The Fall of the Roman Empire

The West Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D, due to several factors. Although these factors were viewed to have only played into the West Roman Empire, they also were present in the East Roman Empire. Each empire had a corrupt Bureaucracy (which is a government where many important decisions are made by state officials and not elected representatives), however it could be that this was a more prominent issue in the West than in the East. The West was also poorer and less populated than the Eastern Empire. These internal problems could have contributed to the overall downfall. However, the main reason for the Western Empire's fall was because it was more open for the attacks of the Barbarians. They came with great strength and numbers which the Western Empire could not withhold. The Eastern Empire had the ability to do so because of it's better economic position. Even though the attacks did strain the overall empire, it did not fall like the West. For more information, view pages 1-4 in the sourcebook, and relating maps can be found 16-19 in the Atlas.