World history is enriched with several great civilizations. However, no empire drew as much attention as the Roman Empire because it was the center of ancient time’s innovation, culture, and military prowess. The domain of the Roman Empire was extensive. Founded in 625 BC, by 117 AD, the empire reached its pinnacle occupying three continents including most of Europe, Asia Minor, and northern Africa. The Empire’s 500 years of reigning left many legacies including the birth of several major languages of modern times- Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Romanian-all are offshoots of the Latin language, modern Western Alphabet, and Calendar, and the rise of Christianity as a major religion. This article’s primary objective is to dissect the key causes that were responsible for the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the impacts of this collapse that lasted for subsequent centuries.
Internal Causes of Decline
Political Instability
Political instability was the main factor significantly leading to the decline of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire witnessed unprecedented political turmoil due to the following reasons
Dynastic Instability
No specific rules were in place about the transfer of power from the incumbent ruler to his successor led to intense power struggles among the ruling class which significantly destabilized the Roman dynasty.
Enfeebled Central Authority
Frequent power change at the center coupled with internecine activities of the elite class significantly weakened the power of central authority of the Roman Empire making it vulnerable to external threats.
Perfidious Military
The lack of loyalty among the Roman soldiers was a problem. They were often involved in attacking their government making it highly unstable.
The Lack of Faith in Authority
People were suspicious about getting the right justice from the authorities which often prompted them to take the matter into their own hands leading to extensive disruptions in everyday life.
Corruption
Corruption among the ruling class resulted in significant suffering for the general people impacting them with inflation, diseases, and starvation.
Civil Wars
People resorted to civil wars to overthrow the corrupt ruler but it helped invading Germanic tribes to conquer the Empire.
Departing from the representative government to an authoritarian regime was another reason for political instability in the Roman Empire.
Economic Troubles
The common reasons often emphasized for the decline and the collapse of the Roman Empire are political instability, external threats, corrupt rulers, diseases, high inflation, and moral decay. However, what often gets less importance in this discussion is how the poor economic condition of the Empire was also equally responsible for its collapse. The Roman economy was mainly dependent on agricultural products. To increase the revenue of the Empire, its rulers moved agricultural products along with other products produced by artisans, and merchants to taxable items resulting in a price hike of these essential products. To further exacerbate the inflation, the government of the Empire issued new currency to fund its war budget and public projects.
In the second century, the Empire also experienced a labor shortage resulting from its inability to expand further, preventing it from capturing more slaves and war captives. The Empire’s economy received another blow in the fifth century when vandals disrupted its trade by pirating in the Mediterranean. Lastly, the Empire lost the confidence of potential investors due to uncertainty around the government making the investment highly risky.
While the Roman rulers were busy dealing with other matters when their economy was in free fall and may not grasp the harsh consequences economic disaster, indeed it was their stupid economy that was the real culprit of their ultimate collapse.
Military Challenges
Decline in Discipline and Loyalty Reliance on Mercenaries
It was not any external forces that destroyed the once mighty Roman military, rather than several internal factors that caused the real damage and ultimately resulted its abolishment. The Empire was riddled troubles like political instability, frequent power struggles, and the assassinations of Emperors which negatively impacts on military’s effectiveness, and made it vulnerable to invading forces.
During the golden age of Roman military, it achieved significant victories against foes such as Celts, parthians, and Germanic tribes, and helped the Roman Empire to occupy vast territories. The Roman military success was largely attributed to maintaing strict discipline and morality. However, when elitism, and corruption became the new normal of the military, a widening gap occured between the common soldiers and elites resulted in disappearance of morality and discipline in Roman forces. The consequences of this lost morality and broken discipline were the transformation of once might Roman forces into a weakened forces unable to defend the vast Roman Empire.
The Roman military’s decline was cemented by over reliance on the mercenaries. As the Empire grew to an unprecedented extent, the government find it difficult to hire new recruits from native Roman citizens forcing it to employ foreign troops which eventually became a leading cause of the Empire’s collapse. Mercenaries were more effective and motivated than the Roman soldiers, however, they were disloyal to the Empire, and mercenary officers were power-hungry often revolted against the native Roman officers.
An overwhelming number of foreign troops were allowed to enroll in the Roman military, which made the native troops a minor group with less participation in combat duty while the former became a major group with more assigned duty.
Several social issues also contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire which includes
Corruption
At the end of the last few centuries, the Roman Empire was unlucky as it was ruled by corrupt, and inept Emperors. Corruption was the main driving force of the Empire’s collapse. Inflation, poor rich gap, starvation, diseases – all are the results of corruption. All of these problems worked together to accelerate the Empire’s collapse.
Social Unrest
Social harmony or peaceful living of rich and poor side by side in ancient Roman communities became impossible with the widening gap between rich and poor. When wealthy people lived a pompous life filled with luxury and indulgence while their poor counterparts starved, social unrest ensued. Simmering anger of the lower classes erupted by the slave revolts of Sparatacas.
Cultural Decline
The Roman’s unique culture was lost due to the influxes of various cultures. When the Romans lost their unique identity as a unified Roman nation, it helped the invaders attack the empire, crippling it significantly.
External Pressures and Invasions
While the Roman Empire became fragile primarily due to corruption, political instability, social unrest, and inapt Emperors, the final sacking of the imperial Rome occurred by the outsider invading forces. Rome was in a state of constant conflict with the Germanic tribes for centuries, however, the Empire got a threatening jolt by the third AD when the barbarian group Goths crossed the Empire’s border and occupied much of the territories.
The Romans failed a Germanic attempt by the late 4th century but by 410 AD, it received a death blow when it lost the city of Rome to Visigoth king Alaric. After the loss of Rome, the Empire’s next several decades were spent on the knife edge of invasion before the nightmare came into reality by 455 AD when the Vandals besieged it. The final curtain of the Roman Empire fell by 476 AD when the Germanic leader Odoacer dethroned the Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus and formally ended the Western Empire.
Consequences of the Fall
Political Fragmentation
The fall of the Roman Empire dissolved Europe’s existing political structure and resulted in several political ramifications including
Obsolesence of the Centralized power system
The abolishment of the Roman Empire’s centralized power system left a power vacuum which were filled by smaller, discreet, independent entities.
Emergence of Feudalism
With the disappearance of the powerful central authority, different political, religious, economic, and military groups emerged, starting intense infighting to achieve their respective interests.
Birth of Germanic Kingdoms
The fall of the Roman Empire led to the birth of several Germanic kingdoms and other regional powers.
Europe Exploded
Europe exploded into modern nation-states, languages, and identities with little respect or cordial relationship, and rather fierce hostility that persisted until the end of World War II.
Cultural and Economic Shifts
The fall of the Roman Empire had several significant impacts on Europe’s economy, and culture which include
Economic Troubles
The Empire’s collapse impacted Europe’s economy in several ways. The supply of slaves stopped, resulting in severe labor shortages. The production of agricultural products which were the main products of Europe’s economy nose-dive due to the shortages of manpower in agrarian sector.
Impact on Culture
The fall of the Roman Empire brought core changes in Europe’s culture. Due to the influx of other cultures, Roman culture lost its identity. Another outcome of Roman rule was the widespread use of the Latin language in Europe.
A host of both internal and external factors were responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire. The principal reasons for the collapses are political instability, economic troubles, and invasion by external forces. However, there is no Empire in the World’s history that lasts forever. Emperors and ancient Roman people may felt pride if they knew only a few civilizationss were as great as their.
