Why did the western roman empires fall?

Answer 1

The main factor which led to the fall of the western part of the Roman Empire were the invasions by Germanic peoples in the 5th century AD, who took over all the lands of the empire except for Italy (which was also invaded, but a century later). The empire collapsed under the weight of these invasions. It lost political cohesion and there was infighting and many usurpations.

The Roman army found it difficult to defend the vast frontiers of the empire, which were being attacked both in the west and the east. It became overstretched as it had to be deployed in the areas under attack by redeploying troops form other, often distant, areas, leaving these other areas vulnerable. Peoples from across the border often took advantage of this.

Moreover, the invasions consisted of migrations of whole peoples, not just military actions by a restricted number of soldiers. Mitigation movements by several peoples into northern and central Europe had created population pressure on the land and an overspill of migrations into the empire.

Answer 2

The western part of the Roman empire disintegrated over a period of 70-80 years under the strain of the invasion of Gaul by the Vandals, Sueves and Alans and of Lorraine and the Swiss plateau by the Alemanni in 406. The Romans lost political cohesion. There was a civil war which led to the failure to respond to these invasions. The Vandals, who reached Tunisia, became a thorn in the side, raiding the coasts of Italy in the west and Greece in the east. There was also loss of land to the Visigoths, who had been allowed to settle in the eastern part of the empire in 380 and moved to southwestern France in the 410s, established their independence from the Romans and expanded their kingdom into Spain. As more land lost the treasury of this part of the empire lost revenues. There were failed attempts to defeat the Vandals and the Visigoths which were also very costly. Eventually central authority collapsed. There were king makers, a high turnover of emperors and the eastern empire meddled in the politics of the west. By 486 all the lands of this part of the empire were lost.

More specifically:

1) The loss of unity between the western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire. This was caused by Theodosius I being succeeded by his two underage sons (Arcadius in the east and Honorius in the west) who were inexperienced and incompetent. This resulted in politicians in the east and west conspiring against each other, instead of maintaining unity and the situation came close to civil war in 407. The situation was further compounded by the invasions in the west by the Germanic peoples. The west found itself with having to deal with this on its own, especially after the failure of a combine expedition by the eastern and western navies against the Vandal in Tunisia failed. The expedition had been very expensive, involving 10,000 soldiers and 1,000 ships. The fleet of the west was captured and the fleet of the east was destroyed by using fire ships. After this there were no combined West-East military operation.

2) The conflict with the Visigoths, who had been allowed to settle in the eastern part of the Roman Empire to escape the invasion of their homeland in Ukraine by the Huns in 380. In 395 Alaric I, a Visigoth king had grievances with the imperial government in the east. He marched on Constantinople and the eastern Romans, who were fending off raids by the Huns in what is not Turkey and in Syria, relied on the intervention of Stilicho. However, Stilicho was ordered to leave and Alaric penetrated deep into Greece. Two years later he was trapped by Stilicho but managed to escape and continued to plunder Greece. Stilicho was suspected of connivance with Alaric. The latter was given a generalship to appease him. In 401 he invaded Italy to petition for allowing his people to settle nearer Rome, but was defeated in 402 and retreated to Illyricum (on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea). Stilicho plotted to use Alaric's troop to seize Illyricum form the eastern empire. On the death of Arcadius, the eastern emperor, Honorius, the western emperor, and Alaric demanded compensation for his expenses. Stilicho was executed and Honorius refused to negotiated. As a result, Alaric besieged Rome three times (408, 409 and 410). On the third occasion the Visigoths asked Rome. The situation with the Visigoths highlighted the divisions between the western and eastern romans and the vulnerability of Italy.

3) Attempted invasion of Italy by Radagasius, a king of the Ostrogoths in 406. Stilicho managed to gather a force large enough to repel this invasion. Some Roman troops were redeployed from the frontier of the empire along the River Rhine in northern Gaul to Italy. This weakened the frontier and made it easier for the Vandals, Sueves and Alans to cross the frozen River Rhine and invade Gaul in 406

Invasions.

