Did the Roman Empire 'fall'?

Q: Did the Roman Empire 'fall'?
A: The Roman Empire consisted of most of the western part of Europe and part of Africa. The fall of the Roman Empire has been, and will continue to be, one of the greatest, most asked historical questions. Since Rome still exists today, some people argue that it never actually ‘fell,’ instead it adjusted itself. There are over two-hundred different theories about how the Roman Empire fell. Rome was not able to be an effective capital for the Emperor in the late third century. Other cities then became the administrative capital. After that, the country was governed by more than one, usually two, emperors. The decline occurred over a long period of time, about three hundred and twenty years. Romulus Augustus was the emperor in power when the empire fell. There are thought to be two main reasons for this empire’s fall; the deterioration of the economy of Rome and the brutal, barbaric, and cruel invasions. The inflation of the economy and poor management played a very large role in the deterioration of the economy of Rome. Another reason is that because the Roman Empire spilt into eastern and western empires, governed by two separate emperors, which ultimately caused Rome to fall. The eastern half became known as the Byzantine Empire, its capital being in modern Istanbul and the main part of the western half was still in Italy. The Western Empire had its administrative capitals in Trier, Milan, and Ravenna. The Eastern Empire had its administrative capital in Nicomedia. The Eastern Empire had more independence than the Western Empire. The Western Emperors were usually just figureheads. The actual rulers in the West were in the military. Rome remained the largest city and the economic center in the Western Empire, even though it was not the capital. Soon, the Germanic invasions conquered most of the Western Empire of Rome. Even though the Germanic invasions conquered most of Rome, the Roman culture would last into the sixth century. The Gothic War, which was launched by the eastern emperor in the sixth century, was meant to reunite the Eastern and Western Empires, but instead made things worse between the two empires. The final blow was the Persians invading the Eastern Empire in the seventh century. This hurt the trade in the Mediterranean Sea; Europe depended on this trade very much. Rome was also spilt up culturally. One half was a Latin Empire and the other was a Greek Empire. It is thought that the Greek Empire was able to survive longer than the Latin Empire because it had most of the population, more money, a better military, and better rulers. The Roman Empire had become too large and vast to govern and control easily. The military stopped wearing their protective armor, which made them very vulnerable to the conquered people and the people of other lands. The leaders became very incompetent. There was also lead in the Romans water supply. Some smaller reasons for Rome’s fall were the rise of Christianity, the rise of Islam, and military problems. The first known recording of the decline and fall of Rome was not until the fifth century. Church leaders, over time, took away a lot of power from the emperor and became very influential to the Roman people. Vandals took over Africa and Rome lost Spain to the Sueves. The diverging of the politics and culture of the Latin, West Empire and the rich, Greek, East Empire had lasting consequences on historical, medieval Europe. The end of the Roman Empire marked the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the European Middle Ages.

Information from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_the_Roman_Empire
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/romefallarticles/a/fallofrome_2.htm