Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Filed under: rome

Will America end up like Rome?

Rome was one of the greatest empires ever. Roman culture and ideas has had a major influence on how America is today. As we have learned, Rome evantually collapsed because of many reasons. One example is military reasons, the Germanic people kept invading and they were successful. They were successful because Roman legions lacked discipline and training that previous legions had. So, Rome hired mercenaries to fight for them, since they were mercenaries they had little loyalty to Rome.

Another reason Rome collapsed was because of political reasons. Government gradually became oppresive and authoritarian, so most the people did not support the government. More and more government officals became corrupt, and there were constantly civil wars to gain the throne. Civil wars greatly weakend a country already under attack. The rich East Roman empire did nothing to help the struggling west.

Economic causes also led to the collapse of Rome. People kept getting taxed more to support the huge government and military. Social causes also contributed to the collapse because many people felt they were lacking patriots and kept hiring mercenaries to fight for them. We say that Rome "fell" is not completely correct. Over time it changed into Byzantine, centuries passed and German customs and languages replaced roman customs.

That was basically how Rome fell. I do not believe america will end up like this simply because we are smarter than that and hopefully have learned from history's mistakes by now. We are going through a tough time right now but we will survive. Also, today people will not stand for corruption and unfair taxes. That is why we can vote people in elected office out. Another reason is that today with our advanced technology being invaded by another country like what happend to Rome is almost impossible because we still have the strongest military, not the biggest, in the world. We have already gone through a civil war, and if our country can survive that, we will survive for hundreds of more years. 

How Geography affected Roman Empire compared to Greek civilization.

Geography effects all civilizations. Espically past civilizations, like the Roman Empire and Ancient Greece. For example Rome used geography to expand there empire by traveling by water and land. They also used geography to defeat hannibal by out manuvering him. To out manuver him they used boats to go to Hannibals home and draw him out of Italy and evantually defeat him. So, geography helped the Romans build an empire. Rome's geography also helped feed them because they had fertile land to grow crops and keep them from starving. Geography did not help Greece the way it did Rome. Geography, was a negative part of Greece because mountains caused them to become isolated and create city-states. This was a major disadvantage because not only did it cause them to fight amongst each other, it prevented them from becoming an empire. It did help them sail to islands, but overall geography was a major disadvantage to ancient greece. Also there was not much fertile land as Rome had, so they could not grow a lot of food for their people.