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Carlos S. Martinez
Dr.Griffin
English 12
30 April 2014
The rise and fall of the Roman Empire
The reason for the writing of this paper is to inform the readers more about the rise and
the fall of the Roman Empire. One reason why Rome gained its power was because they had
more control of the Mediterranean Sea, Rome conquered most of the land around the
Mediterranean Sea, including major empires such as Carthage, Greeks, Syria, Persia and Egypt.
The Germanic people that were to the north fought back against Rome so they didnt join the
republic. The Germanic people were a large group composed of many tribes combined into one,
when the romans attacked the Germanic people fought back and eventually won against Rome.
Sometimes a downfall is the start to the rise of something better.
Although this may be true a kingdom is never picture perfect and has its flaws. The
Roman Empire not only had problems like Barbarian groups such as Goths trying to attack and
in 410 the Visigoth King Alaric successfully raided the city of Rome, then again in 455 by
vandals and finally in 476, the Germanic leader Odoacer staged a revolt against the Emperor,
Emperor Romulus Augustulus. A point that is overlooked is that the Roman Empire also had
internal conflicts as much as exterior problems. Rome had financial problems when they were
fighting off the other groups trying to take over the city. As the expansion of the empire started
happening they lost a grip of its economy, the economy depended on slaves to till its fields and
work as craftsmen. The expansion of war devastated the economy even more because the supply
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and demand grew and grew. The slaves that the romans used were the people that they
conquered over, but later in the fifth century vandals started taking over north of Africa. The
taking over of North Africa disrupted the trade with Rome because the vandals were now pirates
by prowling the Mediterranean Sea causing the beginning of the fall of Rome.
Just as the economy started decaying, another internal conflict that played a role in the
fall of the Roman Empire was religion. The new religion that started taking over was known as
Christianity, Christianity was monotheistic which meant the belief of only one god. Christianity
was a problem in Rome because in the city they were polytheistic the belief of more than one
god, this was starting to be a problem because most of the poor peasants of Rome were Christian.
As a result of the poor peasants believing in Christianity the Roman emperor Constantine the
Great ended all persecution and allowed toleration for Christianity among the city. After all the
commotion that the new religion brought it eventually became the official state religion on all
corners of the empire. Another mistake that made Rome fall apart faster was that because of the
new religion the people of Rome now didnt have to obey the emperor because of the belief of
one god not many. The people of Rome made the emperor weak and with no authority to the
people, so emperor Constantine the Great decided he would split the Roman Empire into two, the
western half centered in Rome and the eastern half centered in Constantinople, a city he named
after himself.
As a result of the separation of the empire, the western part of the empire was declining.
Their economy started to crash, there was a decrease in agriculture production which led to
higher food prices. The western part of the empire also started to trade with the east, they would
get luxurious things from the east but had nothing to offer back, they started making more coins
but with less silver content in them leading to inflation within the city. As the economy crashed,
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they hired cheaper soldiers the Germanic people to fight in Romes army so they could fight
against their fellow tribesmen. Eventually the army was too weak and Rome got invaded by
different tribes such as isigoths, Vandals, Angles, Saxons and many more, Eventually the
invaders started settling down in areas that they had taken over starting towns around the city of
Rome. The last Roman emperor of the west, was overthrown by the Germanic leader Odoacer,
who was the first barbarian to rule over Rome.
In the final analysis the conclusion of it all was that Rome had more than one problem
that led to the fall of the empire that caused mostly the western part of it to fall off. The religion
differences and the economic differences between the eastern and the western part of the empire
was one of the main reasons why the great empire ended. Another reason was the geographic
layout of both the eastern had a good place because they had the peninsula that could be
defended easily, and because it was in the frontiers it was easy to defend and respond to external
attacks. Also the eastern side was led by Constantine the great, which was very organized and in
order. The western side was unorganized and it led to the fall of the western part of Rome,
everything was chaos and they had more internal problems than finance. In the long run Romes
empire was defeated and only the eastern part of Rome stands proudly.



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Work Cite
Evans Andrews
8 Reasons why Rome fell
www.History.com
Evan Andrews January 14, 2014
Online
Monday, 28 April 2014
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-reasons-why-rome-fell


Ancient Rome
http://www.ushistory.org
Online
Tuesday, 29 April 2014
http://www.ushistory.org/civ/6f.asp