Sorting Reasons for the Fall of Rome Directions: For each reason for the end of the Roman Empire, type whether you think it is Political, Military, Economic, or Social in the box to the left.

Bad emperors after Marcus Aurelius (180 C. E.)

Creative energy of Rome was destroyed because the empire was so unified (everyone doing the same thing)

Army made smaller to the point that it could not hold off Barbarian invasions

Christianity blamed for ruining the civic and moral spirit of Rome

Food shortages because of climate changes

Most land owned by a few rich people (patricians) after the Punic Wars (the latifundia, when wealthy Romans seized smaller farms and formed large farms under one owner)

Rome needed goods from its provinces (controlled lands)
instead of being self-sufficient

Rome did not produce anything to trade to other areas of the world

The cities declined because they were more concerned
with controlling far off lands than making goods

Civil wars, general instability and pirates after 180 C. E.

Government spent more money than it had leading to inflation

Wealthy Senators didn’t pay taxes

High taxes on the urban middle class

Mercenary armies not very loyal to Rome

Roman citizens avoiding military service

Bribery, corruption and too much bureaucracy (government)

Deaths because of warfare, famine, and disease

Use of slave labor led to revolts

Government capital moved from Rome to Constantinople

Widening gap between the rich patricians and poor plebeians

where is the diagram

answer:   migrations were important in the neolithic period. "two major migrations passing through southeastern europe were confirmed by the means of archaeo-genetic studies."

the first migration was the early neolithic period -- 6,000 before common era (bce) -- when the first farmers, from anatolia -- asia minor -- spread through europe. the second migration occurred during the early bronze age (3,000-2,500 bce) when the so-called "steppe population," from the eurasian steppe, replaced much of northern europe's previous population.

the first farmers of northern and western europe passed through southeastern europe with limited hunter-gatherer genetic admixture, which occurs when two or more previously isolated populations begin interbreeding. however, some groups that remained mixed extensively -- without the male-biased, hunter-gatherer admixture that prevailed later in the north and west, according to latest discoveries. southeastern europe continued to be a nexus between east and west, with intermittent genetic contact with the steppe people up to 2,000 years before the migrations that replaced much of northern europe's population.

"in some places, hunter-gatherers and incoming farmers seem to have mixed very quickly," says iain mathieson, a geneticist at the university of pennsylvania, who was first author of the paper. "but, mostly, the two groups remained isolated, at least for the first few hundred years. these hunter-gatherers had been living there for thousands of years, and it must have been quite a shock to have these new people show up -- with a completely different lifestyle and appearance."