History Final (The fall of the Roman Empire)

Question 1

what has been happening in the western part of the roman empire since the 3rd century?

Answer 1

Pressure has been building, groups from the outside are trying to come in (ex: the Franks, Austrogoths, Wisigoths, Vandals) → all germanic speaking “barbarians” who come from Eastern Europe.

Question 2

Why did the germanic speaking tribes start trying to come into the roman empire?

Answer 2

They were attracted to the wealth of the empire and also wanted security from other nomadic people, like the Huns (from central Asia).

Question 3

what started happening in the 5th century when the germanic tribes started taking over the roman empire?

Answer 3

they were much less sophisticated culturally than the Romans, they were not able to maintain well-functioning centralized states → This leads to chaos!

Question 4

because the germanic kings behave like gang leaders rather than political leaders of stable states what starts happening?

Answer 4

• that creates lots of instability
• 3 centuries of violence 500-800 CE
• Collapse of literacy
• This is called the “Dark Ages”
• Violence
• No writing