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What caused the fall of the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages or Medieval Ages?
The Roman Empire was not only strong it would been stronger than the US or USSR today comparing it. It would of made the US or USSR look pathetic today.
Some Roman Empire inventions.
Bound Books
Newspapers
Aqueducts
Concrete
Calendar
Surgery
Sewers
pavement for walking
Arches
water fountains
Cities where clean and people had clean drinking water and people would bath.
Medicine in ancient Rome was advance had surgery, forceps, scalpels and catheters. In surgery, surgeons used painkillers such as opium and scopolamine.
Most people could read and write.
Doing the Middle Ages or Medieval Ages cause a major decline in mathematics, Medicine, science, technology, social organization, philosophy, music so on.
No water, sewers, aqueducts or water fountains!!! No one had books but the Church!!
Hardly no one could read or write.
People where dirty and did not have a bath and hardly no one gone to a doctor or done surgery in that time line and no opium and scopolamine.
Doing that time line the church govern all people life and lack of learning and science was major taboo.
What caused the fall of the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages or Medieval Ages?
The Roman Empire was not only strong it would been stronger than the US or USSR today comparing it. It would of made the US or USSR look pathetic today.
Some Roman Empire inventions.
Bound Books
Newspapers
Aqueducts
Concrete
Calendar
Surgery
Sewers
pavement for walking
Arches
water fountains
Cities where clean and people had clean drinking water and people would bath.
Medicine in ancient Rome was advance had surgery, forceps, scalpels and catheters. In surgery, surgeons used painkillers such as opium and scopolamine.
Most people could read and write.
Doing the Middle Ages or Medieval Ages cause a major decline in mathematics, Medicine, science, technology, social organization, philosophy, music so on.
No water, sewers, aqueducts or water fountains!!! No one had books but the Church!! Hardly no one could read or write.
People where dirty and did not have a bath and hardly no one gone to a doctor or done surgery in that time line and no opium and scopolamine.
Doing that time line the church govern all people life and lack of learning and science was major taboo.
Many things where even lost yes lost knowledge.
What caused this?
I really hate being a grammar Nazi but if you want to criticize them for not being able to read or write, you might want to make sure that your post is well written.
A) The Roman empire lasted in the East through most of the Middle Ages
B) There was no one cause. The Roman empire decayed over time. Currency depreciation, imbalance of trade (due to importing of silk), population crash, loss of values, military defeats...you could name a hundred other things and they would all be right.
The great mystery of history is not how Rome fell, but how it rose in the first place; how one city could end up controlling the Western world.
I seem to remember there was a period during the decay when a bunch of general got it back onto the railroad. Given continuous good leadership the empire would be around today. Ofc that didn't happen and the decay resumed immediately after the reformers kicked the bucket.
What caused the fall of the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages or Medieval Ages?
The Roman Empire was not only strong it would been stronger than the US or USSR today comparing it. It would of made the US or USSR look pathetic today.
Some Roman Empire inventions.
Bound Books
Newspapers
Aqueducts
Concrete
Calendar
Surgery
Sewers
pavement for walking
Arches
water fountains
Cities where clean and people had clean drinking water and people would bath.
Medicine in ancient Rome was advance had surgery, forceps, scalpels and catheters. In surgery, surgeons used painkillers such as opium and scopolamine.
Most people could read and write.
Doing the Middle Ages or Medieval Ages cause a major decline in mathematics, Medicine, science, technology, social organization, philosophy, music so on.
No water, sewers, aqueducts or water fountains!!! No one had books but the Church!!
Hardly no one could read or write.
People where dirty and did not have a bath and hardly no one gone to a doctor or done surgery in that time line and no opium and scopolamine.
Doing that time line the church govern all people life and lack of learning and science was major taboo.
Many things where even lost yes lost knowledge.
What caused this?
Roman Empire declined for many reasons. One was over extension of the empire. THe empire was just to big to maintain, this resulted in a series of rebellions such as the Gallic Empire where Spain, Britain and France or Gaul declared independent from Rome, and in the East the Palmyrian Empire declared independence from Rome. Roman Empire was so big, that emperor created tetrarchy or rule of 4 to govern the Empire which did not work. Another problem for Rome was taxation. Rome was having trouble collecting and maintain taxes. Another problem for the Romans is that Roman leaders never created a system of succession, again which resulting in Civil Wars. Religions and social problems, Rome also had large swath of poverty and inequality. Some historians even had said Christianity had helped paved the way for the decline of the Roman Empire.
