Western Europe after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire

By the time it had reached its zenith during the second-century of the Common Era, the Roman Empire had developed into one of the greatest civilizations the ancient world had ever known. Cities scattered across an imperial region that stretched from the North Sea to the Red Sea had flourished under a well-ordered governing body housed in Rome. These regional centers stood unfortified in the countryside, while armies stationed along the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates sustained the Pax Romana, or Roman Peace. By the beginning of the third-century, though, the empire was in the midst of crisis. Indeed, over the course of this century, “internal anarchy” and “foreign invasion” would so radically transform the great Roman realm that during the fourth-century it was ultimately spilt in two. Although the prominence of Rome would be reestablished in the eastern part of the empire during the early fourth-century reign of Constantine, as the fifth-century began it became increasingly clear that the western part of the empire could no longer be sustained. What led to this gradual collapse of the Western Roman Empire? And further, how did what we call “Western Europe” emerge out of the crumbling expanse that was the Roman imperial West? To attempt to answer these questions, we must begin by examining how the Roman Empire was originally established.