In this assignment you will draw two primary sources and two secondary Research Paper

In this assignment you will draw two primary sources and two secondary sources written after 1990 to explore a topic addressed i - Research Paper Example There are several factors that played a key role in the collapse of one of the greatest empires in the world. According to Bauer (84), several factors that occurred within a span of approximately 500 years were instrumental in the collapse of a strong empire, the Roman Empire. Expansion of the Rome Empire can be referred to as one of the major causes of its collapse. Rome kept conquering many nations and therefore there was rapid growth in the land they owned. Consequently, there was great need to defend the borders and the territories of Rome. As they struggle to keep this under their control, emperors increased taxes on non-Romans and these created more enmity where frequent rebellions arose. Lack of enough solders to safeguard their territories forced them to employ foreigners who were against them resulting in the collapse of the empire. Since the empire was growing at a rapid rate, it needed more soldiers for it to remain a great conqueror. As such, militarism was adopted as a m ean of the emperor and his compatriots remaining in full control. In this case, constant fighting needed heavy military spending. This demand for the military was high since the Roman Empire became over stretched, and the need for more solders was proportional to its needs for expansion and protection of their overstretched territories. Due to this, there was overspending in the military body, hence other fundamental activities were left with few resources. Vital issues such as provision of houses to the public, quality roads and channel were left untouched. This also resulted in emperors raising taxes repeatedly resulting in increased levels of inflation. Roman Empire faced a failing economy and increased levels of inflation. Inflation is a state where prices increase and the purchasing power of currency declines. The Rome Empire was in this situation and the government was threatened of impoverishment as it did not have sufficient cash to cater for its needs. Overexpansion and eff orts to protect their territories resulted in this. For instance, the increased population required more militaries and the demand forced them to recruit and train more people. This process was demanding and more money was used in paying the large numbers of military personnel .The other factor is that after they diminished new lands conquering, the flow of gold to their economy decreased. This resulted to less use of coins and the coin become less valuable. Due to over-expansion of the territories, there were more merchants from the conquered places who raised the prices of the goods that they sold. Several persons changed their way of trading and butter trade erupted eventually. People stopped using coins and they began to undertake barter trade in order to get what they wanted from others. This went to as far as paying salaries in the form of food and clothing while tax collection also changed and vegetables and fruits were used to pay taxes. In this case, the expansion of territ ories shows how the economy was affected resulting to its decline. According to Goldsworthy(72) Over expanded Roman Empire territory had people from different ethnic groups and was over populated. As a result, the labor force was composed of slavery resulting in unemployment. Plebs in