The Collapse Of The Roman And The Gupta Empire

The Roman and Gupta Empires fell for a number of reasons. The Gupta Empire was brought down primarily by outside forces, while the Roman Empire was first weakened by internal forces before being overcome by external forces. Both empires had very different approaches to leadership and government. Despite this, foreign invasions, a declining economy, and inner rebellion all played a part in the decline of the Roman and Gupta Empires.

If neither empire had had a declining economy, they might not have fallen as soon. As it was, the economy made it impossible for either empire to deal with the other problems they were already facing, such as barbarian invasions and rebellions within the empire. Towards the end of the Gupta Empire, trade declined

because the demand for Indian exports became less. To supplement the wealth they were losing, the empire attempted to raise taxes on merchants, but this only made the economy worse. This made it hard for them to pay for military quests to keep invaders out since several wars had already taken a lot of their money. This severely hurt the economy, which only added to the problems of rebellion and invasion. Rome faced a similar situation because their economy relied on slaves but, when rebellion forced them to stop expanding, the number of slaves available to them decreased. This was on top of the loads of money they also lost through the constant wars being fought that they had to support. Because of all of this, Rome was forced to increase taxes, which lead to rebellion.
In the Gupta Empire, rebellions sprung up from the Pushyamitra tribe.

The government was too weak to control these rebellions, and they exhausted a lot of military force on them. These rebellions didn’t overthrow the Gupta leaders, but they did weaken the political system. Similar to what happened in the Gupta Empire, around 418 CE, a tribe called the Visigoths migrated to Rome and made an agreement with the Roman leaders that allowed them to live within the borders. They often became Roman citizens and fought as part of their armies. However, the people of the tribe were often treated badly by the government and charged higher taxes than the native Romans, which led them to rebel against the Romans. This, just like in India, occupied the government and weakened the army, which left it open to invasion from barbarian

tribes.
Although economy and rebellion weakened these empires, foreign invasions were the final step in their decline. For the Gupta Empire, the White Huns began to overtake the empire, and their weakened economy could only support the military presence that was keeping the Huns out for a limited amount of time. The government couldn’t do much because it was based locally and had a very slow and unreliable communication system. However, after this, the Huns continued the culture and revived Hinduism. In Rome, the barbaric Germanic tribes overthrew the Romulus Augustulus, Rome’s final emperor. The army couldn’t stop this invasion because a declined economy had made it smaller. The people had also somewhat been split geographically since the Roman Empire had been expanded so far.
Although these common factors brought both empires down, they were also both brought down by their opposite extremes of leadership.

In the Gupta Dynasty, weak leadership added to its economic decline, rebellions, and invasions, and ultimately led to its demise. Because the Gupta Dynasty didn’t rely on a centralized government, it was easy for outside forces to come in and overthrow them. The Roman Empire made the opposite mistake. Instead of their leaders being too weak, they were too power-hungry and focused on conquest. This convinced the Roman emperors to spread their empire too far out, making it hard to rule or communicate. This slowly divided the people into sections so that when there was a rebellion or attack, Rome shattered into pieces, and couldn’t be reunified. This is what happened to the Han dynasty as well; they couldn’t go back to being under one government leader, so they dispersed into separate entities instead. This specifically was the reason for the fall of Eastern Rome, and it was later the cause of Western Rome’s fall as

well.
In conclusion, the decline of the Roman and Gupta Empires was caused by a combination of inefficient leadership, outside invasion, inside rebellion, and a drained economy, although each of these had a different cause in each empire. This is proved through the barbaric tribes that entered the empires towards the beginning of their decline, and the ones that eventually took over. In addition, the Roman Empire lasted much longer than the Gupta Empire, but both had an impact on the societies that followed them.