What we thought the answer would be

Before researching we thought the answer was:
Rome's trading declined. Oversea's trading declined more because of the events that caused corruption in the city.

Sources

1: Book: World History - Patterns of interactions.
2: Website: http://www.rome.info/history/empire/fall
3. Other: http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/fallromeeconomic/aleconoffal

1: According to the textbook, the Roman Empire declined because of military situations, political situations and inflation. Inflation is when a drastic drop in the value of money coupled with a rise in prices.

2: Many people blame the iniation of Christianity for the decline. Another reason people say the economy declined because they found it hard to find a new emperor. Throughout the next hundred years in Rome they had thirty seven different emperors. Twenty five of the emperors were assisnated. This contributed to the decline of Rome.

3: Another reason for the decline of the Roman Empire was because the economic policies of the emperors had a heavy impact on the lives of citizens.

Our Conclusion

One of the main reasons why the Roman Empire declined was because they didnt have a stable government. For a long time Rome couldnt find a loyal & trustworthy emperor. The emperors of Rome helped corrupt the system by taking advantage of their posts. Although the emperors played a big part in the decline of Rome, they wernt the only part. The Roman Empire was also corrupt in many aspects. These included socially, politically, religiously and military wise. The military did not play as large a role as the other aspects did because the military defeats did not directly effect the economy. Religion played a huge role in corruption, when the people were denied their freedom of religion and worship they were outraged. This led to the rate of crime to skyrocket. Although Christianity was a major part of the Roman Empire many of the emperors rebuked it. The reason for this was because the emperors thought of Christianity as a threat to their power. Emperors tried to force a bureaucracy on the people. This was when the higher powers seperated the land among the lower powers. Some people blame the economic decline on the seperation of the city. The Eastern part and Western part were split and were run by two different emperors. Because of this corruption Rome never fully recovered. We (as a pair) feel that if this didnt happen the Roman Empire could have been running steady for a couple more hundred years.