You also have to remember that the Western Roman Empire fell, the Eastern Empire lived on well into the Middle Ages. The Roman Empire, along with Greek knowledge lived in Constantinople. Western Empire was ruled by Germans. Germans ruled Spain, Germans took control of France, and Italy. Slow migration of German tribes were settling in Britain from the sea. Over time the Germans that live in Spain, France and Italy began to Romanize, and adopt Roman Christianity and mix with the local Roman population. However much of the Roman organization was gone and was replaced with German authority. With the German population living in Spain, France and Italy, Latin was no longer the language of the people, and slowly Latin would form into Spanish, French and Italian dialects. Eastern Empire main language was Greek. Knowledge in the former Western Roman Empire was held by the Catholic Church which controlled Greek and Roman manuscripts.
The Eastern Roman Empire also went into the Middle Ages. Emperor Justinian got rid of the School of Philosophy which teach the learning of great Greek and Roman philosophers. Also remaining pagans were forced to convert. Also the Eastern Roman Empire lost plenty of territory from wars with the Persians, and later with the Muslims after Muhammad's death. The Eastern Roman Empire will loose, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and all of North Africa. All the Eastern Roman Empire had was Italy south of Rome, all of modern day Turkey and the rest of the Balkan Peninsula. Greek will no longer the dominant language or culture of the Mediterranean, and instead replaced by Arabic. Byzantines or Eastern Roman Empire reformed the military and abandoned the Legion system for the theme system. Also German tribes were the Lombards, which were settling in Italy who also wanted to push the Byzantines out.
The Western Roman Empire did not fall so much as fade away. Every empire has a moment when its fate turns, and for them it was the slaughter of the 7th Legion in the woods of what is now Germany. If the weather had not been wet and raining, it likely would have been a different outcome. But it was and the Legions couldn't use the tactics which had made an empire and were trapped. They just didn't come home. Come spring, another Legion was sent to find them and they had been left to rot in the trees where they were killed, and sometimes not in battle.
It was a massive shock to the Empire, which had never lost a major battle. But while earlier Romans might have sent more and persued, the Romans buried their dead, and stayed out. The Legions themselves had become very different, largely not Roman but of local Germanic origion. Their uniforms had softened. Their battle tactics had changed. They were by then no longer the army which conquered the known world. As time went on, it was largely defended by bought soldiers. Eventually it simply faded.
In the East it still prospered. But they had no reason to 'save' the west. Europe fell into a great darkness as invasions wore away what was left, and society as they knew vanished.
But there are other reasons too, things endemic in Roman society. They were a high consumption society, but did not have the goods to supply themself. Only their colonies could do that. Take them away or let them ship goods to the most profitable, and Roman society was going to collapse. And there was corruption everywhere, in Emperiors like Nero and in their society. Ultimately, it wasn't enough to stand.
And in some ways, it was simply too large. Even today, very large empires tend to split into smaller parts. Back then, they divided for much the same reasons as the tight coordination eventually broke down.
Even before Rome completely 'fell', Rome was a city with much less population, mostly living on what was local, and the last 'official' emperior was the leader of the barbarians who took it. He admired Rome, and strived to remake it, but its time had passed.
The middle ages took over and where life and focus had been as part of a larger world a generation or two ago, it became about sheer survival and life became very local. And in the East, the Eastern Roman empire still ruled and continued for over a century when the Turks finally breached Constantanople.
These are general things, but Rome fell in pieces and for many reasons. When it did it took left behind bits of itself which now live on in European/western culture.
What I find most interesting to analyze about that era is how the urban populations declined in Europe.
Europe had many cities with large populations during the Roman Empire era, and then the populations of those cities started to decline, to a extent that at the High Middle Ages the cities were almost empty.
I try to imagine how was the life of those who stayed in the cities, now turned almost into "ghost towns".
What I find most interesting to analyze about that era is how the urban populations declined in Europe.
Europe had many cities with large populations during the Roman Empire era, and then the populations of those cities started to decline, to a extent that at the High Middle Ages the cities were almost empty.
I try to imagine how was the life of those who stayed in the cities, now turned almost into "ghost towns".
The only two cities that prospered in the middle ages was Venice and Constantinople which had populations well over a 100k. Rome itself had a population under 30k.
The only two cities that prospered in the middle ages was Venice and Constantinople which had populations well over a 100k. Rome itself had a population under 30k.
I still find that so hard to wrap my mind around. It was such a catastrophic decline! And where did everybody go?
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