ugh into Italy and Rome. Also, the Eastern Empire had access to importantly vital natural resources and open trade routes into the Far East, China, India, and other parts of Asia. The West had natural resources that were useless to them and inaccessible without proper technology. The West had unfriendly neighbors near them, including the late Carthaginians, the Nordic tribes of Northern Europe, the Gaels, the Visigoths, the Huns and many other Germanic tribes. In conclusion, the weak economy was the catalyst for the fall of the Western Roman Empire. If the Roman leaders had not been so power hungry and cause civil wars, brining chaos to the Roman government, then perhaps they could have been prepared for the German tribes that were coming in to capture Rome. It is apparent, through all of the problems that came to the late Roman Empire (political strife, economical deficit, military weakening, looting of the Roman treasury by barbarian tribes, discontinuing of trade between the east and west which destroyed the relationship and unity of the empire, and the final invasions of the empire by the Germans), that the leaders of Rome following the Pax Romana were not paying adequate attention to the state of the empire. If they had been ruling sufficiently, then most of these problems that Rome faces could and would have been repaired, and the empire would have restored itself. Instead, the leaders focused their attention on power, fame and pleasure instead of true leadership of the empire. Because of this, the problems that came to Rome were never dealt with properly, and Rome gradually disintegrated instead of restoring itself. Some historians say that the official downfall of Rome came in 476 AD when the last Roman Emperor was overthrown. However, it is evident that Romes demise was a gradual regression of the state of the empire due to problems that branched off of very poor leadership. The Western Empire suffered greatly due to economic...
