The rise and fall of Rome
(These are just a few reasons of why they were so powerful and some of why they fell)
Rome became a very strong empire because of a few simple things. They were very stable agriculturally. Many people farmed things such as olives and many other grains to trade for profit. This fact also had many people settling down causing the population to grow. SeattlePI states in their article, “The extra population later helped Rome’s military expansion by providing a large supply of troops. The surplus also helped Rome to establish trade ties with other Mediterranean powers, enhancing the cities economic might.” This brought them many allies and set a very strong military in place.
The geography of Rome also played a very big role in helping Rome become so powerful. Their location helped avoid invasion, they had great soil to grow all of their crops, plus they were between many other countries. With their location so close to the center of everyone they had easy trade of goods while keeping good contact / relations with other countries. SeattlePI also states, “The Alps, located on the northern border of modern-day Italy, seal off the peninsula from the rest of Europe during winter. This natural roadblock protected Rome from outside invasions by forcing attackers to move slowly through narrow passes, giving the Romans time to respond.” This is a good example of how the Romans had the upper hand when it came to most battles that took place making them hard to concur.
Later Rome faced many things that led to their fall as such a great nation. A major factor was the change to the christian religion. Ushistory.org makes a very good statement in their article supporting this by stating, “ The christian religion, which was monotheisian ran counter to the traditional Roman religion, which was polytheistic (many gods). At different times, the Romans persecuted the Christians because of their beliefs, which were popular among the poor.” This went against their beliefs that their ruler was too a god so this discredited their emperor leaving many not very loyal and questioning of him. After accepting Christianity as their main religion these doubts began to take place in Rome.
They later had military issues that led to their downfall. “There were threats from northern european tribes and they couldn’t defend themselves due to low funds of the military.” This harmed them with their relations with other countries making them stop things such as trade. They also lost their trust in many of their allies and became much weaker with their military because they simply did not have the money for the supplies needed.
There were also many economic issues that hurt this great nation. History.com states, “ Constant wars and overspending had significantly lightened imperial coffers, and oppressive taxation and inflation had widened the gap between the rich and the poor.” This country simply couldn’t keep up with the prices of their constant wars and other expenses. This led to the fall of Rome because they may have been fine at adapting; their society was far too divided and they had too much poverty between the social classes.
Nick Robinson, 2020, How did Geography help Rome rise to power?, SeattlePI - https://education.seattlepi.com/did-geography-rome-rise-power-5408.html#:~:text=The%20Roman%20population%20grew%20quickly,enhancing%20the%20city's%20economic%20might.
Brynn Holland, 2018, HISTORY vault: Rome: Rise and Fall, History.com - https://www.history.com/news/history-vault-rome-rise-and-fall
Evan Andrews, 2019, 8 reasons why Rome fell, History.com - https://www.history.com/news/8-reasons-why-rome-fell
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