Fall Of The Roman Empire Essay

The Roman Empire fell for a vast number of reasons and a big one was the military. The population of Rome did not have enough people to make up the big military that the country needed because of barbarian invasions so the government had to spend large amounts of money on getting soldiers from other countries. The country was spending all its money on the army and was not paying for other important things such as housing and other public projects. Politicians wanted money since not very much money going to the people, causing the government to be very corrupt. The Roman people started to lose faith in democracy after the government was not protecting any of the people's rights and were not very successful at running the country. These things combined were some of the big reasons the roman empire declined.

Around AD 406, barbarians began to invade Rome. Rome needed a very large-scale military to keep the barbarians out. The population of Rome was not enough to fulfill the needs of the army so Rome hired soldiers from other countries. This took a very large amount of money to sustain. Rome also had to pay all of its many soldiers. This was a huge strain on Rome’s economy. It caused Rome to “unably go on paying its officials and its armies without resorting to confiscations, currency debasement, requisi- tions in kind, and service without compensation” (Piganiol 64) Rome was spending too much money with the military, and spending was cut in many other areas in Rome such as housing and public projects. Their excessive military spending and other necessary needs caused Rome to go bankrupt a very large negative for the