During hard times, such as famine, nobles would take the chance to dispossess the peasants. This wouild lead to the decline of the free peasantry and army, which in turn forced the state to rely more and more on expensive foreign mercenaries. This further increased the tax burden on the peasants, which caused more of them to lose their lands, leading to more reliance on mercenaries and so on. This vicious cycle weakened the economy and tax base to the point where the Byzantines could not even afford
This helped to destroy the empire from within. The government also became more oppressive and authoritarian. In effect, the people opposed it more and more. Another important factor was that the divide between the east and the west weakened the west much more then in the east. Politics played an important role in the downfall of Rome.
Invasions hit both empires hard. For Rome, rebellions in the Eastern part of the empire started riots all over the entire civilization, which caused a great amount of mayhem and chaos. Also, Rome fell directly to Germanic invaders. In China however, nomadic tribes similar to the Huns had actually invaded the empire. Way before these invasions though, the weak central government of both empires started the declines of these empires.
However during the middle ages this all seemed to come crashing down, due to civil wars and peoples push for power over the entire Empire. During this time most of the reforms and finding in education seemed to have been lost or destroyed by leaders. By doing this the entire Roman Empire fell and was destroyed. It would take more time after this to relearn everything lost. The Roman Empire went from an elite civilization down into a bunch of warring people fighting for land.
The event which led up to feudalism being born is the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 CE. After the Roman government had collapsed Western Europe was left without a government. This was a major problem for crime rates had drastically increased, and cities had become too perilous to live in and were therefore abandoned due to the chaos which occurred within the lawless city. People needed to find shelter and protection quickly and the feudal system was their answer. People found shelter and protection in rural manors which became their own self-sufficient realms.
When the government collapsed these different peoples divided creating new languages with it. Although, when the Han dynasty collapsed, the Chinese people didn’t know who to look up to, or what to believe. The fall of the European Empire collapsed because Germanic tribes were pushing into the territories while Europe
The repetition of the words “starve” and “starving” illustrate how the farm tenants are tired of the way they’re living and the constant struggle of finding food for not only themselves, but for their families. Comparing Claudius and the farm owners reveals how the poor are controlled by the wealthy and powerful. This is similar to the concept of plutarchy, the concept that a society is dominated by wealthy citizens. It is human nature for a society to be
Another problem was citizens feeling like they did not have a say in politicts what Rome chose to do. This made the people of Rome feel as if the empire was not worth saving. Lastly, introduction of Christianity, large population and the vast size of the empire made things much harder. All these factors led to the the natural and unavoidable decline of the civilization. Documents state that the citizens of Rome felt as if they did not have a say in politics.
These lower class people were starting to rebel, and become disloyal to the Roman government, and this was unacceptable. They were beginning to refuse to work or fight and some even physically withdrew from the city. The last leader of Rome Tarquinius created the Roman Republic. This basically gave all the power of the Roman State to the Senate. Julius Caesar took over Rome and
‘Did the Roman Empire Collapse Due to Its Own Weight? A controversial and interesting question: Why did the Roman Empire fall? Some believe the Roman Empire collapsed under its own weight and some believe it collapsed due to constant attacks and barbarian invasions were responsible. My opinion, with limited knowledge, would be the Roman Empire fell because of internal and external problems. One opinion as to why Rome collapsed was constant attacks by barbarians and other outside tribes.