Roman Empire Vs Western Empire Essay

The collapse of the Roman Empire marked the beginning of what is known as the Medieval Kingdoms. Before the complete demise of Rome, the Empire was first split into two. From this split, emerged two separate empires, the east and west. The major political, social, and cultural impacts of the transition from the Roman Empire to the medieval kingdom is due to one Emperor in particular, Justinian. The Western and Eastern Empire experienced different fates upon their separation. The Western Empire eventually collapsed due to insufficient military protection (Pavlac). This caused the Western Empire to break into smaller kingdoms (Pavlac). In contrast, the eastern part of the empire was able to survive. From the eastern empire, the Bzyantine Empire emerged. The Emperor of the Bzyantine Empire was Justinian. Under Justinian’s rule, he tried to restore Rome to the way it was before its split. He did this by constantly expanding the military. In reality, though, the main purpose of this expansion was to squander the emperor’s thirst for blood. Justinian’s need to kill lead the Empire to be in extreme debt. This accumulated, and the people had to pay high taxes to make up for the Emperor’s misdoings. Also during his rule, Justinian was responsible for the …show more content…
This led to a lot of conversions, in order to avoid persecution. Under Justinian’s Codes, the emperor had the power to make laws and control the church. Through this, more people joined the faith whether they wanted to or not. This ultimately led to Christianity having a big role in society. So when the reign of Justinian was over, the Church had a foundation on which they continued on in great power. So when Germans later invaded the Empire, they and created a new society called the Christendom (Pavlac). However, these invaders were illiterate, and therefore lead to the medieval period. From this, the Church became more independent on its