after nearly half a millennium of rule, the romans finally lost their grip on europe in the fifth century (the 400's ce). their decline left in its wake untold devastation, political chaos and one of the most fascinating and problematical issues in history, what caused the "fall of rome," the problem we'll tackle in this chapter. though roman government in the form of the byzantine empire survived in the east for almost another thousand years, so-called barbarian forces overran western europe, spelling the end of an era. while rome's absence in the west brought with it tremendous changeand none of it seemed very positive, at least at firstbefore we can even address the question of why rome logged off and europe switched users, we must understand how this transition happened and what exactly came to a close during this period. the best way to answer that question is to look ahead to the changes which rome's demise produced. within two centuries after its purported "fall" in 476 ceby the seventh century, that iseurope looked very different from the days when the romans were in charge. by virtually every measurable standard, western civilization had relapsed severely. trade had virtually disappeared, taking with it the european economy and the basis of civilized life, and because most of the populace was by then mired in dismal squalor, unable to travel or attend school, education and literacy were all but relics of the past. the invasions of non-roman outsiders had so badly disrupted the region that, in the words of one modern historian, it was as if "western civilization went camping for five hundred years."
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