Suffolk Public Schools Blog



Name:___________________________________Block:___________Fall of the Roman EmpireDirections: With your group, read about one of the factors causing the fall of the Roman Empire, and answer the questions that go with the reading. You will then be placed into a second group, and help the new group answer the questions.PoliticalHow did effective emperors of the Roman Empire successful govern the large empire?Why were later emperors unable to govern as successfully as previous emperors?How did ineffective emperors exacerbate economic and social issues within the Roman Empire?SocialWhat factors contributed to the decline of morals in Roman society?How did a decline in Roman patriotism make it easy for outside invaders to conquer the Roman Empire?During the earlier years of the empire, how were emperors able to keep Roman citizens loyal to them?Economy WeakensHow did lack of expansion lead to weakening Roman economy?How did the emperors attempt to bring more money into the economy, and why did this fail to help empire?How did a weakening economy lead to social and military crisis across the empire?Military TurmoilWhat factor caused lead to turmoil in the military? (Soldiers to lose loyalty to the emporer)How did military turmoil facilitate the fall of the Roman Empire?Why, during the Roman republic, did Rome have such a strong and loyal military?Germanic InvasionsHow did military turmoil, a weakening economy, soicl, and political turmoil all facilitate the success of the Huns?Why was the western part of the Roman Empire able to withstand the Hun invasion?Why was Attila so successful in his invasions?3238500-7620000The Economy WeakensThe Roman Empire had been one of the most successful empires the world has known. However, during the Third Century AD (The 200’s AD) the empire entered into crisis. Many factors contributed to this crisis, which would lead to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. One of these causes was a weakening economy, which lead to massive inflation across the Empire.During the third century AD, outside regions began to invade the Empire. Pirates around the Mediterranean severely disrupted Roman merchants ability to trade. With inability to trade, the empire began to lose revenue. Adding to the drain on revenue was the added soldiers the government needed to hire in order to combat these outside invaders. Soldiers demanded higher pay, which the government could not afford. Rome reached its height in 117 AD. After 117 AD, the empire ceased to grow. Lack of new conquests meant a further loss of revenue for the Empire. Without new conquests, the Empire had no way to acquire more silver and gold to mint coins. In order to attempt to add more money to the economy, the government began a policy of “debasement of coinage,” which means that they began to make coins out of less silver and gold, while retaining their face value. This allowed them to make more coins with the same amount of precious metal. However, this had an adverse effect on the economy, resulting in massive inflation. Inflation is when the value of money drops, and prices for goods rises. In order to attempt to combat this inflation, the government was forced to raise taxes on its citizens. This created rising tension and discontent among the people living in Rome. These tensions would lead to social instability among Roman citizens. 29146491905000MilitaryThe Roman Empire had been one of the most successful empires the world has known. However, during the Third Century AD (The 200’s AD) the empire entered in crisis. Many factors contributed to this crisis, which would lead to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. One of these causes was turmoil amongst the ranks of the once extremely powerful Roman military.During the Third Century AD the Roman treasury began to lose money. The Empire ceased expanding after 117 AD. Without expansion, the Empire was not able to attain more gold and silver to add to the economy. The government attempted to add more money to the economy by minting coins out of less gold and silver, resulting in massive inflation. This had a direct negative effect on the military. Solider, who were needed to defend against outsider invaders, demanded that they get their fair pay; however, the government lacked the income to pay all of the soldiers. This resulted in soldiers were less loyal and less disciplined than they had been before. Roman soldiers were no longer loyal to the empire, but to the commander that would offer them the most money. With this loyalty, Roman commanders began squabbling amongst themselves to attain control of the government. Because the government could no longer rely on loyal Romans to fill the ranks of the military, they turned to mercenaries. Mercenaries are foreign soldiers who are hired, and fight for money. They have no loyalty to the government, only to the person who is willing to pay them. Hiring foreign mercenaries coupled with tension between military commanders, resulted in a weakened Roman military. When outside invaders began to attack the Roman Empire, they were unable to defend themselves. The military turmoil was a contributing factor of the fall of the Roman Empire; however the outside invaders would prove to be the immediate cause of its decline. These forces were able to defeat Roman forces because of the decline in the military. 