What caused the western roman empire to fall?

Answer 1

the celts

Answer 2

The notable historian Edward Gibbon attributes the decline and fall of the Roman Empire to the "insidious effects of Christianity". Edward Gibbon thought Christianity is to be blamed for the decline and ultimate fall of the Roman Empire. He actually calls Christianity's role in the fall of Rome "the triumph of superstition". But it is interesting that the process Gibbon refers to took four hundred years - considering that Christianity was born around 33 AD and Rome finally fell in 400 AD. This is a long period indeed to provide a mortal illness and collapse of Rome. By all means there should be other factors other than Christianity that caused the Roman Empire to fall.

Unlike Gibbon, most present day historians concentrate not on Christianity, but on social and economic factors and that is reasonable because those issues can be measured and traced for some extent.

One of the most striking versions of the fall of the Roman Empire focuses on all the fertile soil - upland farms - well-drained and irrigated areas owned by landlords and passed over to their offspring over generations. The poorer areas, especially the marsh lands, were left to the peasants. In these marshes malaria and mosquitoes bred. The disease and the poverty that resulted from these drove the victims into the cities where they spread the infections and perhaps that contributed to the fact that most Roman politicians, if you look at their statues closely, were of a feverish kind. So according to this theory, malaria, joined perhaps by smallpox or some other plague, moved outward to the frontiers of the empire, decimating the garrisons, depopulating the towns, and eventually leading to the final breakthrough of the barbarians. If this theory is true, then the Roman Empire was actually destroyed by mosquitoes.

I believe that the lack of religious freedom in ancient Rome it caused the fall of the Roman Empire

Another View:

While a highly plausible cause, religious intolerance was hardly the sole factor in the fall of the empire. Poor leadership, massive demographic shifts (i.e. barbarian populations moving south), and a wide variety of issues all contributed to the fall of the empire in the west. Keep in mind that the Eastern Roman Empire (modern Egypt, Greece, Turkey, etc.) would continue to thrive for several centuries and remain as the Byzantine Empire until the 15th century. The fall of the Roman Empire is primarily a western affair.

Another View:

The lack of religious freedom is imaginary. Rome tolerated all religions that were not destructive of social and political harmony. Religious intolerance is a product of the offshoots of Judaism seeking to impose a single religion, but this was later when Christianity and Islam were able to impose dominance in the territories they controlled.

The Roman Empire was limited to defensible boundaries by Augustus in the late First Century BCE, and as long as these could be held, there was a chance of maintaining a degree of social harmony and prosperity. The westward movement of a succession of peoples into the Empire from eastern Europe and Asia - the Germanics, the Goths, Vandals, Bulgars, Franks, etc etc, then Turks and other Asiatics, were an unstoppable force which inevitably overran first Western, then South-Eastern Europe. While internal disputes and social factors did not help internal cohesion and resistance, the movement of peoples simply over-ran the Empire and different ethnics and regimes were substituted for the Roman gegemony and pax romana.

The Western Empire was gone by the sixth century BCE, but the Eastern Empire hung on for nearly another thousand years until overwhelmed by the Ottoman Turks. In all this, religion, politics etc was background noise, not the major force.

The causes for the fall of the Roman empire are many and if anyone tries to list them they are bound to leave something out. Some of them are the weakness of the military, the corruption and/or weakness of political leaders, the lack of revenue, pressure on the borders and lead poisoning. There was no one cause. It was a culmination of many causes that brought about the fall of the western empire.

A steady stream of demented dictators didn't help.

Other reasons include: Dictatorship (emperors were bad leaders, yet they could not be voted out of office); the spread of Christianity (unlike Roman religion, it was popular with slaves, the poor, and women); wars with hostile peoples (trade was disrupted, economic decline); Rome hired its conquered peoples to be soldiers (Visigoths were not loyal to Rome, and as they became responsible for running the army, Rome lost control of its provinces); social unrest (Rome needed the army to suppress poor riotors, yet the money that paid the army came from taxes, which made the poor even poorer and the rich even richer, the gap just got bigger and bigger).

