Kimberly Jakharia November 18, 2013
World History Period 2
"The Fall of the Roman Empire"
Picture yourself in the year 450 BC in Rome. In 450 BC, the Twelve Tables were created, and that is where the idea of the Roman Empire emerged. The Twelve Tables are known as a set of twelve laws to be followed by Romans. Everything was blissful in Rome during this time. However, the Roman Empire soon fell apart. What do you believe caused the Roman Empire to decline? To begin with, there were economic and social problems in the Roman Empire. Furthermore, there were a couple issues with the military of the Roman Empire. Lastly, there were political struggles in the Roman Empire. Obviously, there were other reasons as to why the Roman Empire had fell, but I believe that economic, social, military, and political problems in Rome were the most important reasons as to why the Roman Empire had collapsed.
To begin with, there were economic and social problems in the Roman Empire. The heavy taxes caused the population of the Roman Empire to decline. It states in the Economic and Social Problems paragraph of our textbook: "High taxes to support the army and the bureaucracy placed heavy burdens on business people and small farmers". This clarifies that due to the fact that farmers and small business owners were forced to pay higher taxes, they had had to abandon their land and leave Rome. The small business owners and farmers just did not have enough money to pay the high taxes, so the population of the Roman Empire declined.
Furthermore, there were a couple of issues with the military in the Roman Empire. The Germanic people invaded Rome several times, which lead to the legions of Rome to become weak. However the text states the following: "Still, these attacks were successful in part because Roman legions of the late empire lacked the discipline and training of past Roman armies". This means...