What were the real causes for the fall of the Roman Empire?
The Roman Empire was established in 27 BCE following the decease of the Roman Republic and ending in 476 C.E with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This vast empire extended from England to Egypt, surrounded the Mediterranean Sea, and reached across the Balkans until the Middle East. The Roman Empire was one of the largest and most dominant in history. Over time, the magnitude it possessed was remarkably complicated to control. This led to political challenges, economic problems, military difficulties, and invasions.
The continuous assassinations of emperors and the corrupt politicians were the reason for the Western Roman Empire to collapse. A collection of leaders who governed over the most sumptuous days of the Roman Empire are acknowledged as the five emperors. The last of the five good emperors died in 180 A.D., Marcus Aurelius. After his death, a period of conflict, confusion, and civil wars began. His son Commodus was Marcus’ successor however, he conducted the empire to become more corrupt and less steady. His government endured approximately 12 years until the Severan Rulers commenced to govern the empire in 193.
Although the circumstance was intricate, they attempted to restore the order until the emperor Severus Alexander was assassinated in 235CE. After his assassination, the empire entered into a 50-year crisis remembered as the Third Century Crisis. Throughout this situation, a military regime ruled from 235 to 384 and aggravated the chaos in the empire. During this epoch, the Roman throne was obtained by whoever had the strength to embrace it. Usually, the emperor was assassinated by its successor. In 75 years, more than 26 men took the throne and ruled the Roman Empire.
The Roman Empire faced many economic problems that included inflation, a decrease in trade, and unemployment which steered to its fall. Throughout the second century, the expansion of Rome desisted therefore the income of slaves concluded. Rome’s economy decreased dramatically when slaves ceased because they depended on slaves to till fields and work as craftsmen. Additionally, Constantine and Diocletian provoked inflation and financial problems.
When the East and West of Rome were separated, they frequently disputed resources and military aid as far as the Western empire descended into an economic crisis while Eastern, the Byzantine Empire, increased its wealth. As a matter of fact, half of Rome’s budget was invested in its military; as more money was funneled into the military, the empire could not advance in technology and infrastructure. This was until the weak economy did not permit the recruiting of soldiers now that they were not even able to pay them.
Besides, Christianity’s emphasis on a spiritual kingdom weakened the Roman military features. The religion concentrated on a sole deity alternately of the glory of the state. For this reason, the state hired foreigners to fight nevertheless they did not comprehend the Roman traditions and did not have loyalty to the empire nor the emperors. Not to mention, many of these foreigners were barbarians who later sacked the Western Empire. The military is remarkably essential in an empire because, in addition to conquering territory to magnify the terrain, they are the ones who defend and strive to maintain the empire steady. As the military commenced to weaken and its commitment concluded, the Roman Empire began to decline until it ended.
The continuous invasions that the Roman Empire underwent denoted as an influential factor that conducted to its decline. During the 50-year crisis, the empire was struck by the Sassanians, from Germanic tribes across the Danube and Rhine. Subsequently, Romans were invaded by Persians who made inroads into its territory and the Germanic tribes who encroached Gaul, Balkans, and Spain.
During the 300s Barbarian groups, also known as Goths, invaded beyond the Western Roman Empire’s borders. The farm production diminished because crops were ravaged by both invaders and the Roman army defending. Therefore, food production was eminently affected during invasions. Afterward, around 370 A.D, the Huns, a fierce Asian tribe, moved into Eastern Europe and pressured the Germanic Visigoths, who were established there, to migrate across the Rhine and the Danube. The Visigoths relocated to Roman territory and settled as their allies, but neither could remain without damaging each other. Romans approached the Goths very firmly and with extreme brutality. They forced the Goths to trade their children into slavery in exchange for dog meat because they did not have food. This continued until the Visigoths revolted on behalf of the treatment they obtained.
Romans attempted to conclude the revolutions, known as the Gothic Wars, but the Visigoths defeated them when they assassinated the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens. This prompted an increasing number of Germans to cross Western Rome frontiers as far as to sack Rome in 410. The Vandals, another tribe expelled by the Huns, likewise sacked Rome in 455. They infiltrated Carthage, the Iberian Peninsula, Southern Spain, and Africa. Germanic tribes were enervating Rome and draining their resources until, in 476, the Germanic leader Odoacer dethroned Romulus Augustus, the western emperor, settling himself on the Roman throne. Several German kingdoms settled where the Western Roman Empire was fragmenting it and bringing it to an end.