💥Why the Western Roman Empire never became a Superpower💥

#shorts #education #history #ancient #roman #rome

[historiepodden]

Superpower is a concept for modern times. I define Roman as a superpower for his time. :)

[danielefabbro]

Well the west was one of the most poor region of the planet ever seen until that times.
Gaul, Germany, British Islands had nothing to trade. Nothing.
While in east there was a shitload of trade and flux of money and gold.
Roman Empire was always plagued by the endemic poverty of the west. No taxes to raise, not enough food. No trade goods to use to establish commerce. Those regions was just a dead weight for Rome.
Spain was different. Not only gold, but also good iron to forge some of the best swords Roman's ever had. Spain was extremely useful.

[jacobloft]

The western empire was a superpower by ancient standards. It was just the weaker of the two half’s.

[GB-kocv]

Roman Empire was definitively a superpower

[skintim]

It was literally the most powerful monarchy in Europe at that time

[OutnBacker]

Usuaully, I comment on these shorts in order to add some bit of ifo, but this one pretty much says it all. The east was rich, the west was poor.

[kingbaldwiniv]

Visigoth Spain was very impressive and capable.

[reverseflashfacts]

Alt history western rome:”you know what screw the French I’m out of here”

[illidanstorm]

Also besides wealth you didn't mention one very important thing.And that is western Roman empire didn't have anything in comparison to Constantinople an impenetrable walls until cannons came into play...

[elmedioall]

I don't want to discourage somebody's effort but this is a case that demands it. The Western Roman Empire wasn't a rising power that didn't succeed to achieve super power status. Almost by definition it was a declining state from its Inception. It was indeed a superpower of its time but it was in Decline immediately superpower status is what it was declining from.

[tobiahrowswell]

It's important to remember that essentially the western half was in extreme poverty even for the standards of the time. This is why during the split of East and West emperors like Diocletian gave themselves the eastern portion. It's also why Constantine moved the capital away from Italy.

[labanwall]

If the West had spent more time worrying about their military and rebuilding from the Crisis of the Third Century (Which is what actually killed Rome as a whole) It would have been fine. Instead they paid German tribes as Foederati to fight wars for them making the army lazy. An the over trust of other tribes was just asking for it. The West made a lot of money and even Gaul made a lot of money from Agrarian products the West had a lot of money they were just dumb. The West died to incompetent leadership spending on everything but its army and Rebuilding/adding new infrastructure like the East did. Had it not been so Lazy to the point the Emperor and elites look down upon Romans serving in the military they would have easily slapped away any German Horde as soon as it tried to cross a river or mountain, and the Saxons/Franks/Suebi/ and others wouldn't have had the influence money or know of anything Roman since they all go rich helping Rome. Rome killed Rome, and this goes for both East and West.

[TIEfichter]

Heavily disagree, tax income in the west was way higher. The west had better land for agraculture, since the Balkan region was to rockey and the lavant too dry. Yes there was Egypt but that was the exeption. The west had way fewer enemies at the start. You say Germania. But in the east, remember the numerous hunnic tribes and the huge Persian empire which was far more developed than the germanic tribes.
And for defensibility, the west was neatly put away far from the most dangerous people and guarded by the ocean on 3 sides.
However Egypt, the Levant and Armenia were right next to Persia and in the north to the Huns. Plus very badly defendable terain when you get past the Caspian gates.

Soo noo it was a miracle that the west fell first in stead of the east. An eastern emperor even said that the west became recklessly neglegent cousing their downfall.

But this only makes the eastern Roman empire even greater in my opinion.

[carlomagno]

This is debatable, the western Roman empire defeated the greatest incursion of germans since Claudius gothicus numbering in the hundreds of thouands under Stilicho and then Attila under Aetius.

[juliansickmann]

But the West had the heartland with the biggest City rome

[tylerwerner]

The Western half of the Roman Empire was a super power? One has to consider men put in the field, logistics, etc to determine a super power and the west had that even when there was only a west. Rome achieved a status somewhat analogous to the US following WWII after their victory in the Punic wars. This would add most of modern Spain and Portugal and this is even before Gaul was fully romanized. One also has to consider that the majority of these places were sort of backwaters that the Romans built into rich provinces. Eastern Rome was rich before the conquest and had been since the Babylonians in many respects. At the end of the day we're talking about a civilization that is still relevant to us thousands of years later. When people think of that civilization they do not think of Byzantium you're average student is usually shocked when they find out about this Roman remnant. No we think of western Rome, inherently it is Rome it is in many ways definitive to what a super power is to the west.

[me-dsil]

"Why didn't Roman empire become a super power"? But surely you jest. Like everything else in this world it had a beginning, middle and end. At it's peak it was a super power of it's time. Unfortunately the rich became more desirous of maintaining their elitist privileges than the preservation of empire

[CASSIODORUS]

Silly .
The Roman empire by definition was a supreme superpower. “The western” Roman empire was a declining superpower again by definition by virtue of fragmentation.

[Cretaigne]

I'm going to try and be a bit more constructive than most comments. With a name like History documentary and a pfp like yours, people expect more from such a channel.explaining the fall of Western Rome in a youtube short is Impossible unless you take massive shortcuts, like you did with just the hand wave of the Gaulic border being expensive. A more appropriate video imo would be, for example, why was the Rhin border such a drain on Roman ressources and manpower. Make your scope smaller so you can go into some details.

[oktayciftci]

eastern part of empire became superpower rather than western roman