The Fall of the Western Roman Empire

The Fall of The Western Roman Empire

The Roman Empire gave the world many fascinating things. Rome gave the world Christianity, which is now the world's largest religion. The Romans also gave the world their language. The Romans spoke Latin, which is the base for most languages used today. Many of these languages include English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese. This leads the reader to question, "If Rome was such a powerful empire, then what led to the decline of the Roman Empire?" The fall of the Western Roman Empire was caused by three of the many reasons: internal decay, lack of money, and invading tribes.

First, one of the reasons that led to the decline of the Western Roman Empire was internal decay. It has been said that the Roman's military crisis was a huge factor in this internal decay. According to Indro Montanelli, "the military crisis was the result ofÐ'... shortage of children." The children in Rome were not old enough at the time to serve in the army; this resulted in lack of soldiers. Therefore, Rome had to devise a plan to solve this issue. This plan was to recruit Germans to serve in the Roman army. Apparently, this was not a well-thought plan, because treason was difficult to detect. Consequently, recruiting Germans to serve in the Roman army made it possible for the Germans to easily attack them. Given that they were already in the confines of the empire, they did not have to worry about getting into the city. It is evident that the military crisis was a

huge part in the internal decay, which eventually led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Furthermore, the lack of money in the Roman treasury caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The money mostly went into the army, which has already been described as mediocre, the government, and the poor. The lack of money was responsible for the high taxation. This caused the owners to depart their businesses, because they did not want to pay high taxes. In addition, the Roman Empire spent money to cease the poverty that was occurring throughout the civilization. The money was directed towards giving the poor population bread and circuses for enjoyment. In due time, Rome was in an enormous deficit, and since nobody would pay their taxes, the empire crumbled.

Finally, the most important factor that led to