What Caused The Fall Of The Western Roman Empire

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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. The main issue that led to the demise of the Western Roman Empire were the line of unfit rulers. These leaders would lie, cheat, and steal to get the most power they could. Though the leaders of Rome were not all bad, it was very regular to have an incompetent, greedy leader. Another major political issue was the emperor's bodyguards who were not to be trusted and were sometimes paid to assassinate the leader themselves. These were some of the first major problems that started the fall of the Western Roman Empire. …show more content…

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. The gold content in coins also started to decrease along with the amount of coins produced. Inflation was one of the causes of this. People started to barter as a result of less money. Farming also decreased and a famine developed throughout Rome and poor farmers and merchants moved to the