Cultural Causes of the Decline of the Western Roman
Throughout history, various empires emerged due to their more significant and powerful forces within them. Some of these empires developed and expanded their territories. The Western Roman Empire was among the greatest and largest empires that existed in the history of man. They were powerful due to their political, social, and economic structural system. However, the realm ultimately came towards its downfall. This paper critically analyses the cultural causes that led to the decline of the Western Roman Empire.
The infiltration of Christianity that led to the loss of traditional value. The spread of Christianity revolted as a significant factor that led to the decline of western roman. The polytheistic roman religion was the state religion; however, in 313, Christianity was legalized by The Edict of Milan. These led to the end of Christianity persecution, which later led to the erudition of the roman traditional value system. Through this, the Roman people lost their conventional belief aspect and shifted to either Christianity or sole deity. The weakening of the Roman culture. Due to the expansion and migration of people, which led to an increase in population. The traditional roman culture started losing its value as people were not keen on following their practices. The spread of Christianity led to new beliefs and new hope in people’s lifestyles; therefore, lacking the need for continuity practice of the traditional values.
Health issues were also some of the factors that led to the decline of the roman empire. The increase in different types of diseases and the spread of plagues were significant challenges that the empire faced. It became hard to Control some of the emerging conditions that affected people within the realm. Also, poisoned water that carried through the lead pipes becomes another problem.
The succession of the emperors indeed played another reason for the decline. The roman culture, structured in a way whereby the ruling emperor is supposed to designate his successor or the next emperor and the Senate should approve the designated successor. If approved, the emperor should take the thrown. The structure was only followed by a few rulers and later neglected.
The migration of the barbarian tribes to the empire walls and population decrease of the Roman people. The barbarians conducted numerous attacks on the western empire that forced them to increase their military forces. They forced soldier’s children to the war and other hopeless people. Due to constant attacks in their borders, it led to the declining population of the Roman people, their community reduced in numbers, thereby creating a loophole for their downfall.
In conclusion, the are many factors that can be associated with the decline of the roman empire. Different sources have tried to explain some of the factors which led to the fall of the western empire. The factors mentioned attributed to the cultural reason which may have sniggered its decline; however, there are other reasons, such as the political and economic reason that led to its decline. Therefore, it’s essential to understand the great fall of the western empire was a significant aspect by the historian.