Fall of Rome Project Videos

Here are some of the videos you watched in class. Feel free to use these as a source. Simply include them in your bibliography and your footnotes.


America & Rome Similarities



Reasons for the Fall of Rome

The Fall of Rome Project

DID ROME FALL, OR WAS IT PUSHED?

The theories surrounding the fall of Rome are many. Since the empire crumbled, all other great empires or nations have been compared to Rome, with many coming up short. For many years, the United States has been compared to the Roman Empire. There are those who say that we are following the same path to destruction as the ancient Romans.

To be fair... This is a modification of a project I found online here: http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/rome/

I've added the paper, changed the assignmnent slightly by requiring some different things, because I expect more from you guys.

Thanks to, David MacDonald
Fillmore Middle School, Fillmore USD
Region 8 & 11 Professional Development Consortium-SCORE Institute 1997

So, why did Rome fall?
Could their fate have been averted, and if so, would the world be different today? The answer lies in what you think after you have looked at all the facts. Let's examine what we know. We know the great empire known as Rome no longer exists. Now let's look at what we don't know:

1. Did plagues reduce the population to the point it could not sustain itself?
2. Did civil wars lessen the strength of the empire and weaken the population?
3. Did the army lose its discipline and thus endanger the empire and cause it to be overrun?
4. Did the citizens of Rome become too satisfied and lazy, allowing the empire to crumble due to neglect?
5. Did the empire bureaucracy become too top heavy, eventually causing the empire to collapse upon itself?
6. Did God turn His favor away from Rome due to its sinful nature?
7. Did it fall as the result of invasions from Germanic barbarians and/or the Huns?
8. Did the empire spend too much of its resources on the poor, thus drawing away precious funds from the empire? (the bread dole effect)
9. Was the Roman Empire just too big, making a collapse inevitable?
10. Was the weather or climate change responsible in any way?
11. Did the rise of the Christian or Muslim religions contribute?
12. Did the ever expanding gap between rich and poor have anything to do with it?

THE TASK

Your team is assigned the task of researching the reasons for the fall of Rome and coming to a conclusion as to why it did. As you investigate. Look at each question carefully and answer it with an eye for both truth and explanation.

THE PROCESS

Be sure to stay within this framework:

A. Divide the research questions amongst yourselves as you are working on this as a team. All within the group need to participate. The more opinions you have the better, as this will assist in reaching a reasonable conclusion.

B. Within your team, you should come up with a list of general reasons why you feel a large empire or country might fall.

C. When finished, each team member should advance a theory as to why Rome fell. You may have one theory, or it may be a combination of several theories.

D. Organize your recommendations into a presentation to be presented to a panel of world history experts. These experts will judge your conclusions based on appropriateness, thoroughness, and quality.

E. The panel of judges will be asking you questions about why you chose one theory over another, so be prepared to prove, disprove and defend your ideas.

F. Your paper should be 3-4 pages in length and should support FULLY your theories for the fall of Rome. Your paper should have a bibliography and use footnotes to support your claims.


RESOURCES

These websites have great information to help you figure out what caused the decline of the Roman Empire. I suggest scouring through all of these before moving on to other sites.

http://killeenroos.com/1/Romefall.htm

http://www.pbs.org/thinktank/show_501.html

http://www.roman-empire.net/diverse/faq.html

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/romefallarticles/a/fallofrome.htm

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/uc_dorrington1.htm

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/history/fall.htm

http://roman-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/romes_fall_from_power

http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture14b.html

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/50025

http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-7.html

In your book:
Page 174 – chart – Multiple Causes: Fall of the Roman Empire
Page 177 – Primary/Secondary source documents
Page 173 – 176 – The Fall of the Roman Empire


LEARNING ADVICE
It is your job to research these questions fully and develop sound theories to describe the reasons for the fall of Rome. A possible scenario would be to eliminate those theories that can't be supported by fact and focus on the ones that can be fully supported with your research. It is also important to look for facts and not opinions. While no one yet knows for sure why Rome fell, there are many more opinions than facts. Your job is to separate the two.

EVALUATION
Your work will be assessed based on the thoroughness of your research, the accuracy of your conclusions, and the quality of your presentation.

I would expect that all team members contribute to the final presentation, and are prepared to answer questions about the team’s decisions.

Your presentation will be both oral and type written, explaining the reasons for the fall of Rome.

I would expect that your paper and presentation compliment each other and are not one in the same.


People, Places, Events and Terms To Know:

By the end of the project, you may be able to identify many of the following terms. These are important in helping you figure out the causes for Rome’s decline.

Barbarians
Mongolia
Huns
Goths
Ostrogoths
Visigoths
Punic Wars
Theodosius I (Arcadius and Honorius)
Alaric
Vandals
Angles and Saxons
Visigothic Sack of Rome
Arian Christianity (Arianism)
Vandalic Sack of Rome
Vandalism
Attila / "The Scourge of God"
Battle of Châlons
Pope Leo I
Romulus Augustulus
Edward Gibbon
Constantine
Christianity
Diaspora
Pax Romana
Triumvirate
Diocletian

Rome's Rulers

World History Homework
Read pages 160-165 and answer the following questions.
You can write your answers below or type/write your answers on another sheet.

