The Fall Of Rome Essay Example for Free

The Fall Of Rome Essay During period of government of Diocletian, Roman Empire gains more and more features of Western despotism. In order to strengthen the government, to regulate management of provinces Diocletian (284-303) makes complex of reforms: Administrative – he divides empire into Western and Eastern (final division in year 395); territory of Empire is divided into 10 dioceses (120 provinces); Tax – instead of indirect taxes (which were quite numerous and badly-collected) he promotes the one land- poll-tax in money or natural form (corn, wine, etc); Financial – he starts promotion of valuable golden coin (together with silver and copper, which were already in use); Military – he divides the army into internal armies, border armies and praetorian guards; increases quantity of army for 1/3; provides recruitment; increases the army at account of barbarians. Such reforms although couldn’t stop collapse of â€Å"colossus with clay legs†, which the Roman Empire became in 4-5 centuries, but slowed down its collapse for 1.5 centuries more. Army, officialdom and Christian church (Christianity becomes the government religion in the 4th century) – these are three foundations for Roman Empire of those years. In 476 the chief of German mercenaries uncrowns the last emperor Romulus Augustulus (The Collapse’ Chronology). Title of emperor and the very Empire finishes its existence. The reasons of fall of Rome were as follows: Increase of centrifugal tendencies in provinces; crisis of slave-holding way of manufacturing; appearance of elements of feudal society (colonate); Barbarian invasion (Germans, Hunnes, etc); the government changed into giant mechanism which exhausted their nationals, which often met Barbarians not as invaders, but as liberators; Period of antiquity finished; ‘medium evum’ the new à ©poque in the history of mankind started. What were opinions of historians and other prominent people for fall of Rome? Montesquieu saw the main reason of fall in collapse of Roman military valour and simplicity, which was the result of conquest of Rome rich Western countries. The prominent English historian Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) wrote a work â€Å"History of collapse and destruction of Roman Empire† which has became a classical work. He considers that the Roman Empire represented period, where the humankind was the luckiest and prosperous, especially during the à ©poque of Antonines. He analyses the reasons of fall of Rome and presents more then 20 factor, which influenced the process. His common conclusion is simple and categorical: the reason is in â€Å"triumph of Barbarians and religion† (Edward Gibbon). R. Collingwood related Gibbon’s work to retrograde or historian tendency in historiography of XVIII century; for representatives of this tendency the history is only â€Å"sightseeing of irrational forces†. The other researchers of XIX-XX centuries underlined other factors: progressive decrease of population; penetrating of â€Å"coastal† antique culture inside the country and its extensive expansion, as a reason of loss intensiveness and coming back to old, natural forms of economy; contradictions between city and village; struggle between â€Å"municipal bourgeoisie† and lower classes of city and village, which leads to revolution, the expression of which are military rebellions; Negative role of ruling personality. For example, transfer of power from Marcus Aurelia to Commodious – the Senate looses its prestige, and power of Rome was actually based on this authority; Decrease of quantity in Roman border army, starting from Augustus period of power, which prevented stable and reliable defense of Empire (History Alive material); Christianity and religion of sympathy for all unlucky personalities, weak and low, which appeared on the basis of â€Å"mortal enmity to reality† and became a vampire of Roman Empire as well as brought into naught great dead of Romans. So, taking into account everything we examined here, we can tell that the reasons of fall are connected with specifics of development of Rome as Empire; it means that we have to see combination of factors: Internal reasons – those social, economic, political, ethnic and demographic processes, which are connected with transformation of former polices, civitases, nomes, etc. Because of all this Empire becomes unstable government. It is not enough for fall of Rome, but it is enough to weaken it. The government reached limits of its â€Å"vital space†. Specifics of cultural, religious and ideological development: a) synthesis of their own cultural achievements in order to create non-contradictory system of new beliefs, based on their own traditions; b) great religious invasion from the East As a result of all those factors the Empire becomes weal government. The decisive role then, will play external factors: External factors: meeting of economies – Roman Empire consisted of developed Western provinces, zones of ancient and stable city tradition. Economic intervention destabilized position of government. Great migration of population. In such a way, the Fall of Rome was the result of influence of numerous factors. References: Reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire: All left Rome open to outside invaders adapted from History Alive material [online] http://killeenroos.com/1/Romefall.htm The Collapse’ Chronology [online] http://www.roman-empire.net/collapse/collapse-index.html Medieval Sourcebook: Edward Gibbon: General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West [online] http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gibbon-fall.html