Roman Empire Essay free essay sample

Empire was one of the greatest and longest lasting empires to date, but by A. D. 476 the empire was divided in two and its downfall was inevitable. There are many reasons for the downfall of the Western Roman Empire, some political some economical, but the four biggest factors were religion, war, size, and the decline of the Military. The problems that brought about the downfall of the Western Roman Empire were not unsolvable, but the leaders lacked the will and organization to fix them and the people lacked faith in government and stopped participating in the community. If the Roman people and leaders had just stuck with their traditional values and not let themselves become corrupted, than their empire may have even lasted until today. Major problems that caused the downfall of the Western Roman Empire include religion, war, size, and the decline of the military. Christianity is one of the major factors because it weakened the bonds that had held the Empire together and caused a major internal conflict. We will write a custom essay sample on Roman Empire Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The clergy successfully preached the doctrine of patience which discouraged the active virtues of society and destroyed the last remains of military spirit. Christianity was the cause of many revolts and revolutions against the government which made matters worse. By persecuting the Christians the Romans caused many people to sympathize with the Christians and even join them. War was another major cause of the downfall of Rome. The Military was a huge strong point of the Empire for most of its existence, but when generals began training armies of their own for personal use it was the beginning of the end. When that happened soldiers were solely in it for the money. The system worked for a long time, but eventually Romes enemies began offering the soldiers higher pay thus simply buying most of Romes army. A major military failure that contributed to Romes downfall was the defeat and slaughter of Varus and his three legions under the rule of Augustus Octavian by Germanic tribes led by Arminius in the battle of Teutoburg Forest. This defeat not only greatly weakened the Roman army, but also proved that the Romans were not unbeatable as many people earlier thought and lowered the morale of the Romans. The fall of Rome is very ironic because the very reason for its rise as a powerful Empire was also a major factor in its downfall, its size. Rome’s growth was mostly a result of getting new slaves soldiers and taxes for every new nation which they conquered. Unfortunately, this is a very unsustainable way to maintain a dominant empire because eventually the expansion and conquering stop, whether from political, economic, or military reasons. When it does so, the main sources of income and resources needed to run the existing empire diminish. Eventually Rome was no longer able to sustain its outer provinces which were on relief because the old Roman virtues of self-reliance and initiative in that region were lost. Those weakened provinces, once captured by the barbarians, began attacking the Empire from within. The decline of the military caused the most harm to the empire in the end. Most of Romes money went into maintenance of the military. The expense led to heavy taxation causing tenants to flee from their farms and businessmen and workmen from their occupations. Private enterprise was crushed and in order to keep the machine running the government was forced to take over many kinds of businesses. Once the military declined and was bought off there was no one to keep the peace in the empire and worse still no one to defend it. Eventually the Roman Empire was attacked from all sides by many different cultures. By the Huns from the East, the Vandals from the North, the Visigoths from the West, and finally from the South by the Anglo-Saxons which attacked Rome directly. Some other more minor fac tors in the downfall of Rome included political problems and economical problems. One political reason is the fact that the majority of the population of the Roman Empire was systematically excluded from political responsibilities, was unable to organize to protect themselves, and could not serve in the army. This revoking of rights caused the population which were mostly serfs bound to the soil and small urban groups whose cities were declining to think that the old civilization was not worth saving. One economical reason for the downfall of the Western Roman empire was that the government unintentionally crushed private enterprise causing the government to take such far-reaching responsibility in affairs that the fiber of citizens weakened. The collapse of the Roman Empire was a calamity. it led to the Dark Ages. The effect of this was the destruction of art, the collapse of great cities, the deterioration of the system of roads, the ruin of the Mediterranean trade, and the loss of European unity. Its difficult to imagine any good came from the collapse of Rome, but some good did result. The breakup of the empire led to the abolition of slavery in Europe. Of course, this in turn led to more poverty and the increase of large estates because the poor people lost their land to the aristocrats. But the slaves were better off as peasants than as slaves. There were many causes for the fall of the Roman Empire. Some were the rise of Christianity, the fall of the army, the large population of slaves and the size of the empire. Because of all these reasons and many more, Rome couldn’t survive which lead to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman empire survived though transformed into the Byzantine Empire.