What are two reasons that the fall of the Western Roman Empire ultimately benefited Western Civilization?

Question

and two reasons it didn't?

Answer 1

Ultimately, no empire has ever, nor will any empire ever last. They all fall. You could look at it like this. Because the Roman Empire fell, it allowed for other empires like the Spanish Empire, (which during it's reign, allowed the discovery of this continent) and I suppose you could even consider America to be an empire right now.

Answer 2

Ultimately, the Empire had become a vast, sprawling Bureaucracy, virtually incomprehensible in its size. This is thanks to the later emperors, namely Diocletian, who dropped the facade of "unofficial" (yes, unofficial. The rank of Emperor is a modern fabrication, prior to him all Emperors were simply called "First Citizen") Imperial power and set up something similar to a Persian Kingship. This Bureaucracy was crushing in its taxation, and choked the life out of anything resembling the vibrant economy Rome once had. Rome had reverted to a proto-feudalist economy, with all of the wealth focuses in the hands of the government, and the people tied to their agragarian jobs. Rome in 400 CE was a vastly different place from Rome in 0 CE. At the time of Jesus's birth, Rome had about 3 million residents (a feat that would be unmatched in the west until the modern era) at the time of its fall, that number was around 20,000.

It's had to name a benefit to the fall, because the fall was such a calamity. Standards of living for the middle class dropped dramatically, due to the empire's ruinous economic strategies, which eventually lead to the disintigration of the middle class, and the enslavement of the people to their agragarian masters (which itself was the product of an attempt to curb the massive unemployment problem in the Empire.)

However, one benefit that can be named is that all of this bureaucracy was wiped out as the empire fragmented. If the Empire never fell, its history might have been similar to China's, which had a warring states period, culminating in the victory of a single state, and due to its isolation, developed into a sprawling stagnate bureaucracy. Due to the fragmented nature of the Germans (They never acted in unison, they simply moved in when the Romans moved out) this lead to the foundations of a Europe with competing states, which ultimately lead to the modern era.

Remember, humans would not have evolved if the dinosaurs had not been wiped out.

However, this was a far from pleasant transition. The benefits that died with the Romans were remarkably modern:

The Roman state had state-run welfare: decried by some as "bread and circuses"

state supplied water: with many upper middle class citizens having hot and cold running water

peace: Pax Romana is noted in that it nearly eradicated piracy from the mediterranean, and posted sentries along the road to guard against highwaymen, which allowed trade to flourish.) The Parthians in the East were a (barely) tolerable neighbor (compared to its much more aggressive successor, the Sassanid Persians) and at the time, the Germans were content with small scale raiding across the Roman frontier

hygiene and cleanliness: Romans took several baths a day, and dumped their waste in the sewers. Medieval peasants took a few baths a year, and dumped their waste in the streets. Bubonic plague was a political issue to be solved. In the medieval era, it killed a third of the European population.

Religious tolerance: it wasn't until Christianity and its archrival Mithraism vied for political power that people of all religious were tolerated. It's pretty obvious which religion won that one.

egalitarianism: To a Roman, there were two kinds of people: civilized, and barbarian, whichever the person chose to be. Romans made a habit of freeing slaves, and any child born to a free man was a Roman citizen. Some Freedmen became more wealthy than Italian aristocrats. Right up to the top: the Severan dynasty was from Africa. Diocletian and Constantine were from Illyuria (modern Romania.)

technology: A man by the name of Hero of Alexandria used to sell a toy to the children which burned coal to generate steam to move a device...

So to wrap it up, The fall destroyed the massive baggage that the late empire had accumulated, which freed the way for the eventual development of modern Europe, and it also left the imprint for success that lead Europe to dominance over the rest of the economically petrified world.

Answer 3

We usually see the fall of Rome as unmitigated disaster, and in fact there was a painful and chaotic time; so I like this question., and I can only think of a few things.
The Goths benefited because they got to settle down to an agrarian lifestyle. The descendants of these Goths later created the most beautiful cathedrals ever built, with their vision of uplifting light compared to the darker churches of the past.
The Dark Ages and Medieval times, despite their drawbacks, were relatively peaceful. We think more about the violence because that is the nature of "history." Good news is not news. The Dark Ages are called that because we have so little information about the history of that time, not because they were particularly evil.
Agriculture vastly improved (eventually) due to the invention of the mold-board plow.

Answer 4

There were no gains from the decline.

The reasons it didn't...declines in nutrition, education, engineering, communications, loss of civil order and stability....