Many lives were lost in external conflicts as well as internal civil wars. Small pox and lead poisoning in the aqueducts further decimated the population. " To worsen matters, plague from China spread through the empire." (Sherman & Salisbury, 153) Just as in China, the disease caused intense suffering and depleted the already dwindling Roman population. " Medical knowledge was helpless in the face of pandemics like the mid-third-century plague, and Roman families could no longer populate the empire."
Centuries after the Rise of Rome and their extraordinary historical achievements, was their collapse. This was caused by the combination of numerous political, economic and social factors or otherwise known as the P.E.S. These problems included corruptions in both the military and resource productions, and of course their continuous failed attempts of expanding their empire resulting in others and even their own society to turn and rebel against them. Political factors involve people and organizations with such power, these include powerful emperors, leaders and empires. Although if people with such power are unable to maintain control, their society usually collapses and resolves in chaos.
No one tried to replace the breastplates and the helmets. So whenever the Roman soldiers went out and fought in war they were exposed to wounds because of no armor and thus think about running and not fighting. Another good well known reason for the decline of the Roman empire was the invasions made by the many different invaders, especially the huns. Due to the decline in the Roman empire there was barely anyone to protect the Roman empire. The huns were ruthless killers.
This can be argued was to do with this battle because Valen lost two thirds of his army. It also showed that the Roman legions were no match for the heavy cavalry which many empires started to recruit. This then led to the Middle Ages and knights. The weakness of the Roman legionaries was showed again in 410 in the sacking of Rome. This was seen as another step towards the fall of the Roman Empire because this defeat was inevitable after the defeat
Possibly the greatest vulnerability was 'the weakness within' - the constitution gave the President, the states and the military too much control, whilst proportional voting meant that the Reichstag was separated and weak. There was no single party in complete control and parties had to join together to form a government. However, each party had different goals which caused in-fighting and instability making it difficult for the Reichstag, with its many changes in power, to govern effectively. This was reflected in 376 political assassinations up to 1923. From the start there was economic instability because of the cost of World War One and there was widespread disillusion within the German people.
Caesar would later destroy what was left of the republic. Over the years as an empire, the political system appeared to be a ball and chain to the public. “ The political office was seen as a hardship, not an asset to the public. There was nearly constant warfare among the Roman leaders themselves in the century leading up to 31 B.C., when the Roman Empire was established. One of the most difficult problems was choosing a new emperor.
The Weimar republic faced several problems throughout their short lived stint in power. They were threatened by repeated attacks from internal enemies on both the right and left. A serious threat came in particular from the extreme forces of the right wing nationalism who despised this new democracy. They also faced problems from those in high positions that rejected them. They were also in a country plagued by a financial crisis with the majority of the population automatically having hatred for the government.
There were nearly 4 million dead, wounded, captured or missing. Reasons for this was the inefficient ammunition supplies. The army was severely inequiped, out of the six and the half million men mobilised only 4.6 were armed with rifles. In reality soldiers were waiting for their comrades to die in order to fight for their homeland. These losses sparked off political unrest and left the floodgates open for criticism on the incompetence of the Tsar’s government ministers.
Firstly, a main point that their actions were to blame would be that repetitive tactics and how they would refuse to change them. This would result in there army losing out at a battle or changing them to their own plans. Another factor would be that none of them really knew how to work the new weapons and couldn’t train there men to use them, so in most cases they would refuse to use them. Whereas if they had used them in battle there might of been a better chance of the men surviving. Losing touch with the high command was another point which caused a lot of men died.
Also with the France, Britain and USA not agreeing on the terms of the treaty made it even harder for it to end. Germany’s anger from the treaty came from a few of conditions which one wasn’t entirely true. The first of these conditions were that they were to blame for the war, this condition so bad that no man in Germany would sign it not even a soldier under direct orders. Also the amount of money that Germany had to pay back was very unrealistic ($6600 million) and would cripple their country for years to come. There were other factors that Germany thought that were very unfair such as their tiny army and the amount of land that was taken from them.