The Fall of the Western Roman Empire: 7-2 by Antonio Baxter

abaxter58 — 2025-02-02 19:21:24 UTC

The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, marking the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Various factors contributed to the collapse including economic troubles, military defeats, political chaos, social upheaval, and external invasions. As a review, discuss with your table partner and answer how each factor played a role in this monumental historical event.

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mlawson84 — 2025-02-03 18:41:10 UTC

There was many emperors fighting each other, as it was often not clear who had the most legitimate claim to the throne.

Civil wars, and competition between emperors

2025-02-03 18:42:40 UTC

Political instability contributed greatly because in order to have a stable empire you need a stable government. In the Western Roman Empire there was quite the opposite. There were often multiple so called emperors claiming they had rights to the throne, causing fights and civil wars between these "emperors."

Concentrated Wealth

krosenbluth — 2025-02-03 18:42:42 UTC

Most of the wealth was concentrated in the Eastern Roman Empire, which had much more resources. For this reason, the west was not as well defended and fell to the Germanic tribes.

sasha, Sadie, Lily

2025-02-03 18:43:01 UTC

The western side of the roman empire could be affected by having too many emperors in the same time period. They couldn't pay attention too other things.

Sarah G Alma G and Meriah

2025-02-03 18:43:04 UTC

When the western and eastern part of the empire split the eastern half got more money and wealth and they had a better plot of land so they could trade and travel better than the western half of the empire. So the western part got targeted more for attacks because there was less military strength/protection.

The Germanic Tribes

2025-02-03 18:43:44 UTC

The Germanic tribes were a threat to the western Roman empire and were hard to fight off. Known to the Romans as "Barbarians" they were seen as outsiders who threatened the Romans constantly. Germanic tribes along the northern border attacked frequently and the Romans had a hard time fighting them because their resources and money were cut off of the more successful eastern Roman empire.

- From us

2025-02-03 18:43:58 UTC

there were two empires the west side and the east side leading to two different contervertial empires who had different thoughts on everything.

Ethan and Elliot

2025-02-03 18:44:15 UTC

There were lots of Roman generals that were fighting for power and fighting to be emperor. This created political Instability because it was kind of like anarchy where no one was actually controlling the empire generals were only fighting to be the emperor.

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mlawson84 — 2025-02-03 18:45:21 UTC

the empire was spread to thin and there were not enough solders to defend the boarders. Additionally, they were constantly fighting each other in civil wars, significantly weakening their forces. because of this, Rome was forced to hire mercenaries, who were not loyal to Rome.

Sasha, Sadie and Lily

2025-02-03 18:45:26 UTC

The funding went towards the eastern side and less too the western side. Also wasn't a great trading location like it used to be.

Lack of Armies

2025-02-03 18:46:13 UTC

Rome put more of their armies in the eastern empire leaving the western empire less protected and more easily attackable. Many mercenaries joined the armies because they were paid not because they wanted to help. This gave the armies less incentive to fight and do well.

Lots of different Emperors

2025-02-03 18:46:17 UTC

There were many different emperors in a short period of time which led to a lot of civil wars and confusion for the people of the Roman Empire which distracted them from other problems.

Wealth

2025-02-03 18:46:17 UTC

Some parts of the Roman Empire were more wealthy then others created an unstable Western half and a more wealthy and stable Eastern Half. This meant that the West was easier to invade, and there for was conquered more easily. This is why the East lasted longer.

EREZ and uri

2025-02-03 18:46:44 UTC

Most of the Roman empire's army and wealth were based in the Eastern Roman empire in places like Greece and Constantinople. Many Roman people didn't feel an civic duty to serve in the army, instead they pursued wealth in the east.

Ethan and Elliot

2025-02-03 18:46:57 UTC

The western Roman empire didn't have as good of a location as the east because a lot of the main trade centers throughout the Roman Empire were focused in the Eastern empire because of its location having islands and being near popular bodies of water for traders. Constantine moved the capitol to the east side which attracted more traders.

Sarah G Alma G Meriah

2025-02-03 18:47:15 UTC

When the two halves of the empire split the eastern half got more wealth so the empire wanted to protect it more against attacks which left the western part with little to no protection so the western part of the empire was targeted more for attacks, which led to the fall of the western half of the empire.

The Empire was split in two

2025-02-03 18:47:56 UTC

The Empire was split into two parts. Since the west was a lot poorer then the east there was unbalance in the Roman empire and the west got attacked by Germanic tribes.

2025-02-03 18:48:02 UTC

there was more resources in the east and less in the west and the east was better for trading.

Sasha, Sadie, and Lily

2025-02-03 18:48:15 UTC

There was a lot of chaos when the western side had too many leaders, causing the military to have less importance to the emperors. The capital was relocated to the eastern side, making it harder to attack under western hands.

Ethan and Elliot

epollack10 — 2025-02-03 18:50:14 UTC

The Roman Empire was too large of a territory to defend, so there weren't enough soldiers to defend the borders. Also, it was expensive to hire a lot of soldiers and the empire didn't have enough money to do other important things.

No religious acceptance

2025-02-03 18:50:35 UTC

The western Roman empire was still very pagan by the time christianity was a thing. This means that christians who traveled or lived in the western empire weren't really accepted. This lead to splits between people because of their religion meaning that the social connections of people were weakened even more and this was not good for the western empire and took part in the fall of the Western empire.

Public Health

krosenbluth — 2025-02-03 18:50:52 UTC

There was much sickness in the Roman Empire, largely due to the fact that many people couldn't afford food. For this reason, a significant portion of people couldn't contribute to the economy and defending the empire.

Too large of a Teritory

2025-02-03 18:51:13 UTC

The Roman empire was so vast that they did not have enough troops to cover the whole empire. They placed most of their troops in the eastern half because it had more wealth leaving the West open to invasions. The Germanic tribes new that the West was unstable, and they saw their opening so they invaded. Since most of the troops were stationed in the East they couldnt defend.

Michael AND JACOB

2025-02-03 18:52:03 UTC

the woman and children in the empire had less rights than male landowners, and some were becoming slaves.

Germanic Tribes

krosenbluth — 2025-02-03 18:53:22 UTC

There were many Germanic Tribes to the north of the Roman Empire who began invading the weakened western empire. This was easier for them because they made up a significant portion of the army, and therefore a significant portion of the army was not loyal to Rome

Religion

2025-02-03 18:53:45 UTC

Their were many religions in the Empire, and some of these religions were not accepted. Christianity was not accepted and they were persecuted. This lead to unrest from both sides, therefore causing civil wars, weakening the empire.

EREZ And uri

2025-02-03 18:54:00 UTC

Cities in the west were not as big or wealthy as the cites in the east. They weren't near trade routes and after the capital was moved, their was even less wealth in it because the wealthy left causing more economic problems.

michael is cool

2025-02-03 18:54:22 UTC

the military wasn't as strong as it was because they weren't getting paid as much as they were before because they were not conquering as much as they were and the soldiers get payed with the money of the losing armys money