The West Roman Empire collapsed due to the infiltration of the army and the society by the Germanic tribesmen such as the Angles, Saxon and the Visigoths. The collapse occurred between the 2nd and the 4th century. The fall of Rome didn’t suddenly happen; instead it occurred over a long period of time. The disintegration of its military power in distant lands coupled with invasions from barbarians and corruption within brought about the fall. The West had a shortage of native recruits so half of the military consisted of these tribesmen. The Roman empire had grown so much that soldiers in the distant parts of the empire were increasingly adopting the local customs and were identifying less and less with Rome. There was also less loyalty to the Roman Empire. Instead of defending the empire, they were involved in fighting for political power. The Germanic tribes had sought refuge in Rome after their land was invaded by the Huns (Halsal, 1139). They were allowed to settle in the East Roman Empire.
When the Roman Empire failed to take care of the interests of the German foreigners, the Visigoths revolted and in 376, they defeated the Eastern Roman Empire army and the Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople. There were several administrators killed and several army factories were destroyed in the process. The foreigners complained of the high taxes, corruption and high Roman prejudice. The battle was significant in that it showed the Romans that the foreigners had become powerful enemies whether they were fighting for or against the Roman armies.
Theodosius I was able to settle the tribes in the Balkans in 382 by signing a treaty with them but in the later years, with his sons reigning in the Eastern and Western Empires, the Visigoths started to revolt again. The division into western and eastern portions happened because all the provinces could not be administered by the Emperor in Rome. The end of the empire was imminent when Theodosius gave his younger son the Western part and the Eastern part to his eldest son Arcadius (Goffart, 993).
The disintegration of the political, economic and military institutions caused it hard for the Western Empire to fend off its attackers. The tribes in the region had great or the highest positions in these institutions and they would work to steal and thus weaken the economy. Economic, political, and social upheavals created chaos and confusion.
All the tribes would engage in such tactics in order to weaken the empire. In 406, certain German tribes crossed the Rhine at Mainz and started attacking the Roman territories. The Northern region of Gaul was captured. The military at Rhine was unable to fend off the attack due to low manpower. As the Visigoths had been attacking the Empire since 376, the Emperor had withdrawn troops from the Rhine region and directed them to fend off the Visigoths attacks.
In the West, there were also other challenges faced by the government. There was high unemployment rate in Rome due to the government’s use of cheap slave labour. The unemployment soared even more when the Empire moved east. The internal institutions also deteriorated since the emperor lived away from Rome and, therefore, government in the West struggled to remain relevant to the Empire as a whole.
Four years later in 410, the Visigoths successfully attacked Rome and it is one of the significant events that led to the collapse of the Empire. The Visigoths entered Rome through the Salarian gate and looted the city for three days. There were many Romans who were taken captive while others, tens of thousands fled the city into the countryside. There were others who sought refuge in the Northern part of Africa. Rome was left in even a more vulnerable position than before. In 455, the city of Rome was attacked for the second time by the Vandals (Coffin, Stacey, Cole and Symes, 135).
The Vandals were rebelling against the Emperor at that time, Valentian III, in Western Rome Empire, Petronius. Genseric, who was the Vandal king, claimed that since the betrothal agreement between their children had not been honoured, the peace treaty that had been signed had been broken. He therefore set to attack Rome.
The Pope Leo I asked him not to destroy the city or kill the inhabitants therefore the gates of the city were left open for him to enter. He plundered the wealth and the treasures of the city for fourteen days (Goffart, 991). By 450, the material resources of Rome had depleted significantly. The Huns invaded the city and the empire came crashing down. The different tribes sought to set up new kingdoms in the ruins of the empire.
Works Cited
Coffin Judith, Stacey Robert, Cole Joshua and Carol Symes.Western Civilizations:
Their History and their Culture. 17th Ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc. 2011. Print.
Goffart, Walter. “Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire”
English Historical Review, 503(2008): 990-992. Print.
Halsal, Guy. “Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568”, English
Historical Review, 510 (2009): 1138-1141. Print.
