this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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During the waning days of the Roman Empire they suffered from major manpower shortages, as well as a lot of refugee "barbarian" tribes who wanted to settle within their borders. The Romans then tried to use these barbarians as their primary fighting force, while also treating them like savages who should be kicked out of Roman lands. It didn't go well for them when they tried that, but they were unable to put aside their racist attitudes towards "barbarians" and it helped destroy them.
Sure sounds familiar doesn't it. US now has a declining population and it's increasingly relying on immigrants from Latin America for labor while treating them as subhuman and giving them no rights. I mean what could go wrong here.
The late Roman period was also characterized by sudden and intense climate change as well. Though that one was natural.
Oh yeah, I forgot all about that. There was a plague too as I recall.
I don't recall one in the final days of the Roman empire, there was one that contributed to the crisis of the third century, and the was the plague of Justinian in the west that contributed to a major weakening of the Eastern Roman empire, but I personally haven't heard about many plagues during the late 5th century. I'm not an expert though, so this could very easily just be me not knowing.
so I got curious, and turns out there was a plague and it's also linked to climate change https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-roman-empires-worst-plagues-were-linked-to-climate-change/
Interesting stuff, though the article doesn't mention a plague during the fall of the western Roman empire, which was the area I was talking about specifically. They had plenty of plagues in other times though, and they were absolutely linked with climate change, as poor harvests and famines allow disease to spread much easier, people have weaker immune systems from lack of nutrition and they move around more as their farmland is not growing anything and they have to farm elsewhere.
Yup, there's actually a really fun podcast on the fall of Rome that goes into a lot of social, environmental, and economic issues that came together https://wondery.com/shows/the-fall-of-rome-podcast/
There is also old but interesting book about social history of Rome by Geza Alfoldy, Hungarian historian who at first claim he's not using marxist methods, but the book is really full of it.
neat!
I recently started listening to it lol, I'm up to episode 4 I think, I tend to drift in and out when I listen to podcasts and its very thorough so I have to keep re-listening to episodes multiple times so I can understand it. I don't mind though.
Oh yeah I now what you mean. :)