Alexis,+Kim,+Scott


 * __The Fall of The Roman Empire__**


 * For over a thousand years, the Roman Empire was the most dominant and powerful force in the Eurasia region. The military army of Rome needed a lot of money, for the equipment and to pay the soldiers. During the decline, the emperors were forced to raise taxes, because trade was blocked this led to starvation for the soldiers. This caused Rome’s military to weaken, which led to Rome’s government to decide to split into two halves. For years the roman army tried to hold back the barbarians, but they failed. **


 * During the third century, Diocletian split the empire in two. Then in the fourth century, Constantine built the new eastern capital, Constantinople and converted to Christianity. Theodosius was the last emperor to reunite the western and eastern halves of the Roman Empire under his authority. When he died, in 395 A.D he passed down the empire to his two sons Honorius and Arcadius. Arcadius had the east side of the empire at the age of eighteen, and Honorius ruled the west at the age of eleven. In the western part of the empire swarms of barbarians poured in from the north and destroyed villages. In 476 A.D the Germanic general Odacer overthrew the last united roman emperor Augustus Romulus. **
 * In the west, pirates and thieves made travel unsafe for the Romans. The west had few good native recruits and they needed to rely more heavily on the Germanic recruits. The Huns moved into the Roman Empire and forced people to move into the eastern empire. The Roman authorities failed to care for the refuges and the refuges started to revolt. They destroyed the entire Roman army and the emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378 A.D. Theodosius managed to settle them down in the Balkans until 395 when he died and his two weak sons took the thrones of the Eastern and Western empires. **


 * In the east, the Byzantine Empire existed for another 1,000 years at the least. After the Western Roman Empire fell, the Germanic barbarians kept on burning the homes of the empire while the eastern empire fell to an attack by the Huns. The Huns were the people of the northern steppes in northern China. In the Asia Minor, the **** Seljuk Turks took over much of the region. Soon the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. **


 * The Byzantine Empire had a very similar religion to the Western Empire before it fell. First, they followed Christianity but later on, the Eastern Empire decided that the western empire’s Christianity wasn’t really fair. The Western empire’s Christianity was that only the pope or leader could lead or speak for the church. This kind of Christianity was called Roman Catholicism. The eastern empire disagreed. So the Eastern Empire created another type of Christianity called Eastern Orthodox Christianity. **




 * __ Bibliography: __**

** [|Proquest] **

** [|About.com] **

** [|Kidipede] **

** [|Wikipedia] **