Factors That Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire - Research Paper Example

? Insert Insert of the Insert of the Insert assignment is due Factors that led to the fall of the Roman Empire The fall of the Roman Empire remains unknown to many. Its causes are narrated to date and several reasons have been presented as the main causes of its fall. History shows that the Roman Empire was one of the strongest and best Empires to have ever existed, but as its state and leadership progressed, several factors occurred that resulted in its collapse. The factors that led to the collapse of the Roman Empire are expansionism strategies, militarism, political rivalry between the senators and the emperor, failing economy, barbarian invasion, natural disasters, decline in ethics and moral standards and unemployment of the working class. There are several factors that played a key role in the collapse of one of the greatest empires in the world. According to Bauer (84), several factors that occurred within a span of approximately 500 years were instrumental in the collapse of a strong empire, the Roman Empire. Expansion of the Rome Empire can be referred to as one of the major causes of its collapse. Rome kept conquering many nations and therefore there was rapid growth in the land they owned. Consequently, there was great need to defend the borders and the territories of Rome. As they struggle to keep this under their control, emperors increased taxes on non-Romans and these created more enmity where frequent rebellions arose. Lack of enough solders to safeguard their territories forced them to employ foreigners who were against them resulting in the collapse of the empire. Since the empire was growing at a rapid rate, it needed more soldiers for it to remain a great conqueror. As such, militarism was adopted as a mean of the emperor and his compatriots remaining in full control. In this case, constant fighting needed heavy military spending. This demand for the military was high since the Roman Empire became over stretched, and the need for more solders was proportional to its needs for expansion and protection of their overstretched territories. Due to this, there was overspending in the military body, hence other fundamental activities were left with few resources. Vital issues such as provision of houses to the public, quality roads and channel were left untouched. This also resulted in emperors raising taxes repeatedly resulting in increased levels of inflation. Roman Empire faced a failing economy and increased levels of inflation. Inflation is a state where prices increase and the purchasing power of currency declines. The Rome Empire was in this situation and the government was threatened of impoverishment as it did not have sufficient cash to cater for its needs. Overexpansion and efforts to protect their territories resulted in this. For instance, the increased population required more militaries and the demand forced them to recruit and train more people. This process was demanding and more money was used in paying the large numbers of military personnel .The other factor is that after they diminished new lands conquering, the flow of gold to their economy decreased. This resulted to less use of coins and the coin become less valuable. Due to over-expansion of the territories, there were more merchants from the conquered places who raised the prices of the goods that they sold. Several persons changed their way of trading and butter trade erupted eventually. People stopped using coins and they began to undertake barter trade in order to get what they wanted from others. This went to as far as paying salaries in the form of food and clothing while tax collection also changed and vegetables and fruits were used to pay taxes. In this case, the expansion of territories shows how the economy was affected resulting to its decline. According to Goldsworthy(72) Over expanded Roman Empire territory had people from different ethnic groups and was over populated. As a result, the labor force was composed of slavery resulting in unemployment. Plebs in Rome were not able to compete with foreign traders and therefore the government was forced to reduce the working class by coming up with different labor cost. After the decision by the government, the Romans decided to sacrifice their ways of living by becoming dependant on the government. The other challenges that resulted from this was increased levels of crime as most of the working class left the places of work as a result of insufficient pay. Bauer (105) asserted that the fall of the Roman Empire could be attributed to the knowledge of barbarians on the military strategies, plans and tactics. The overexpansion of the Roman Empire demanded more militaries and therefore, Roman alone could not raise the number of Armies required. As a result, they had to get them from those nations that they subjugated. The other nations’ soldiers, the Barbarian were to assist the Roman Empire “to conquerors” and therefore they were given the training that was provided to the Roman soldiers. This resulted in them gaining tactics and knowledge as they served in the military. The barbarians used the attained tactics to turn against them and Rome was attacked by the Visigoths who were led by ex-army soldier’s .Though Rome was doing well and had confidence while conquering any nation, over expanding resulted in the need for more soldiers. The foreign soldiers could only become their enemies since they were not contented for being conquered, the reason why they took the benefit of gaining military tactics to turn against their enemies. Political rivalry between the senators and the emperor is also believed to a major factor that played a key role in the crumbling of the strong military empire. According to Goldsworthy(98), the legal powers to rule the Rome’s religious, the civil, and military associations was under the emperor while the senate acted as an advisory body. Though the two bodies were meant to act together, things never worked as their relationship started to change. The two bodies started taking different directions as the authoritative and affluent roman Emperors unavoidably become corrupted and lived a dishonest, deceptive and dishonest lifestyle.As a result of this, Roman Empire experienced a lot of friction between the Emperors and the Senators. Everybody saw each other as the most corrupt, viewed each other as enemies and as enmity persisted, poor leadership set in resulting in the collapse of the empire. Natural disasters, such as famines, plagues and earthquakes were also affecting them. Famine which could also be as an effect of overpopulation also had a detrimental effect on the empire. Civil wars made it impossible for people to concentrate in farming hence famine become a major disaster. According to Beur (203), The Roman Empire was most interested in conquering other nations and therefore, people with different backgrounds, ethics and valued interacted. Life changed and people no longer considered ethics in any way. There was more bloodshed and brutality among the people .This marked the decline of values, customs, the ideas and tradition institutions that Romans had. Decline in morals was conspicuous in the upper class which belonged to the rich, nobility and emperors. They practiced immorality as well promiscuous sexual behavior which among them were adultery and orgies. It was said that Tiberius kept juvenile boys for their pleasure; Nero had their male slaves castrated, so that they could take them as their wives. Elagabalus forced nuns into marriages. The lower classes and slaves were as well affected by the decline in morals. During religious festivals like Saturnalia and Bacchanalia, there was sexual promiscuity and brothels were forced into the acts. There were no human principles and no one cared about what was wrong or right since human ethics and values were lost. As a result of lack of ethical values and increased lawless, the empire started to collapse slowly as law enforcement efforts was becoming difficult to implement. In conclusion, the factors that caused the collapse of Roman Empire are expansionism strategies, militarism, political rivalry between the senators and the emperor, failing economy, barbarian invasion, natural disasters, decline in ethics and moral standards and the unemployment of the working class. The thesis, which is supported by two ardent researchers and writer, Bauer and Goldsworthy offers an insightful information on why the greatest political setting the Roman empire collapsed after ruling for more than 500 years. This thesis is essential in analyzing factors that cause the collapse of big nations in order to develop strategies that can enhance the economic, political and social cohesiveness of a nation. Works Cited Bauer, S Wise. The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. New York: W.W. Norton,2007 .Print. Goldsworthy, Adrian. . How Rome fell: death of a superpower. New Haven: Yale University Press,2009. Print. Read More