why did the roman empire fall when it had so much domination? they revolutionised so much
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In addition to what others have said, I would like to also add that, for the people that lived in it, the Roman Empire never really fell. Our idea of “The Fall of Rome” just applies to the western portions of the empire and the city of Rome itself. The wealthiest areas were still under control of the eastern half of the empire. We call the eastern half the Byzantine Empire to differentiate it from the one that “fell”, but people of the time would have called it “The Roman Empire” and seen no break or change from one to the other. For Romans here, it was business as usual for nearly another thousand years.
Even when the Byzantines fell in the late Middle Ages, the people of Constantinople (Istanbul) still identified as “Romans” and continued to for several centuries.
For the people in the west, it varied place to place, but in many areas it was seen more as a change in management rather than an apocalyptic event.
There are lots of reasons. Internal conflict weakened Rome. Read into the crises of the third century. During that period there were 26 people claiming the title emperor with some holding areas of the Empire. Trade broke down during the crises and society changed due to economic disruptions.
Large parts of the what would become the Western Roman empire started to change at a pretty fundamental level. Trade and the citizens of Rome started to be replaced by large landowners and Coloni, basically the start of feudalism in Western Europe.
The Empire was united by Aurelian but it was on shaky ground. Ultimately the Empire was split into east and west.
The East was the stronger of the two nations. The Western Roman Empire was on shaky ground and economically barely able to sustain itself.
The rest history. Large scale migrations, Germanic tribes that gave a much stronger Rome issues took advantage of it’s weakened state. Former allies like the Franks started to turn on Rome.
The East lasted awhile more. Byzantium lasted technically until the 1400’s though at that point I believe it was pretty much modern day Istanbul, some surrounding land and a few islands.
The fall of Rome was a long process.
A bloated and corrupt administration trying to manage a vast empire with a relatively small standing army. Communication lag of often many weeks or sometimes months. Add this to the Roman passion for infighting and civil war, and that’s why their decline and fall was inevitable.
A bloated and corrupt administration trying to manage a vast empire with a relatively small standing army. Communication lag of often many weeks or sometimes months. Add this to the Roman passion for infighting and civil war, and that’s why their decline and fall was inevitable.
There are lots of reasons. Internal conflict weakened Rome. Read into the crises of the third century. During that period there were 26 people claiming the title emperor with some holding areas of the Empire. Trade broke down during the crises and society changed due to economic disruptions.
Large parts of the what would become the Western Roman empire started to change at a pretty fundamental level. Trade and the citizens of Rome started to be replaced by large landowners and Coloni, basically the start of feudalism in Western Europe.
The Empire was united by Aurelian but it was on shaky ground. Ultimately the Empire was split into east and west.
The East was the stronger of the two nations. The Western Roman Empire was on shaky ground and economically barely able to sustain itself.
The rest history. Large scale migrations, Germanic tribes that gave a much stronger Rome issues took advantage of it’s weakened state. Former allies like the Franks started to turn on Rome.
The East lasted awhile more. Byzantium lasted technically until the 1400’s though at that point I believe it was pretty much modern day Istanbul, some surrounding land and a few islands.
The fall of Rome was a long process.
There are lots of reasons. Internal conflict weakened Rome. Read into the crises of the third century. During that period there were 26 people claiming the title emperor with some holding areas of the Empire. Trade broke down during the crises and society changed due to economic disruptions.
Large parts of the what would become the Western Roman empire started to change at a pretty fundamental level. Trade and the citizens of Rome started to be replaced by large landowners and Coloni, basically the start of feudalism in Western Europe.
The Empire was united by Aurelian but it was on shaky ground. Ultimately the Empire was split into east and west.
The East was the stronger of the two nations. The Western Roman Empire was on shaky ground and economically barely able to sustain itself.
The rest history. Large scale migrations, Germanic tribes that gave a much stronger Rome issues took advantage of it’s weakened state. Former allies like the Franks started to turn on Rome.
The East lasted awhile more. Byzantium lasted technically until the 1400’s though at that point I believe it was pretty much modern day Istanbul, some surrounding land and a few islands.
The fall of Rome was a long process.
A bloated and corrupt administration trying to manage a vast empire with a relatively small standing army. Communication lag of often many weeks or sometimes months. Add this to the Roman passion for infighting and civil war, and that’s why their decline and fall was inevitable.
