World History up to 1500: Empires of Faith Q&A

Question: What relationship did Germanic peoples have with the Roman state?
Answer: Germanic peoples were alternately allies and enemies of the Roman Empire. As these groups migrated into Roman territory, the Romans made many of them foederati, meaning they served in the Roman military in exchange for semiautonomy. As a result, many Germans settled in Roman territory and participated in Roman social life, while during periods of conflict, others were enslaved in Roman households.

Question: Did Rome really “fall” in the fifth century CE? Why or why not?
Answer: The western empire was increasingly fractured by the incursion, sometimes gradual and at other times violent, of Germanic migratory groups. Instead of thinking of a particular moment in which Rome “fell,” we should instead view this period as one experiencing various transitions in different territories. In some cases, authority and law were transformed in states emerging in the West and in the Byzantine East that preserved a quasi-Roman culture, such as Britain. In other instances, Roman power was forcibly broken when Rome could no longer exert authority and control over the outlying provinces.

Question: What were the clearest influences on the development and decline of the Kushan Empire?
Answer: The Kushan Empire was able to utilize its geographic position to control trade along the Silk Roads linking the Roman Empire and China. It was also able to oversee a multiethnic and complex culture, and it acted as a cultural force in introducing Buddhism to different regions. The empire’s decline was a result of its fragmentation into eastern and western halves that were easily exploited by other empires.