Economics of History

            In today's economy we are faced with fears of losing our jobs, inflation, stock market crashes, and war. These fears feed decisions we make every day with our careers, what we buy, and how we live. Over a thousand years ago, the same things were going on. We just have more electronics than the Romans.

            The world was full of anger, violence and conquest. The Romans specifically were masters of those three traits. Spanning an empire across Europe and towards the middle east, they destroyed many civilizations in an attempt to spread and preserve their own. But humanity has the ability to create and destroy everywhere. Where did the Romans go wrong?

           Romans spent most of their time taxing their provinces, pulling all of the wealth of the world back to Italy, and looking for battles where they could capture more land and more treasure. Their economy was driven on trade and conquest, mostly the latter of those two values. However, after conquest, they did not massacre every people they defeated, but instead let them live. Over time, those peoples grew again, larger than before, and the Romans could no longer afford to defend their borders.  One of the major problems was the people were no longer happy with their government. They chafed at the laws meant to guide them and hold them in place. 

             The Roman Empire collapsed, and with it the invading Germanic tribes managed to penetrate almost to the city of Rome itself. A great age was lost, and our world was plunged into darkness. 

Will that tragedy happen again?