Why Great Societies Fail

There are many important contributors as to why great societies fall. Have you ever wondered what they are? Over the years the reasons why have become very apparent to people, and most of these causes have happened to almost all of the societies that have fallen. These problems have occurred with many societies, including, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, and Hitler’s Germany. Overall, great societies fall because of internal problems such as, unemployment which leaves people begging for money, political corruption that has government officials constantly fighting, and fast expansion making it very difficult for soldiers to be at all of the borders protecting the whole empire.

One of the main reasons great societies fall is because of unemployment. Wealthier people owned farms and had slaves work, making their goods cheaper. However, farmers who had freed men that they had to pay could not sell their goods for very cheap, because they needed the money to pay the workers with. Eventually, the farmers couldn’t keep up with the cheap goods and eventually lost their farms leaving them unemployed and the freed men working for them. These unemployed people brought crime rates up in a large amount. “During the latter years of the empire farming was done on large estates called latifundia that were owned by wealthy men who used slave labor. A farmer who had to pay workmen could not produce goods as cheaply. Many farmers could not compete with these low prices and lost or sold their farms. These people were not only a burden but also had little to do but cause trouble and contribute to an ever increasing crime rate.” With so many unemployed people in Germany at the time of the Great Depression, they started asking for loan...

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... can and have fallen from reasons such as unemployment, political corruption, and fast expansion, all coming from the inside. There have been many reasons that societies have come and gone, and I believe that all of the ones I have stated are big contributors that will get to the United States one day and ultimately lead to our fall.

Works Cited

http://www.rome.info/history/empire/fall/ http://alphahistory.com/weimargermany/great-depression/ http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/foundation_gr8/blms/8-3-5e.pdf http://www.ushistory.org/civ/6f.asp http://www.ukapologetics.net/weimar.html http://www.lookandlearn.com/blog/17632/the-rise-and-fall-of-ancient-greece/ http://www.examiner.com/article/overexpansion-and-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire http://www.historyonthenet.com/Chronology/timelinenazigermany.htm http://www.livius.org/maa-mam/macedonia/macedonia4.html