Fall of the Western Roman Empire
...usy fighting amongst each other over the emperors than they were defending the empire’s borders. Germanic tribes such as the Goths, the Alemanni, the Franks, and the Saxons attacked the empire repeatedly with success, which led to a declining economy. Economically, Rome was struggling. The political instability led to economic decline. Warfare within the army, as well as against the Germanic tribes, disrupted production and trade. Profits declined for artisans and merchants drastically, forcing many out of business. Fighting also destroyed farmland, causing food shortages that sent food prices soaring. In an attempt to remedy the falling incomes and rising prices, the government minted more coins, hoping the increase would make it easier to pay soldiers. However, because the government had already drained its stores of gold and silver, the new coins contained less of the precious metals, cutting their value. To compensate for the lowered value of the coins, merchants increased the price of their products. Therefore, the government’s policy triggered extreme inflation. In order to sustain an army, the government had to repeatedly raise the soldiers’ wages. The only way to meet these expenses seemed to be heavily taxes landowner, but as increased taxes made their farming less profitable, more and more farmers abandoned their lands. As a result, the output of crops shrank even more, furthering the food shortage. The Roman military was also having troubles during this time, such as keeping their soldiers motivated and holding off the attacks from Germanic tribes such as the Visigoths, the Huns, and the Franks, at the same time. These attacks would mark the final blows to the Roman empire, from which it would not get up from. During the late A.D. 300s and A.D. 400s, a variety of Germanic groups took over much of Roman territory. They were the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals, Franks, Angles, and Saxons. In A.D. 378, they defeated a large Roman army at Adrianople in the Balkan Peninsula. Then in A.D. 410, the Visigothic chief, Alaric, led his people into Italy, capturing and sacking Rome. With Italy devastated, nothing remained to prevent Germanic tribes from overtaking the empire. The Vandals raided and thoroughly sacked Rome in A.D. 455. Despite the effects of these raids and attacks, the military perils of the empire were not the most contributing to the fall of the empire as a whole. The two most significant causes for the fall of the Roman Empir...