How did Italy and Rome perish and decline?

In 476 AD, romulo, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed by the German mercenary leader, which declared the demise of the Roman Empire. Perhaps because of the greatness of Rome, or the long-term influence of Roman culture on western society, the discussion on the reasons for the demise of the Roman Empire has always been a controversial topic in the world historians. Judging from the appearance of history, the direct cause of the demise of Rome was the invasion of barbarians. However, the war between Rome and "barbarians" has a long history. When the Roman Empire was strong, "barbarians" could not compete with Rome at all, and most of their invasions were defeated by Rome. Therefore, it is unreasonable to simply attribute the cause of extinction to the invasion of barbarians. External factors work through internal factors, and the demise of Rome must be caused by its internal factors.

With the disintegration of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the empire, the Roman political system changed from * * * to autocracy. Rulers have mastered everything, and citizens have lost all political rights and been excluded from national politics, which has brought corruption to the government and weakened civic awareness. At the beginning of the Republic of China, the Romans took the national interest above everything else, and were proud to be Roman citizens and serve the country. Because at that time, they thought they were masters of the country, had the opportunity to participate in politics, could supervise the behavior of government officials, could be protected by law, and could get various benefits from the country. Officials such as consuls and senators are also more diligent and less corrupt. However, from the late Republic of China (at this time, the Republic of China existed in name only), the state has completely become the private property of the monarch, his bureaucrats and the army. Absolute power corrupts them, squanders them and plunders the people by all means. The people live in dire straits, or become serfs of the landlord's manor, or simply launch an uprising against tyranny. Therefore, there is a serious opposition between the people and the rulers, and they are indifferent to the rise and fall of the country. Can a government that has lost popular support survive? So even if "barbarians" don't invade, the empire will perish in corruption.

Rome's autocratic system has a fatal flaw, that is, it lacks a perfect inheritance law. After the death of the emperor, because there was no clear heir, the empire often led to wars between military groups. During the imperial period, the army has completely become the maker of emperors. They can depose and kill emperors they don't like at will, elect people who are in their own interests to be emperors, and even auction the throne publicly. The long-term war between military groups for the throne not only made the people suffer from the war, but also weakened and consumed the manpower, material resources and financial resources of the empire. In addition, although Rome established a unified empire, due to the huge economic and cultural differences between the eastern Greek civilization area and the western Latin civilization area, the empire always tended to split. The war between military groups accelerated the division of the empire, which eventually led to the division of the empire into two parts in 395 AD. This made it impossible for the eastern and western empires to unite against the barbarian invasion, which led to the failure of the war.

The weakness of slavery and the shortage of labor in the late Roman Empire caused a serious economic crisis. Rome's economic base is based on the exploitation of slaves. In order to extract the fruits of slaves' labor to the maximum extent, slave owners made them bear heavy labor, making it impossible for slaves to expand their ranks by reproducing. And the slaves in Rome mainly came from expansion and plunder, but with the cessation of expansion, slave resources were cut off, and slave owners were unwilling to innovate in production technology, which led to the decline of production and the collapse of social and economic foundation. In addition, the government's oppression of farmers led to the bankruptcy of yeomen, and farmers fled in large numbers in order to make a living, thus making the soldiers insufficient and unable to resist the invasion of "barbarians."