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The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD was the result of multiple interacting pressures rather than any single cause. Militarily, the empire had grown too vast to defend effectively and became increasingly reliant on Germanic foederati — allied troops whose loyalties were to their commanders rather than to Rome. Economically, centuries of wars and the debasement of the currency caused severe inflation; trade networks contracted and tax revenues fell, starving the army and bureaucracy. Politically, the 3rd century Crisis saw dozens of emperors in fifty years, destroying institutional stability. The division of the empire in 395 AD meant the wealthy eastern half (Byzantium) could focus its resources on its own defence, leaving the West underfunded. Externally, the Hunnic invasions from Central Asia pushed Gothic and other Germanic peoples across the Rhine and Danube frontiers in unprecedented numbers. Historians debate the relative weight of these factors; Edward Gibbon famously also emphasised internal moral decline, though modern historians focus more on structural and material causes. The Eastern Empire survived until 1453, demonstrating that "Rome" fell unevenly.
answered by Omniscientia Team · 172 words · 18 Mar 2026