The decline lasted for approximately 300 years until A.D. 476 when it finally collapsed. There were a number of problems which led to the empires downfall. One of the leading factors was that the people had become disloyal to the empire and very different than they had been years before. Another major reason was that there were political and economic decays. And also, the military had drastically weakened, which made a huge difference.
The Roman Decline Due to many struggles, the empire of Rome began to decline. Many problems arose in the third century A.D. The empire which once ruled was slowly declining. Then the empire fell and came to an end. The three major issues that caused Roman rule to finally end were economy, politics, and invaders.
Emperor Constantine had divided the empire into two halves. He declared Constantinople the new capital of Roman society, claiming rule over all Eastern provinces. The Western Roman Empire’s economy went into decline, and lost its power over towns in the East, causing a great reduction in profits from the treasury and weakening them dramatically in warfare. Due to the large decline, the western halves’ strength had been dwindled. The Roman Empire's collapse was the geographical extent of its own expansion.
The downward spiral began with the degeneration of the army that weaken the defenses and made them more vulnerable to Germanic invasions. These invasions led to economic disruptions which combined with other deteriorating conditions led the Roman’s to look increasingly to mystery cults and reject the rational thought of the Greeks. The presentation points out that as economic disruptions continued to deteriorate Rome’s fate was sealed. The date that is assigned to the final demise of the Roman Empire is A.D. 476 when a Germanic emperor was placed on the throne. The presentation reminds us that only the western part of the empire fell.
Roman expansion into Germanic territories was essentially halted and the assimilation of the Germanic tribes was a failure. Later, barbarian tribes from this region will pressure the Roman authority along its boarders. Three hundred years later Emperor Diocletian creates political and economic reforms in an effort to strengthen the empire against growing external threats. He felt that the empire had grown to size that was too large for one to rule. He splits the empire into two halves and implements the rule of tetrarchy.
The invasion by barbarians in Rome led Europe into major depression. This is because Rome was considered a superpower in Europe and when a superpower falls, the trade and economy in Europe will weaken. The bad times of the economy continued when the plague (also known as the Black Death) happened from 1350 to 1450. This plague was almost fatal and it took half of the population in Europe. The only way of escaping of the disease was to move from the city to the country.
And to top it all off both of these empires fail for similar reasons. The Han Empire collapsed for reasons such as: undetermined emperors could no longer control powerful warlords, weak emperors let canals and roads fall into disrepair, because of the weak government people started to turn on each other and lose control. But the most important reason for the empire collapsing was because of the economic inequality. Burdened by heavy taxes and crushing debt many peasants revolted destroying the civilization. While this collapse took very little time to happen, the Roman Empire’s decline took about a century to occur.
Byzantine Emperor Alexius the first received assistance from the Pope and formed and army to help push the Seljuk Turks out of the Holy Land. Throughout the series of wars the Muslims were the victor. This shows that the Middle Ages should be known as the Dark Ages. The Black Death also known as the Bubonic Plague was a horrific disease that spread throughout Europe from 1347 to 1350. During that time there was no cure and it was highly contagious.
After the fall of the Roman Empire there was no stable centralized government in Rome. Different Barbarian civilizations began invasions in Europe. According to historian Frantz Funk-Brentano they raided and destroyed villages and left the people in terror. Brentano also said that to avoid the violence people tried to abandon their fields (Doc. 1).
THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful empires in history, encompassing much of modern day Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Various scholars have sought to explain what caused the collapse of such a great empire in the fifth century, after nearly half a millennium of rule, the reasons for the empire’s decline still debated today. The decline and fall of the empire was not the result of a single, simple cause, and it did happen in one day. Internal political and economical unrest, invasions from the West, and the rise of Christianity in the East all contributed to its decline over hundreds of years, leading to the eventual collapse of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire began in 31 B.C.E.