answers.input_text: short
answers.span_text: its vast territory was divided into several successor polities
questions: what happened to western rome after it fell
name: Fall of the Western Roman Empire
contexts: The Fall of the Western Roman Empire ( also called Fall of the Roman Empire or Fall of Rome ) was the process of decline in the Western Roman Empire in which it failed to enforce its rule , and its vast territory was divided into several successor polities . The Roman Empire lost the strengths that had allowed it to exercise effective control ; modern historians mention factors including the effectiveness and numbers of the army , the health and numbers of the Roman population , the strength of the economy , the competence of the Emperor , the religious changes of the period , and the efficiency of the civil administration . Increasing pressure from barbarians outside Roman culture also contributed greatly to the collapse . The reasons for the collapse are major subjects of the historiography of the ancient world and they inform much modern discourse on state failure .