The western part of the Roman Empire crumbled under the weight of the invasions by the Germanic peoples. The eastern part of this empire was not affected by these invasions and continued to exist for nearly 1000 years.

Answer 3

The term the fall of Rome refers to the fall of the western part of the Roman Empire. This was a process which took several decades, rather than a set of events. The process was determined by more than three factors. It was precipitated by the invasions by the Germanic peoples (the Vandals, the Sueves) and the Alans (who were Iranian speakers) who invaded the empire and took over north-western Africa and part of Spain, the Alemanni who took over Switzerland and northwester France and the Burgundians who settled in east France The loss of the agricultural rich territory in Africa lead to a significant loss in revenue for the Roman government. The Visigoths, another Germanic people, who had been allowed to settle in the eastern part of the Roman Empire and then moved to south-western France,took advantage of the situation to take over Hispania (Spain and Portugal). The Romans lost political unity. There were usurpations and infighting which made it difficult to respond to the invasions effectively. There was also a failure by the combined fleet of the western and eastern part of the Roman Empire to dislodge the Vandals from Africa. It ended in disaster and was very costly. The Romans army became reliant on Germanic soldiers and two Germanic commanders-in chief of the Roman army and installed puppet emperors (three by Ricimer, one by Gundobad and one by Orestes.Amidst this political instability, the reign of the last emperors was short.

Answer 4

Invasions by Germanic tribes (Vandals, Alans Sueves, Visigoths, Burgundians, Alemanni, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Lombards). They took over the regions of the empire. Some areas of Italy, Africa and Spain were retaken by the Romans of the East. The Ostrogoths took over Italy, Austria and the former Yugoslavia. Their fist king's aim was to revive Roman culture and institutions. Things changed with the next kings and the Gothic Wars between them and the Romans of the East developed.

Answer 5

The event that most commonly marks the end of the Western Roman Empire is the overthrow of the Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus by the German Foederati. In 470 AD, the Eastern Roman Emperor Leo I sent his nephew Julius Nepos to be the new Western Roman Emperor amidst the chaos started in the West by the General Ricimer. Nepos is then driven out of Italy by the General of the Roman Army Orestes. Orestes then places his son, Romulus Augustulus, on the throne of the Western Roman Emperor, but with himself making the decisions. The Eastern Roman Empire refused to recognize Augustulus and Orestes as the true rulers, and almost go to war. The Western Roman Empire's barbarian mercenaries, having not been paid in some time, petition Orestes for land to be given to them. When Orestes refused the petition, the barbarian mercenaries, known as the German Foederati, call for a revolt against Orestes to take place. The German Foederati then names their highest general, a Scirian named Odoacer, their leader. Odoacer captures the then capital city of Ravenna and kills Orestes. The Foederati spare Augustulus, and send him away to the south of Italy to live. Odoacer is named the first King of Italy, and rules until his overthrow by the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great.

Answer 6

A variety of factors led to the fall of the Western half of the Roman Empire:

Firstly, there was little more land the Empire could viably expand into, meaning that it could no longer use the resources of newly conquered lands to boost their economy, simply because there were no more newly conquered lands. As a result, more and more money was minted which led to rapid inflation, which further weakened the trading power and economy of the Empire.

Secondly, there was an increasingly small proportion of slaves to help maintain the empire; increasing amounts of people from captured colonies were taking advantage of their rights and becoming citizens. As a result, the number of slaves were spread too thinly across such a vast Empire. As the Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to the Eastern city of Constantinople (quite egotistically!), less focus was placed on the Western half of the Empire.

As a result of this, various tribes such as the Visigoths realised the vulnerability of Rome, and so attacked it, significantly damaging its infrastructure. Various other tribes also saw this, and soon the Roman colonies in Britain, Spain and Northern Africa all fell. The Western Roman eventually fell in AD476 when it was sacked by the vandals. The senate at the time was also very corrupt.

Answer 7

There was not an immediate cause for the fall of the western part of the Roman Empire because this was a process which lasted more than 60 years, rather than an event. It can be said that this part of the Roman Empire crumbled under the weight of the invasions by the Germanic peoples.

Answer 8

Social, economic, religious, and military factors

Answer 9

my balls