. One of the main reasons for the fall of the Western Roman Empire was the many political problems.

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There are far too many parallels between ancient Rome and modern America. It seems as if many people do not care enough about the path our country is headed down. Ethics and values have gone out the window, the government has doomed the working class, people have become violent, people are acting without fully thinking and war is constant. America needs a change before it is too late. Ethics and values have merely disappeared but when they are present they seem to be hypocritical.

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Finally, in 476 A.D., a Germanic General named Flavius Odoacer overthrew the Roman Empire marking the end of the empire, and became the first King of Italy (476-493 A.D.). With the over expansion of land and overspending of the military combined with the corrupt government and the wars between the religions, the entire structure of the Roman Empire was 4 damaged. This last strike, in 476 A.D., caused the once powerful and mighty Roman Empire to fall. As they say, Rome was not built in a day, and it did not fall in a day either. It was a combination of all of these events taking place that brought this mighty empire to its knees.

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A Theory On The Fall Of Rome Over the years, many great empires have risen and eventually fallen such as the Roman Empire. There are many theories on why the empire has fallen such as political corruption and unemployment, but I think the most significant reason is excessive military spending. Since the army was so enormous, it was hard to reimburse all of the soldiers that served under the emperors of Rome. There were many barbarian attacks and they had to purchase the material to defend their borders.

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Fall of Rome DBQ Including most of the Mediterranean world, Rome, a city that was growing big enough to become one of the world’s largest empire’s would soon slowly fall apart because of their problems. In 27 BC, Rome’s first emperor, Augustus Caesar, took complete power. During his time, he ruled with Pax Romana, a time of Roman peace which lasted for almost 200 years. After his death, the Roman Empire begun to break apart. The primary reasons for the fall of Rome was it being geographically too big; the population was decreasing due to plagues which led to the Roman army becoming weak, social and military issues and laziness of the military would guide the army down which led to cities being lost, and their government and leadership issues of the weak or selfish power leaders would all conduct to the breaking up of Rome.

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There are many similarities that can be noticed between the American Nation and the Roman Empire such as the same founding of government and both dominated in military, and economic similarities. Rome is famous for their harsh discipline amongst their own ranks and their mercifulness brutality amongst their enemies. Rome warfare was characterized by great ferocity and the roman pursuit of victory was determined. Rome gave many good ideas; the senate was ruled by the people of Rome. The Roman Republic Government was a large complex constitution, which was secure by many checks and balances, so that no man could have complete control.

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So Rome paid thousands of German soldiers to fight for them. Obviously this made Rome 's military weak because they would easily run from battle or betray Rome because they had nothing to protect in Rome. Another reason the Roman empire fell to shambles was because the Roman military stopped going on military conquests. When they did this the Roman economy collapsed because the economy relied on the constant income of plundered trophies from captured civilizations.

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