Causes of the fall of the Roman Empire

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In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to talk about causes of the fall of the Roman Empire, an empire that dominated much of Europe and North Africa among the S I a. C.- V d. C. Officially, the Roman Empire begins in the year 27 BC. C. moment in which Augustus takes control of all the territories that the Roman republic possessed and turns it into an Empire. It ended in AD 476. C. when the last emperor of Rome is deposed, Romulus Augustus (a boy of only 15 years old) who was deposed by Odoacer, head of the tribe of Heruli. Read on and you will learn about all the reasons that led to the disappearance of the Roman Empire and allowed the construction of a more fragmented Europe and the division of languages.

Index

1. Main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire
2. The economy in the Roman Empire
3. Politics in the Roman Empire
4. Society in the Roman Empire
5. Consequences of the fall of the Roman Empire

There came a time when the Roman Empire became a great compendium of territories, almost impractical with the form of government so centralized that the emperors had carried out until now. That is why the emperor Theodosius (379-395) at his death bequeathed his two sons Arcadius and Honorius the Empire, thus dividing it in two (this reminds the Germanic thought in which the chiefs divided their properties among all the children, giving us an idea that everything was Changing).

In this way Rome ceased to be totally united, because little by little their policies, their economy and even their way of seeing religion were changing. In this summary of the fall of the Roman Empire We will be looking at the causes of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, leaving the Eastern Roman Empire or the so-called Byzantine Empire for another lesson.

In this video of a PROFESSOR we discover the fall of the Roman Empire and the entry of the Visigoths to Spain.

In this section we will synthesize the most important points of the Empire to understand in an easy way where it was destined the economy of said empire. The economic policy carried out since the beginning of the conquests of the republic in Rome, was to remove the rest provinces and territories conquered everything of value that the land could offer (mines, wood, food) and send it to the capital.

With the advance of time, already in the Lower Empire, we will see that the emperors were in need of protect the border / limex from the invasions that were taking place due to the advance of the towns Germans. Thus they bet the legions on the border but these had to be fed, maintained and paid for of course. For this reason, a large part of what came from the provinces was sent to the limex to be able to calm all the soldiers that he had posted.

Second we will find quite a luxurious trade that was brought from the east, through the so-called silk route, by which the rich citizens of the empire, calmed their luxuries. All this caused the valuable coins of the Empire to come out of it, leaving its coffers quite affected.

Therefore we will find that it was a deficit economy that was lost between the abuses of the richest and the maintenance of the expensive Roman army.

Here you have a summary of the Holy Roman Empire in case you want to know a little better the essence of this important empire that so marked the evolution of our society and culture.

Image: historical screen

In politics we will find great chaos because, already in the Lower Empire, a spiral of depositions of emperors was entered, due to the little military force that they had and to the power games of the barbarian chiefs who were linking with members of the Roman aristocratic families and who sought only their own benefit.

To this we must add that the Lower Empire was a time in which new territories stopped being annexed due to, among other things, the lack of resources that we mentioned above. Thus, a fixed border was established that they had to defend by posting the legions there, but with the passage of time, that border began to recede by leaps and bounds. By the time the last Roman emperor is removed, we can say that Rome did not rule even the Italian peninsula.

Image: historical screen

Within the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire we have to talk about the change that took place within society. The first to notice it were the humiliores (peasants / artisans), they were suffering more and more from the tax increases of the State, which urgently needed to collect in kind (food, tools, weapons ...).

Therefore, in order to escape from obligations, since they did not even have to live, they decided cede the lands to the honorati(landlords) to work them as leased, in exchange they also received the protection of the new lord of the lands, before the abuses of the imperial agents, who could not do anything against this group, since they did not pay taxes.

As we have mentioned earlier in this summary of the fall of the Roman Empire, the chiefs and important men of the barbarian tribes that entered the border and that were forming the future European kingdoms, were having marriage contracts with the aristocracy Roman.

To finish we will make a small summary with the most important, the consequences of the fall of the Roman Empire, it was the ambition of the aristocrats themselves to obtain more land that made the State not have means to collect taxes among the population, in addition to refusing to pay anything to the state for safeguard it.

That made them make favorable deals with the Germanic tribes that were entering so as not to lose their properties, which ended up wearing down the Empire. By last the crisis of the emperors, into which they entered, made them only puppets of the barbarian chiefs and when they ceased to be useful, they were assassinated.

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