3105150-7620000SocialThe Roman Empire had been one of the most successful empires the world has known. However, during the Third Century AD (The 200’s AD) the empire entered in crisis. Many factors contributed to this crisis, which would lead to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. One of these causes the moral decay of the Roman citizens and Roman society.Decay of Roman society was caused by a multitude of factors. Citizens began to lose loyalty in the government because of the government’s inability to control the economy. During the third century AD Rome faced massive inflation. The empire ceased expanding in 117 AD. Because the Empire was no longer expanding, the government had no way to bring more gold and silver into the economy. In order to add more money into the economy, the government decided to make their coins out of less precious metal. This allowed the government to put more coins into circulation. However, this decision negatively impacted the economy. The coins were worth less, resulting in merchants raising prices. When this happens (the value of money decreasing while the cost of items increases) is called inflation. Citizens began to lose faith in the government when they could not get control over the inflation in the Roman Empire.Citizens further lose faith in the government when harvest in Rome dwindled. The years of war destroyed much of the farmland in Rome. The land was left had been massively over-worked, and no longer yielded as many crops as it had before. This resulted in massive food shortages, which lead to disease, and a lower population.As citizens began to lose patriotism and loyalty for the Roman Empire, their morals began to drop as well. There was a growing gap between the rich and the poor, which lead to instability among the citizens. They no longer believed that they lived in a united Roman Empire. Citizens threw their loyalty to whichever military commander offered them the best solution to their worries. As outside countries began to invade the empire, the citizens were slow to defend the once proud Roman Empire. 341947511366500PoliticalThe Roman Empire had been one of the most successful empires the world has known. However, during the Third Century AD (The 200’s AD) the empire entered in crisis. Many factors contributed to this crisis, which would lead to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. One of these causes was a decline in effective leadership within the government. In 117 AD, under Emperor Trajan, at its height, the Roman Empire spanned three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It encompassed a size of over 2 million square miles. Good emperors, like Marc Anthony, Trajan, and Marcus Aurelius were able to keep control over the massive empire. However, as time went on, the massive size of the empire made it increasingly difficult to peacefully control. The office of Emperor began to be viewed as burden, so those who would have been able to effectually rule, chose not to; leaving leadership to those were not as competent. In the third century AD, the Roman military began to break down. Ineffectual emperors were not able to keep their soldiers loyal to the empire. Due to the massive inflation that was occurring across the Empire, soldiers were not being paid a fair salary. They began to give their loyalty to the military commanders that offered to pay them the most, rather than giving their loyalty to the empire. Soon, military commanders began to fight with one another over the throne. Without a reliable military, it became impossible for the emperor to defend the empire from outside invaders.When Germanic tribes did invade, the ineffectual government lacked the resources and people to defend the Roman Empire. The Huns, Germanic tribes, were able to conquer the once mighty Roman Empire.2524124-5715000Germanic InvasionsThe Roman Empire had been one of the most successful empires the world has known. However, during the Third Century AD (The 200’s AD) the empire entered in crisis. Many factors contributed to this crisis, which would lead to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Political, social, economic, and military crisis were all contributing factors to the fall of the Roman Empire. However, the direct cause of the fall was outside invasions. Due to the other crises of the third century, outside invaders, primarily the Huns, were able to successful Throughout the third century AD the Roman government was faced with defending against outside invaders. However, by 370 AD, Mongol Nomads from Asia, called the Huns, began their invasion. The Huns were Germanic people fleeing from the western parts of Asia into parts of Rome. By 410 the invaders had over-run and plundered most of the Roman Empire.Attila the Hun is given credit for being the military commander who was finally able to defeat the Romans. In 444 AD the various “Hun tribes” all united under Attila. He attacked Rome with 100,000 soldiers behind him. By 444 AD Rome had been split into two parts, east and west. The west was governed by a 14 year old emperor named, Romulus Augustus, and the east was governed by Constantine. The west was not nearly as wealthy or powerful as the east. It was an easy target for Attila and his soldiers. By 476 AD the Germanic Huns had defeat the eastern Roman forces and the Eastern half of the Empire flourished. The western half would slowly evolve into a new Empire, the Byzantines. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download