How did the Western Roman Empire disappear?

The invading army of the Visigoths, led by Alaric, overcame the walls of Rome and took over the capital of the Roman Empire. The military of the Visigoths attacked and looted, burned, and pillaged through the entire city leaving mass destruction wherever they went. This was the first time that the city of Rome was sacked, and it was not to be the last either. There are some who claim that one of the factors that eventually led to the downfall of the Roman empire was the rise of Christianity.

Christian religion was monotheistic, and was opposed to the polytheism of the Romans who also considered their Emperor as a god. But when the Emperor Constantine accepted the Christian religion and proclaimed Christianity as the state religion of the empire, everything changed. This view claims that the authority and power of the emperor was diminished because the Emperor could no longer be considered as a god. Now, there are others who disagree with this theory stating other internal factors and the heavy external force.

There are many things that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. It fell when the Barbarians were able to overthrow Romulus, who was the last Roman emperor in the West. It should be remembered that prior to that, the Roman Empire was really large.

It became so large that it was not possible to govern all of the places that were considered part of the Roman Empire. It was divided into two halves and this was the opportunity that other groups were waiting for. True enough, the Barbarians started to invade different parts of Rome until they were able to lead certain areas of the empire.

At one time, the Roman Empire was divided into two empires because it was so large and it was hard to manage and control. The emperor, Diocletian, who oversaw the entire empire is the one who decided to split the empire in half. One half which was the western empire contained Rome. The other half was called the eastern empire. It contained Byzantium.

However, the Western Roman Empire collapsed mainly due to the same reason why it split. The Western Roman Empire could not control itself like it thought it could. It became weak and then collapsed. However, the Eastern Roman Empire ruled for hundreds of years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It seemed that the Eastern Roman Empire did something right.