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Fall Of Of Great Roman Empire

After the fall of the great Roman political authority in the West early medieval society began to enter the “Dark Ages.” The Early Middle Ages lasted from 400 to 1000 CE. For Western Europe, the most important causes of economic changes were internal. Many cities, such as, Italy, Gaul, and Spain continued to decline in the early middle ages. The late Roman systems of Western Europe were breaking down and most of society was illiterate. There is no evidence for writing, and the size of cities dramatically decreased. The new technology introduced in the Dark Ages was mainly military, such as, iron weapons, tools, the slashing sword and throwing spear.
Agriculturally land was passing out of cultivation and the late Roman system for taxes was collapsing. From the 660 CE the European rulers shifted their currency from gold to silver coinage. Luxury goods, gold, and silver were only available to the wealthy. The lower class society or peasantry relied mainly on barter and various currency substitutes to facilitate their transactions. Landlords were only able to collect rents from their peasants in food supplies. This became difficult for the landlords because they were not able to convert these payments of grain, wine, and meat, etc, into the weapons, jewelry, and silks they needed to maintain their prestige. The inability to convert peasant renders into cash was a serious handicap to the landlords. The seventh century had become an aristocratic society where power of the lords depended on their ability to give such high prestige gifts to their military followers.
The instability of power was a major difficulty all the royal dynasties of the early Middle Ages experienced in trying to regulate the succession to their thrones. This factor was a major contributor in the struggle for power in the Middle Ages. The kings who established themselves during the period of invasion in the fifth and sixth century did not come from royal families. The barbarian armies took over...