The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful empires in human history. At its peak, the Roman Empire stretched from Spain, Gaul and Britain in the west, to the upper Euphrates River in the east, to northern Africa in the south, to the Rhine and Danube rivers in the north, and the entire Mediterranean Sea was surrounded by the Roman Empire and became the inland sea of the empire. However, the world is always prosperous and inevitable. Beginning in the third century AD, the Roman Empire was in a serious crisis, and frequent civil wars led to the total paralysis of the imperial government, which is known in history as the "Crisis of the Third Century".
In 395, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I divided the empire among his two sons in permanent rule, and since then the Western and Eastern Roman Empires have emerged in history. However, in most cases, the so-called Roman Empire refers to the Western Roman Empire, while the Eastern Roman Empire is called the Byzantine Empire. Therefore, this article only covers the Western Roman Empire.
In 476, the Western Roman Empire collapsed. Since then, European history has moved from the classical era to the Middle Ages (Middle Ages). In most people's minds, the demise of a nation is always accompanied by a large-scale invasion by the enemy army, and the kingdom falls into an embattled situation and then helplessly moves to the end, but the process of the fall of the Roman Empire is a little different.
The Roman Empire was in a long-standing hostility with the barbarian Germans of Europe at the time, a relationship similar to that between the Han Dynasty in China and the Huns in the north. Beginning in the third century AD, Germanic barbarians repeatedly invaded the Roman Empire. Due to the internal disorder of the Roman Empire at that time, it was simply unable to resist the invasion. As a result, although the Empire survived, many parts of the Empire had become Germanic settlements. It was against this background that Constantine the Great officially declared Christianity a legitimate and free religion in 313. His purpose was to gain the support of the broad masses of Christians and to revive the empire's former glory.
Since the Roman Empire was already inhabited by a large number of Germans, in order to alleviate the influence of these foreign tribes on the empire, the Roman rulers wanted to solve this problem by assimilating. So the Roman army began to absorb Germanic people, and later the Germanic proportion of the army even exceeded half, many of whom became high-ranking generals.
However, neither the invading Germans nor the Germans who settled in the Territory of the Roman Empire had any intention of taking over the Empire. They only wanted to move from the wilderness into Rome, settle in this land, and live a peaceful life, so the Germans also recognized the dominance of the Roman emperor. However, at this time, the real power of the Roman Empire had fallen into the hands of the Germanic barbarian generals, and the emperor was only a puppet controlled by these generals, so as soon as the Germans felt that the emperor did not meet their wishes, they would immediately decide to change people.
In the end, the Roman rulers' goal of assimilating the Germanic barbarians was not achieved, and the empire became the domain of the Germans. In 476, a Germanic general named Odoac decided not to prop up a puppet regime, but to rule the empire himself. But he did not proclaim himself emperor, but proclaimed himself King of Italy. He packed the symbols of the western Roman empire's royal power (crown and royal robes) and sent them to Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Since then, the Western Roman Empire has withdrawn from the stage of history.
Throughout the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, although they were eventually replaced by Germanic barbarians, the real cause of the destruction of the empire was due to the internal divisions and constant civil wars of the Romans. Fortresses are always breached from the inside, both ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign.