What Caused The Fall Of Rome Dbq

The great Empire of Rome, the greatest power to have ruled the Mediterranean. The Roman empire thrived in the time of Julius Caesar around 47 BC. Caesar had made Rome into an empire, but after he died, Rome started its downfall. It was unthinkable. The great Roman empire’s reign was over. There was no one single cause; it was many things happening at once, which caused the fall of Rome. The downfall happened with the army weakening, natural disasters and plagues rising, and leaders becoming corrupted all contributed to their fall.
First, the army had become weaker when there were no more wars left. “Before the year 400 CE, foot soldiers wore breastplates and helmets. But when, because of negligence and laziness, they no longer used them.”

“The Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake. Fifty thousand people lost their lives.” (Fall of Rome, Doc F) The earthquake had vanquished many lives and destroyed plenty of their land. This was a factor of their downfall because of how big the damage was to Rome. “More important in initiating the process of the decline was a series of plagues that swept over the empire. The population of Rome decreased from a million people to 250,000.” (Fall of Rome, Doc F) With that many people dead, the economy worsened and left Rome to face the fact that their power was no longer there. The economy of Rome was also suffering. Rome was importing goods from its colonies but wasn’t exporting nearly as much because of all the deaths. This created the imbalance of trade. The colonies were creating their own finished goods and no longer relied on Rome for them. New coins were then made out of lead and gold to devalue the currency. Merchants now charged more money because these new coins were not worth as much as the old ones. This created inflation, this problem plagued the empire until its

“A wealthy lawbreaker is not punished for his injustice. The laws and constitution of Romans were not fair.” (Fall of Rome, Doc E) The governors were harming the people. In fact, there was a civil war going on between the people for the emperor's position. The governors had believed that they could do anything they wanted, so they taxed the people badly for their own gain. After all, the government wasn’t being watched by the empire because of the civil war. “Roman Emperors, 235-285 CE. 13 out of 19 emperors assassinated.” (Fall of Rome, Doc A) The emperors weren’t liked. The abused power of the Praetorian Guard, leaded to the unfair selection of many disreputable emperors and the assassination of those not favoured by the Guard.The ones that were assassinated had short reigns, usually only lasting 3-6 years. For a fact, many of the emperors took their power by killing the previous emperor. They were so focused on power that they didn’t notice how bad their empire, land, and care of people had become.
To conclude, the fall of Rome happened over the passing time of years, with multiple factors contributing. Although, if the empire wasn’t in civil conflict and the Huns hadn’t invaded, Rome might have lasted a few more years. But, Rome was bound to fall from the long and slow decline throughout history. This is an important question today as a result of how it provides information that a downfall of a civilization can happen