Why exactly did the western Roman Empire fall? The decline of the empire began when Marcus Aurelius became the ruler in192 A.D. and continued for 200 years following that. Of the numerous reasons that caused the fall of the empire, the most influential dealt with Rome’s political, military, and economic decay.

The deterioration of politics was the greatest set back of the empire. After Augustus died, Rome had a problem with secession. Roman government had no laws for choosing a new emperor once one had died. The senate would appoint a new emperor and if the people of Rome didn’t approve, they would kill him or start a civil war. After Diocletian became ruler, he divided the empire into two different sections. All the wealth

went to the east, where he ruled. All the poor people on the western side of the empire were now left out of politics.

The military, likewise, had many problems. The Roman men wanted to be paid to fight and the commanders lacked loyalty. They weren’t fighting for their country, only themselves. Since the government was going through inflation, they couldn’t afford to

ay the soldiers enough. They had to hire Germanic men, called barbarians, to fight for Rome. They would find out that they weren’t loyal and couldn’t be trusted. The military was then expanded to a larger size. Because of nonfunding and inexperience the military would crumble.

The economy suffered as well. The Roman government imported more to other countries than they exported. Since they were paying for their imports and not getting any of it back, it caused a decline in gold and silver. They were now forced to take the gold

and silver out of the Roman coins and replace them with copper The wealthier Romans borrowed money from the government for larger imports, which caused inflation. The government also had to raise taxes to pay for the soldiers since they had to paid to fight

for their country.

When the government faced all these problems during a period of 300 years, the empire gradually fell until it ceased to exist. Learning and applying everything we know connected to the fall of the Roman Empire has helped our government avoid the mistakes of the Romans.

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