The Fall Of The Western Roman Empire

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 11th grade January 2002

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In the third century A.D., the Roman Empire began to decline. Many Germanic tribes begn to invade Rome. The Roman army lacked training so they were not prepared for the invasions. The Roman government became too strict and thus the people stopped supporting the government. One of the main reasons the empire fell, was because of the division of eastern and western Rome. Afterwards, people became selfish and lazy.

The fall of the Roman empire began when the empire was divided. Due to this, the government became too strict and there were many corrupt officials. When people realized this, they stopped supporting the government and became bvery selfish. The Roman government had very large expenses because of the maintenence of the army and vast bureaucracy. The people didn't like these new taxes and how high they were so farmers left their land and moved elsewhere. That's when the middle class in Rome started to disappear.

After this, the unemployment rate went sky high and the expense of providing gree grain to the poor drained Roman resources.

Economic issues and slavery were two major reasons the empire fell. Slavery was a big reason because it led to growth of latifundia - the great estates that came to dominate agriculture and ruin the free coloni [farmers] who drifted to the cities to add to the unemployment there. The Romans also used too much slave labor, but, no one had noticed it until the division of the empire. The biggest economic issure was the heavy taxes necessary to support the government. As a resuly to this, farmers fled their land and workers fled their occupations. The Roman population plunged because of this.

One cause that was not major, but, still was a cause of the fall, were the military causes. The Roman army...