Imagine the Roman Empire as a big house. At one point, it was just a tiny shack that pretty much nobody paid attention to. But over time, the shack expanded and grew. It gobbled up more land from its neighbors and built more rooms. This happened again and again until it basically became a three-story mansion.
It was incredibly rich. Suddenly, lots of people in the neighborhood wanted to live in that house and some would be forced to.
At first, the big house had several really good owners. For the most part, they made sure the occupants were happy, wealthy and fed. But most importantly, they made sure to keep expanding the house. However, this couldn’t last forever and the house pretty much stopped expanding during the reign of one of its owners, Trajan. From here on out, a majority of the owners after Trajan would be in maintenance mode; their goal wasn’t to keep building up the house, but to make sure it looked pretty.
There’s only one problem: maintaining a big house requires lots of money and people. You need staff to cook the food, water the garden, clean the sheets, and it isn’t cheap either. To make matters worse, a big house sometimes attracts the attention of jealous neighbors and thieves/robbers. As time went on, the owners became worse and often fought each other for control of the house.
This, in turn, made it easier for the robbers to break in, which they started doing more and more often. Eventually, the house started falling apart. Nobody knew what to do, even though they had lots of fancy things. Fancy things can’t save you if you don’t have power or money. And when the money dried up, the workers started quitting.
As an aside, I want to add that the fall of Rome is somewhat of a misnomer. The western half was definitely carved up by barbarians, but the eastern half survived well into the 1400s – only a few decades before Columbus sailed to America!
Imagine the Roman Empire as a big house. At one point, it was just a tiny shack that pretty much nobody paid attention to. But over time, the shack expanded and grew. It gobbled up more land from its neighbors and built more rooms. This happened again and again until it basically became a three-story mansion.
It was incredibly rich. Suddenly, lots of people in the neighborhood wanted to live in that house and some would be forced to.
At first, the big house had several really good owners. For the most part, they made sure the occupants were happy, wealthy and fed. But most importantly, they made sure to keep expanding the house. However, this couldn’t last forever and the house pretty much stopped expanding during the reign of one of its owners, Trajan. From here on out, a majority of the owners after Trajan would be in maintenance mode; their goal wasn’t to keep building up the house, but to make sure it looked pretty.
There’s only one problem: maintaining a big house requires lots of money and people. You need staff to cook the food, water the garden, clean the sheets, and it isn’t cheap either. To make matters worse, a big house sometimes attracts the attention of jealous neighbors and thieves/robbers. As time went on, the owners became worse and often fought each other for control of the house.
This, in turn, made it easier for the robbers to break in, which they started doing more and more often. Eventually, the house started falling apart. Nobody knew what to do, even though they had lots of fancy things. Fancy things can’t save you if you don’t have power or money. And when the money dried up, the workers started quitting.
As an aside, I want to add that the fall of Rome is somewhat of a misnomer. The western half was definitely carved up by barbarians, but the eastern half survived well into the 1400s – only a few decades before Columbus sailed to America!
Imagine the Roman Empire as a big house. At one point, it was just a tiny shack that pretty much nobody paid attention to. But over time, the shack expanded and grew. It gobbled up more land from its neighbors and built more rooms. This happened again and again until it basically became a three-story mansion.
It was incredibly rich. Suddenly, lots of people in the neighborhood wanted to live in that house and some would be forced to.
At first, the big house had several really good owners. For the most part, they made sure the occupants were happy, wealthy and fed. But most importantly, they made sure to keep expanding the house. However, this couldn’t last forever and the house pretty much stopped expanding during the reign of one of its owners, Trajan. From here on out, a majority of the owners after Trajan would be in maintenance mode; their goal wasn’t to keep building up the house, but to make sure it looked pretty.
There’s only one problem: maintaining a big house requires lots of money and people. You need staff to cook the food, water the garden, clean the sheets, and it isn’t cheap either. To make matters worse, a big house sometimes attracts the attention of jealous neighbors and thieves/robbers. As time went on, the owners became worse and often fought each other for control of the house.
This, in turn, made it easier for the robbers to break in, which they started doing more and more often. Eventually, the house started falling apart. Nobody knew what to do, even though they had lots of fancy things. Fancy things can’t save you if you don’t have power or money. And when the money dried up, the workers started quitting.
As an aside, I want to add that the fall of Rome is somewhat of a misnomer. The western half was definitely carved up by barbarians, but the eastern half survived well into the 1400s – only a few decades before Columbus sailed to America!
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