Roman Empire: Most Powerful And Influential Empires Of Ancient History

Kacie Lee

Tomasetti

AP World P.6

12/07/17

Practice Essay #2

The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful and influential empires of ancient history. Although external strife such as the invasion and attacks from barbarian/Germanic groups contributed to the collapse of the Roman Empire, the internal problems were the main factors in the empire’s fall because poor hereditary leadership, the empire becoming too large to administer and manage, higher taxes, increased slavery, and corruption in the government lead to discord within the empire, which weakened the empire significantly and allowed Germanic groups the vanquish the Roman Empire. The Silk Roads were created by Han Wudi during the Han Dynasty, and were trade routes that connected

After the empire overextended, the empire faced internal discord both economically and politically. The poor rulers brought the empire into debt by buying too much, which weakened the military. Rulers became corrupted and used the empire’s resources for their personal uses and raised taxes in order to pay for the necessary things. As slavery increased, unemployment increased as well and revolts began to start. These factors made the citizens less faithful to the empire, and friction massively increased. The government also lost many qualified officials and fell into a period of constant strife. The movement of the Roman Empire’s capital to the Eastern Empire was another internal factor that made the empire unstable. All these factors above were the main reason why the Roman Empire fell. Due to the empire being unstable from all the internal strife, the empire was able to be defeated by barbarians. However, if these internal disputes did not occur, the Roman Empire would not have likely been defeated. Thus, the subsidence of the Roman Empire was mostly caused by internal strife. The fall of the Roman Empire mostly due to the interior discord is very similar to the collapse of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Like the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire was mostly hereditary. During the rule of King Xerxes, the empire was overextended like the Roman empire, which was the root cause of the Achaemenid Empire becoming weak. Due to poor leadership, people began to revolt and the government began to become corrupt. Like Rome’s provinces, Persia’s satrapies began to become more independent, which lead to a weakened military. Persia went into constant warfare with the Greeks and Alexander the Great eventually invaded Persia. Like the Roman Empire, the internal strifes of the empire were the fundamental reasons why the empire