The Roman rule of Britain- or Britannica as it was known- lasted for 350 years between 43AD until 410AD. The Romans invaded Britain for many reasons including the fact that they were attracted to Britain's metals and they could use the people for slaves.
They completely transformed the British way of life... so why did the Romans decide to leave Britain?
1. Rome was under attack
Even though the Roman Empire was very large and covered most of Europe, the Roman Empire was being attacked by a range of tribes in lots of different places. This meant that to defend the Roman Empire against these tribes, every Roman soldier had to be recalled to defend the Empire.
This meant that eventually all of the Roman soldiers who had been stationed in Britain, had to be called back to Rome. As a result, Britain was left undefended and exposed.
2. Britain was 'not important'
Despite the fact that Britain had a multitude of riches- wood, metals and people- it was not considered by the Emperor to be important enough to defend. Britain was at the edge of the Roman Empire and as a result of this was one of the first parts of the Roman Empire to be abandoned.
3. They left local warlords in charge
Whilst the Romans were defending their Empire, they had to leave Britain. They knew they had to have somebody in charge- but the question was- who? Sadly, they chose to leave local warlords (gangsters) in charge of the regions of Britain- they turned out to be completely useless.
At this point in history, Britain was being attacked by the Picts (Scots) and the Celts- as well as the Saxons. They proved to be far too strong for the warlords, who failed to carry out the Romans' wishes to defend Britain. This was the point the Anglo Saxons began to take over Britain.
4. The Roman Empire was too big
As the Roman Empire grew, it became too difficult to defend. To police and defend all of the boundaries takes a lot of soldiers. All of these soldiers cost a lot of money. Rome needed to spend its money defending Rome itself- it simply could not afford to pay the soldiers to stay in Britain. With no money to pay the soldiers, the soldiers had to come home.
5. New invading tribes were not interested in Roman life
The new tribes who invaded Britain- and eventually became known as the Anglo Saxons- were not interested how the Romans used to live in Britain. They did not care about the Roman systems of life. Instead they abandoned the Roman towns and preferred to live in small village settlements near the forests. The Roman systems of rule were ignored and forgotten about as the Anglo Saxons used their own new ideas on how to live. As a result, all memories of the Romans were almost forgotten. It is only through Roman diarists such as Tacitus that we know about how the Romans lived.
Put into simple terms, the Roman Empire had been powerful and mighty for hundreds of years. However, as the Empire grew and grew, it became more difficult to defend. Rome simply did not have enough money to defend all of its borders against violent tribes. As a result, they had to recall all of the soldiers from Britain- they were too expensive to leave in a land which Rome now believed to be unimportant.
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