What are the reasons for the fall of the roman empire?

Question

TheFlak38 · Accepted Answer

"For centuries, scholars have debated how the Roman Empire, once so mighty and powerful, could have come to an end. Explanations have included a lack of morals, economic overexertion, or that the empire became too unwieldy to administer.

All of these explanations have ignored the real cause of the dissolution of Roman power, namely that the Romans themselves disappeared, submerged among a mass of foreigners. The driver for this submersion was the reality that Rome was a slave driven economy and society. At the time of Augustus, for example, fully one-third of the population of Rome and Italy were of slave extraction, some two million people out of a total population of six million. Simple demographics was the cause of the collapse of Rome.

Rome fell because the original people who created the empire disappeared. They were submerged into a mass of foreigners, replaced by immigrants and the descendants of slaves brought in from all over North Africa, the wider Mediterranean, and the Middle East.
The vast number of Arabic and mixed-racial types present in the Middle East and North Africa were all put through the Romanizing process. Within the space of a few decades they were allowed to elect senators to the Roman senate in Rome, and their sheer weight of numbers meant that true Romans soon made up a minority of senators in the capital of the empire. Under these conditions, it takes no imagination to understand how the relatively small group of original Romans lost control of the racial makeup of Rome.

By 400 AD—around four hundred years after the time of Julius Caesar—the inhabitants of Rome were a pale shadow of the race who originally created the empire. Immigrants from all over the Middle East and North Africa had turned it into a melting pot made up of a mixture of Middle Easterners (Semites, mixed-race Egyptians, Syrians, and Africans) and original remnant Romans, with no national sense of identity or common purpose.

This integration process had reached such levels that the Roman writer Juvenal recorded the habit of many wealthy Romans buying blond wigs to cover their dark hair. The blond hair was purchased from Germany and transported south to Rome to be made into wigs." -March of the Titans

Soteris · Accepted Answer

It was a slow collapse so it had many reasons compiling onto each other. The biggest problem however is just that they could not sustain their own growth anymore. Basically, part of what made the Roman Empire so powerful is how rich they were but most of it was taken during their conquest. Its all well and good if you finance your empire with the rich farmlands and spoils of war but you start to run into problems when the places you conquer is not as rich/fertile and you are forced to dedicate more and more resources to defending your growing domain.

Basically, your income goes down and your expenses goes up. At some point it becomes an issue. Then there are several layers of problems ontop of that. Things like how Rome was fundamentally a militaristic society which during several points in time resulted in the army doing things the army is not supposed to do such as installing or removing Emperors. Then we have the famous Roman corruption, it is legendary for very good reasons, the corruption ran DEEEEEP. Lastly and perhaps most fatally in my opinion, they failed to culturally integrate their subjects. No matter how long they occupied a territory the people living there was not really considered "Romans", even legally, and they never changed the cultural identity of these people.

This means that the Romans were just sitting on the top of a group of culturally independent people who given a chance could easily form their own independent countries. The people outside of Italy was not invested in the nation of Rome and instead identified with their regional culture so once you start breaking up the Roman Empire they do not really easily merge back together like what happens if you break up more firmly established nations.

To see these things sort of play out all at once you can watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7KMULChTLY

Personally I just like it for the entertainment value.

purplepoppy · Accepted Answer

Got too big, poor management at the top and unable to defend its massive borders. The right emperor and it might have lasted a lot longer.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Justinians plague, economics, immigration, decadence

ThisDudeHere · Answer

Corruption for the most part. Towards their end, they used barbarians for their military because they no longer recruited as much from the heartland. That and they didn't have a solidified law for the succession of power, anyone could become an emperor if they had the power to back their claim.

Jackblue · Answer

My theory excessive welfare. The grain doles in Rome and Patrons in other cities as well as various handouts such cities gave of cash and feasts. It wasn't extravagant by modern standards, but it gave people as good a life as they were likely to have back then. People as a result did not want to join the legions and toil for their bread to protect Rome. Initially Rome's legions stopped being drawn primarily of Romans and Italians and instead started increasingly being of free males among the conquered populations. Later however, all free men in the Empire got citizenship with its benefits and they refused to join the army. So the empire had to recruit foreign mercenaries. Eventually under Odoacer these troops turned on Rome and took over.

ohshee · Answer

I absolutely love this question because that's where we are headed
Five major reasons

Number one invasions by
Barbarian tribes

Number two
Economic troubles and over-reliance on slave labor

Number three the rise of the Eastern world

Number 4 overexpansion of military budgets

Number 5 corrupt politicians and government

It's kind of funny how the past comes back into the future

AviatorTom · Answer

From my crude study of history, there are several reasons...
1. The empire got too big to manage
2. Corruption in Rome, resulting in infighting
3. Rise in power of surrounding tribes
4. Lead water pipes that, over many years, affected Roman nervous systems
5. All empires eventually come to an end

Dargil · Answer

One is (!) open borders. Rome could not staff their Legions adequately and accepted other tribal groups (like Goths and Germans) to staff it. Many never became loyal Romans. and the empire became weak from within. The USA and Western Europe are following that pattern.

MrtoddsWildRide · Answer

They grew larger than they could handle for one. They were not all that innovative and mostly copied what others did. They were an aggressive military dictatorship that pissed off most of the people around them. Probably the biggest reason was that they thought of themselves as invincible. Even when they were losing battles and Rome was being sacked, they refused to believe that it could fall.

MrCommodore · Answer

I don't think it ended or fell, I think it expanded, evolved, then fragmented (West & East) and continued to evolve and fragment etc until what we see today as The West.

Now_Here · Answer

A long video but worth the watch.

Andres77 · Answer

Poor leadership and a lazy artitude of the populace. When an empire falls it's because they deserved it.

I-Flak · Answer

Too much enemies, corruption, low amount of slaves. Absolutly love history of roman republic/empire.

N7117Jedi · Answer

Division, Corruption, Greed, Decay of Culture.. etc

OnyxianGhostsLove · Answer

Didn't they collapse from the inside? Civil Wars, and leadership with different goals?

PL2022 · Answer

Not just one. But look at the pope. They are still here... The Roman Empire never fell

Bluemax · Answer

Rotting from within. Inflation. Plague.

OddBeMe · Answer

Pissed off too many people

bamesjond0069 · Answer

Faggot shit and obese government

msc545 · Answer

Lead in the wine and water.

jshm2 · Answer

Racism and excess..

Anonymous · Answer

ottoman empire hahah :D

Anonymous · Answer

Illegal immigration.

DownIndaDumpz · Answer

What's that?

SignedAutographs · Answer

The fall of ideals

Anonymous · Answer

Not enough swag.

What are the reasons for the fall of the roman empire?

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