When led to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire?

Answer 1

1) Rome couldnt control its vast empire, because it was too far to control from Rome, and all the cultures were different then Rome so they were sorta easy to break apart.

2)Corruption in Roman government.

3) Large social class gap. Doesnt seem very important but it played a huge role in Roman politics.

4) Invaders, which had been something Rome had been struggling with for years before its downfall.

5) Culture withered away after that

Answer 2

There were many factors that led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. But if you are looking for the big reason of it, it would be the strength of the many Germanic tribes which settled within, and attacked, the WRE. Increasingly, it was the Germanic peoples who disrupted the Roman way of life. Their numbers became too large, their military force too strong. Bit by bit the western areas succumbed to these invaders.

For example, because of the Germanic threat to the city of Rome itself, the Romans withdrew their forces from Britain in c.410AD. Britain was forever lost to the Roman world.

Germanic leaders eventually became the leaders of Rome, including its politics and armed forces. Ironically, the last recognised Emperor of the WRE was Romulus Augustus - Romulus of course was the mythic founder of the city of Rome, and Augustus was the first Roman Emperor. He was deposed in 475AD, after which the Germanic tribes began to form into early kingdoms, some of which survive to the present day, eg England and France.

Answer 3

There are a variety of reasons. One was the over-extension of the Roman army. It was spread through so many countries that it was difficult to protect Rome itself from invasions by various European and Asian tribes. Another was that the Empire had become corrupt from within. Some of the Emperors were more interested in providing entertainment for its citizens than in providing good government. Another reason is that there were warring factions within the SEnate and within the Emperor's family.

Answer 4

According to Gibbon, the author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions because of a loss of civic virtue among its citizens. They had become totally decadent and immoral, lazy and soft, outsourcing their duties to defend their Empire to barbarian mercenaries, who then became so numerous and ingrained that they were then able to easily take over the Empire. Romans, he believed, had become effeminate, unwilling to live the military lifestyle.

In addition Gibbon attacked Christianity. Christianity, he says, created a belief in another world, that is to say that a better life existed after death. This fostered indifference to this life among the Roman citizens who believed they would live a better life once they died, thus sapping their desire to maintain and sacrifice for the Empire. He also believed its comparative pacifism tended to sap the traditional Roman martial spirit.

Answer 5

Rome have been deteriorating for over a hounded years slowly, first they split the empire into 2 halves thinking it could enable for extra suitable reaction to worry and administration over those vast lands. Rome, in Italy be got here the capital of the Western Roman Empire, and Constantiopal or Istanbul grew to become the Rome interior the East, additionally widespread as they Byzantine Empire. This grew to become right into a bad flow relatively because of the fact the jap 0.5 of the Empire grew to become into plenty richer in ingredients then the Western 0.5, and slowly the West grew to become into based further and further on employed infantrymen then their on legions. distinctive the infantrymen they trusted the place the Goths from German, however the Romans the place very merciless to them they could commerce them dogs meat for his or her toddlers so as that they may well be slaves for the wealthy. One Goth named Aldric grew to become into fed-up with this medical care and the actuality he have been regarded over for advertising interior the Roman Legions that he took a defense force to Rome and starved the city for a three hundred and sixty 5 days till the city opened the gates and anybody grew to become into murdered. One the city grew to become into sacked they found out their grew to become into no nutrition which grew to become into what they necessary to maintain a huge military, so as that they left Rome in ruins, with all its inhabitants ineffective.

Answer 6

Fall of the Western Empire
Theodosius I (379-395) was the last ruler of the united Roman Empire. At his death in 395, he left the eastern portion of the empire to his 18-year-old son, Arcadius, and the western portion to his 10-year-old son, Honorius. Despite the nominal unity of this territory, the legacy of Theodosius was, in fact, the final division of the empire. A succession of child emperors weakened the throne, and no emperor ever again successfully controlled both east and west.

Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire remained strong, while the Western Roman Empire began a steady decline in the face of economic disintegration, weak emperors, and invading Germanic tribes. The breakdown of communications, commerce, and public order exposed the people of Gaul, Spain, and other provinces to famine and robbery.

While the central government provided few services and little protection, it demanded more taxes and goods. Panic and alienation drove both peasants and city dwellers from their homes. They sought protection from powerful landlords, who controlled their own self-sufficient villas. In these heavily fortified villas, the lower classes hoped for relief from the twin predators of late antiquity: barbarians and tax collectors.

The Eastern Empire was stable and prospered. The eastern emperors were able to defend the Dardanelles, a strategic strait in northwestern Turkey (known in antiquity as the Hellespont) and to push migrating barbarian peoples to the Western Empire. The emperors of the west were often pampered and isolated, and they allowed generals and ministers to rule in their name. Declining manpower also led western emperors to recruit Germanic people for the army or even to engage entire tribes to fight on Rome's behalf. In 410 the Goths sacked Rome. It was the first time Rome had suffered such an invasion since the Gauls had sacked the city in 390 BC - eight centuries earlier.

In AD 476 Germanic troops in Italy mutinied and elected a Gothic commander, Odoacer, as king. Odoacer, who was the first Germanic ruler of the empire, deposed the young emperor, Romulus Augustulus, gave him a generous pension, and sent his imperial regalia to Constantinople. But if the Western Empire had "fallen," the commentators of the time barely took notice. It was not until four decades later that a Byzantine historian wrote that the imperial order initially established by Augustus had come to an end in 476. The date marked the demise of a political structure - the Western Roman Empire - but coinage, taxes, and administrators all remained in place. The exile of Romulus barely affected ordinary people.

Several factors explain why the Roman state collapsed in the west and survived in Constantinople for another 1,000 years. The most obvious is geography, since the Western Empire had to defend a long border along the Rhine and Danube rivers. The east was far more populous - Egypt had 8 million inhabitants while Gaul had 2.5 million - and thus could provide men and supplies for a larger army. The east also had a longer tradition of urbanization, and wealthy cities in the Eastern Empire provided continuing support while cities in the Western Empire were newer and weaker. When these cities came under pressure, much of the population fled to the countryside.

The east also had a stronger economic base. The rich lands of Egypt provided wealth, and much of the east's other territory was in the hands of productive peasant proprietors. The Eastern Empire also received a financial boost from the tradition of manufacture in eastern cities and the control of the lucrative trade with Arabia, China, and India. Ancient agricultural economies produced very little surplus, and Rome itself had long depended on the profit of conquest, which included tribute, taxes from the wealthy east, and shipments of grain from North Africa and Egypt.

When the east was lost and barbarians took Africa, the desperate Western Empire raised taxes and imposed restrictive regulations. As Germanic tribes seized more taxable land and revenues fell, the west could barely support its own unproductive soldiers, civil servants, and clergy. It certainly did not have sufficient revenue for the bribes and subsidies needed to pacify the Germanic invaders.

There is no simple explanation for the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, but several interconnected elements provide some answers. The demands of the military and the growing bureaucracy forced the government to seek more income. When the elite avoided taxes, the burden fell on the peasantry, who had barely enough to feed themselves and no surplus to pay taxes. When farmers fled the land, incomes declined still further and manpower shortages forced the military to hire German mercenaries. This cycle led to a weak, impoverished central government that quietly collapsed in 476.

Answer 7

mnt. Visubi exploed and the wars with everything going on everything went down.