What reforms did Julius Caesar bring to Rome?

Why do you think Caesar’s rivals wanted to kill him?

Octavian was granted the title “Augustus” or “exalted one”. What kinds of things did he do to earn this title?

Augustus’ rule set precedent for Roman peace that lasted for over 200 years. What was this called and what kinds of changes were made during this time? (think about the changes to government, trade, agriculture, daily life, etc…)

Hellenistic Culture

Here's a bunch of information about the Hellenistic culture... videos, pictures, some short blurbs to read...

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Hellenistic_civilization.aspx

360 Degree View of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece

I've found a cool website with 360 degree views of the Acropolis in Athens.

Most of this stuff was knocked down during the Persian invasions, and was later rebuilt. The Parthenon is dedicated to the goddess Athena Parthenos. The design of the building, built entirely of marble.

The dimensions of the Parthenon are 225 feet in length, 100 feet in width, and the columns of the outer colonnade are 34 feet high. (a paper towel role is 11 inches?) How can we calculate the other dimensions of the Pathenon to scale using this information? Oh... Algebra... imagine that! Talk to Ms. Davis, she should be able to help us.

Here's the link to the 360 degree views.

http://dkv.columbia.edu/vmc/acropolis/#1_1

Modern Day Singapore - and Hammurabi's Code

Hammurabi's Code of laws are very strict, and the punishment usually is appropriate for the crime. (If you steal something, your hand is cut off.) He had very strict laws because it would keep his people in line. Nobody wants to commit even a small crime because the penalty is so great. Modern day Singapore has a similar philosophy. So I challenged some of you to find some of the laws that Singapore enforced and many of you came back with some great info... here are the highlights:

• Failure to flush a public toilet after use could attract hefty fines
• shoplifting and theft are considered SERIOUS offenses... in the US, they're not.
• the sale of GUM is prohibited
• bungee jumping is illegal
• if you are convicted of littering 3 times, you will have to clean the streets on sundays, and wear a sign that says "I'm a litterer" (We are still determining the truth of this claim.)
• serious crimes like weapons offenses could attract the death penalty
• smoking is ILLEGAL in public places - Entering Singapore with cigarettes is considered an offense.

It is no wonder that Singapore is one of the countries with the lowest incident of crime in the world.

Thank you to all of the students who contributed to this information... I'd love to hear your comments on the situation...

What is your culture?

Scour the internet to find a picture - and tell us how it is "Your Culture"

Cave Paintings

Here are the links to help you explore the cave paintings... Follow the directions below. Let me know if you have any questions.

Assignment 1:

Go to: http://www.historylink101.com/lessons/art_history_lessons/cave_art1.htm
Questions to Consider. (Answer the following on a separate sheet of paper.)
Facts:

1) What type of materials did early man use to paint on the walls of caves?
2) What colors were used the most in their cave art?
3) In what part of the world is most cave art found??

Explore:
4) Which was your favorite painting? Why?

5) Why do you think early man chose the subjects (i.e. the objects of the paintings) they did for their painting/drawings?

6) How realistic or abstract are the paintings of early man? What could this tell us about them?

Assignment 2:
Then go to: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stoneage/toolkit.html and click on the image on the left side to launch the interactive tool kit.

Click on each tool to try and identify its use or purpose.

How well did you do?
Leave your comments on the blog below. (Don't use last names - first names and initial will do)

Get a better understanding of the MIgration of Early Man

Take a look at this map.
Use the arrows in the upper right to scroll forward.

In the comment field below, tell me what stands out to you?

http://www.classzone.com/webquest/MC_interactives/AC_01_migration/AC_02_047_migration.html

Pres. Obama challenges U.S. Students to do their Best

President Barack Obama addressed the nation's youth today. He encouraged them to think about personal responsibility, persistence and goal setting. After watching/reading/listening to the speech, what is your reaction?

For homework, answer two of the following bullet points:

• What resonated with you from President Obama's speech? What lines or phrases will you remember?
• Who is President Obama addressing? How do you know? Describe his audience.
• Is President Obama inspiring you to do anything? Is he challenging you to do anything?
• What do you believe are the challenges of your generation? How can you be a part of addressing these challenges?
  

If you'd rather read the speech, here it is: http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/

Hello Class of 2013!

Welcome to your World History Collaboration Blog.

We'll be using this blog as a means for communication, a place to post homework, view links and videos and much more.

The information on this site will not be comprehensive and will only be a portion of the work we do in class.

Here's a link to some of the information in Chapter 1 - to help you get started:
http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/wh_survey05/page_build.htm?id=resources/jsp/chapter_links/chapter_links_ch1