Why do empires fall? ¢ This cannot be pinpointed to one particular ¢Assaries of crises shook the classical clvlizations of China, Rome, and India ‘The Han, Roman, and Gupta empires had flourished for hundreds of years. They had dominated their separate worlds and produced great cultural achievements. By 850 C.E., however, they had all collapsed. ‘¢ Iti important to understand why they collapsed because early empires are very similar to modern empires; along with learning from their achievements we can also learn from their shortcomings. Reasons for decline can be sorted into 4 categories Social (Human Interactions) Cultural (the way people, e@Qm@p think act, endlinteracy) Economic (Money) Political (government) urllslecilc! wig POLITICS = ewcensc sina BE wr #Social Reasons for Decline Once empires expanded they controlled more people. More people led to more problems. Decay in morals and values- As time went on people cared less about voting and more about partying. Therefore, governments started to falter. Major Health Issues- Having more people in close proximity to one another led to easier spread of diseases and infections, populations were cut down drasti Economic Reasons for Decline e Asempires grew they needed to constantly pay for things including: armies, new roads, new buildings, etc. @ Many empires began to run out of money the bigger they got. e Expenses- Empires could not afford to pay For an army large enough to protect its’ borders e Debt- Empires did not manage money properly and ended up in massive amounts of debt. yOCultural Reasons for Decline « As new people were brought under the control of empires, they started to mix with the other people under the empire's control. e Loss of authority- As empires started to decline, the people began to question the old ways and began to embrace new ways of thinking including new religions. e Foreign invasions- Because empires were struggling with protecting their large borders, foreign invade) advantage to rebel against the empire. Political Reasons for Decline e The sheer size of most empires made them impossible to control. e Decentralization- Empires began to delegate power to governors or other government officials in Far off places, meaning power was no longer held in one place. e Corruption and War- Many times the spread of power led to officials abusing their power or civil wars to battle for power.