4) The Invasion of Gaul. In December 406 the Alemanni, crossed the frozen River Rhine. They then took over the Swiss Plateau and Alsace (in north-eastern France). In the same year the Vandals, Suevesand Alans reached the River Rhine. They were resisted by the Franks who lived in the area and were defeated in a first battle, but won a second battle and in December they crossed the frozen river and begun their invasion of Gaul. They ravaged Gaul for three years and eight months and then moved into Spain in 409. The Vandals and Alans then crossed into to Africa in 429 and by 439 they established the Kingdom of the Vandals with Carthage, in in Tunisia, as its capital. From there they launched many disruptive raids on the coasts of Italy and Greece. In 411 the Burgundianstook advantage of civil war among the Romans in Gaul to settle on the bank of the River Rhine in the area of today's Worms (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). As part of a truce, they were granted land and given the status of allies by the emperor Honorius. However, due to repeated raids in the area, they were resettled in the Savoy area of eastern Gaul by the Romans in 443. However, they soon established their impendence and started to interfere with the politics of the western part of the Roman Empire, farther contributing with its destabilisation.

5) Under the strain of the invasions, the western empire lost political cohesion. There was a lot of infighting and a string of usurpations. This played in the hands of the invaders by weakening the Romans further and by allowing them to pay the different Roman factions off against each other. In 407, a year after the invasion of Gaul, there was a revolt in Britain and a local military man Constantine III, staged a coup, invaded Gaul with the legions of Britannia and installed himself there as a usurper emperor. There was civil war in Gaul and Spain and for four years the Romans fought each other instead of the invaders. Then in northern Gaul Jovinus was proclaimed a puppet emperor with the support of some Gallo-Roman aristocrats. |He was of the kings of the Burgundians and the Alans in northern Gaul. The Burgundians took advantage of this to cross the frontier of the empire and set up a kingdom. He was defeated by Ataulf, the new king of the Visigoths who allied with the emperor Honorius.

After the death of Honorius, Valentinian III reigned for 30 years (425-55). His commander-in-chief of the army, with the help of the Franks and Visigoths, replied an attempted invasion by the Huns in 451. The next year the Huns had to abandon and invasion of Italy. However, Valentinian murdered Aethius and then he was assassinated. Majorian (reigned 457-61) was the last capable emperor in the west. He defeated the Visigoths, who had formed a kingdom in south-western France, and the Burgundians, which both had become independent from the Romans. He then defeated the Sueves in north-western Hispania. All these peoples became subordinate allies of the Romans. He pushed further into \Spain, retaking it from the Vandals. However, an expedition to the Vandal territory in Africa was thwarted when his fleet was destroyed by treachery.

6) As the western empire disintegrated there were Germanic kingmakers and intervention of the Eastern Roman Empire and a high turnover of western emperors. Majorian was deposed by Ricimer, one of the Romanised Germanics who were enlisted in the army and rose through the ranks. He became the commander-in-chief of the Roman army in the west. He used this position and the influence he had among the Germanics in the former part of the empire to bolster his power and appointed three puppet emperors while he held the real power. He set up Majorian and deposed him because he had proved he was independent. He then set up Libius Severus, who died in 465, probably murdered by him. the next emperor, Anthemius (467-472), a former commander-in-chief of the eastern army, was chosen by Leo I, the eastern emperor and sent to Italy with an army. He organised an expedition against the Vandals by the western army, but the fleet was defeated in battle. This emptied the coffers of the western treasury. He then organised two campaigns against the Visigoths who took advantage of lack of Roman control to expand their hols in southwestern France, but both forces were also defeated. Ricimer then waged war on Anthemius, deposed him and installed Olybrius as a puppet emperor. Ricemer died five months later and Gundobad, his nephew, became commander-in-chief of the army and the new kingmaker. Olybrius died two months after this. Gundobad installed Glycerius as a puppet emperor, who lasted for one year and three months. He managed to repel an invasion of Italy by the Visigoths. However, the Visigoths took much of south-eastern France. Glycerius was not recognised by Leo I, who chose his nephew Julius Nepos, who was sent to Italy by the emperor Zeno after Leo I died. Gycerius fled without fighting. Just over a year later Nepos was deposed by his commander-in-chief, Orestes, who refused to become emperor for unknown reasons and appointed Romulus Augustus, his fourteen-year-old son as emperor. Romulus was deposed one year later, in 476, by Odoacer, who led Germanic troops in Italy which rebelled because Orestes refused to grant them land to settle in Italy. Odoacer styled himself king of Italy and pledged and gave the title of emperor of the west to Zeno, the eastern emperor, who accepted this and recognised Odoacer's rule over Italy. However, thirteen years late, in 489, Zeno offered Italy to his ally, Theoderic the Great, the king of the Ostrogoths (who had been allowed to settle in this part of the empire) if he deposed Odoacer. Zeno wanted to get rid of this powerful ally in the east. After four years of war Theoderic defeated Odoacer and established the Ostrogoth kingdom in Italy. In 486 Clovis I, the king of the Franks, took over the last land of the Romans in the west, the rump state of the Domain of Soissons.