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.
The Mediterranean region had political transformations that changed cultures in the periods 200 c.e to 1000 c.e. Most of these cultural changes happened through the empire of Rome which was then created into the Byzantine Empire. One change that happened was the development of feudalism which caused local leaders and their retinues begin to form a warrior class distinct from the people of their territory. Second, Religious practices drastically changed during this period due to the new ruling of Constantine. Third, Germanic tribes with their barbaric invasions weakened the Roman Empire which led to disappearance of Roman ways.
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
Due to significant proportions of markets lost it was decided that the country should leave the gold standard and revalue sterling which exacerbated matters further as it was overpriced, forcing British exports to be more expensive. [1] A combination of deflationary policies mixed with a lack of decisive action also added to the existing problems that Britain was facing. [2] With all these problems already troubling the British government which changed hands various times, from a coalition to the Liberals, Labour and the Conservatives, the Wall Street Crash finally affected the whole world by the early 1930s. The Wall Street Crash occurred in October 1929 where hundreds of thousands of Americans were purchasing stocks and bonds mainly on credit and when a panic struck, prices of these ‘securities’ dropped, over 13 million shares were traded on ‘Black Thursday’ and a further 16 million on ‘Black Tuesday’. [3] All in all, over $30 billion was lost on the stock market resulting in the entire economy collapsing.
Short term causes included the embarrassing defeated faced by Russia in the Russo-Japanese war. This loss to a ‘second rate power’ not only undermined the Tsars power, but also resulted in already poor conditions in towns deteriorating further. The high taxes that were introduced at one of the many times of great famine angered many peasants already struggling to survive. Finally the economic slump further raised unemployment in the working classes. Although at first glance the revolution may appear to have been a failure, there were many successes that came as a result.
During the Great Boom in the 20s, farms were industrialising and excess labour that were mainly Blacks and Catholics were moving North. There was a decline in income from membership and without the economic reason of existence, the KKK began to decline. Secondly, there was the scandal surrounding the murder trial of D.C. Stephenson, the grand dragon of Indiana. People started to question the KKK as upholders of law and order, its Christian values were also discredited. After his conviction for murder and rape of a young white school teacher, the KKK declined dramatically in Indiana.
This was mainly due to the economic pressure caused by land distribution between social classes. The large landowners were gaining even more power and influence in government, while the peasants were being more and more burdened by labor and money. The desperate peasants rebelled, such as in the Yellow Turban rebellion in 184 C.E. Although the Later Han dynasty possessed the military power required to keep civil disorder under reasonable control, rebellions by the Yellow Turbans and others weakened the Han state during the 2nd and 3rd centuries C.E. Furthermore, the Later Han emperors were unable to prevent the development of factions at court that paralyzed the central government.
Many of these rich industrialists helped to finance the Nazi party. Another factor which helped Hitler become Chancellor was how unhappy the German public was with the government. It was made up of so many different parties that no proper agreement could be made about how to handle the depression. Two chancellors, Müller and Brüning resigned in quick succession because they couldn't get a majority of politicians to support their ideas. By 1932, President Hindenburg had to use his special “Emergency Powers”.
The powerful, spoilt, wealthy Roman Emperors inevitably became corrupt and many lived a debauched, deluded and immoral lifestyle. Another contribution could entail about Roman’s “lack there of” resources that barely made it suitable for living. This encounters not only civil wars, plagues, but mostly crop failures to the brink of collapse (FRANKFORTER 180). One of the other major causes of the Roman empire can be established by political corruption and the praetorian guard (TWT 13).The power of the Praetorian Guard, the elite soldiers who made up the bodyguard of the emperor, led to political corruption and grew to such an extent that this massive group of soldiers decided on whether an emperor should be disposed of and who should become the new emperor (TWT 13). Like most stubborn or one track minded group of individuals, the Roman’s had yet another flaw which seemed to break in the end.
The introduction of Christianity into the Roman Empire made many roman citizens into pacifists. This made it increasingly difficult to defend against the increasing number of barbarian attacks. There was a rise in political corruption, inflation, urban decay, unemployment and military spending. Public health was an issue with many of the population suffering uninterrupted strain of disease. Alcoholism increased as well adding to the incompetency of the general public.