Imperialism is defined as “a state policy, practice, or advocacy aimed at expanding power and domination, especially through territorial acquisition direct or by gaining political and economic control of other regions” and One of the best examples of an imperialist society to date is the Roman Republic. From 499 BC, when the Romans first defeated their neighbors in Latium, to 44 BC, when Julius Caesar declared himself "dictator for all time" and was stabbed 23 times following a conspiracy of many Roman senators led by Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius. Brutus Albinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, we see the imperialist ideals of a republic flourishing in the widespread chaos caused by a great division between social classes. This was the result of a failure of cultural diffusion and the inability of a government agency to adapt to changes due to their imperialist greed. Although historians debate the true reasons for the need for such rapid expansion, there are two main schools of thought related to the true nature of their proliferation. Some believe that the motive for this expansion was the abundance of wealth and resources that could be obtained by conquering neighboring lands, while others believe that preemptive wars aimed at weakening perceived enemies were the best defense against attacks from others. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Yet the abundance of evidence implicating Rome's imperialist greed suggests that the primary motive may well be wealth and power. By the 4th century BC, the Roman army had surpassed all other forces in the Mediterranean region as an effective weapon of war. These were well-organized units of infantry and cavalry called legions and within these were subdivisions known as centurions. They built a complex road network that stretched the length of the Italian peninsula and planted citizen colonies on these networks, with the aim of contributing to the gradual merging of Italy's diverse cultures into a more unified whole, but also as a means of providing protection to a country dominated by Rome in which Latin became the common language. By 300 BC, up to 150,000 people lived within the city walls and 750,000 free Roman citizens inhabited various regions of Italy on land taken from local populations. The massive division of populations came from the vast areas of land that Rome had conquered throughout their campaigns. This large rural population had become victims of increasing economic hardship which can be attributed to a rather unfortunate mix of an increasing birth rate which resulted in an inability to support larger families and the difficulties of maintaining farm productivity when many men were absent. on long-term military campaigns. Many wealthy landowners, however, managed to gain control of large tracts of these public lands for their own use, sparking growing anger among the poor, who saw the rich getting richer through the illegal monopolization of public lands. intended for the use of the working class. By the 3rd century BC, wealthy and politically successful Patricians and Plebeians viewed their interests as similar rather than contradictory or competing. Their agreement on matters of state policy and finance amounted to a newdefinition of a superior class, making the old division of their “orders” obsolete. Members of the upper class derived their wealth primarily from agricultural land, but they began to increase their wealth through plunder gained through their new officer rank and successful military expeditions against foreign enemies. The Roman state had no regular income or inheritance taxes, allowing financially prudent families to pass their wealth down from generation to generation, which the upper class began to abuse. All of these factors fueled the greed of the wealthy Romans who had decided to expand to gain even more wealth, but they could not foresee the negative consequences of their greed. The real beginning of the imperialist conquest of Rome came from the wars fought between the Romans and the Carthaginians, commonly known as the Punic Wars. Carthage was a republic like Rome that had established massive maritime trade throughout the Mediterranean Sea. They were quite similar to Rome, but their advantage lay in their advanced naval battle strategies, something that Rome lacked since all of their conquests until then had been land battles. The first war began in 264 BC, when a band of mercenaries in the town of Misina, on the northeastern tip of Sicily, near Italy, failed in military service. In desperation, the mercenaries simultaneously called for help from Rome and Carthage. Appius Claudius Caudex, the patrician consul, persuaded the Senate to vote to send an army to Sicily by promising them rich plunder. When the two armies met, a battle broke out between the forces of the competing powers, the result was a war that lasted a generation from 264 BC to 241 BC. This decade-long conflict revealed why the Romans were always successful in their conquest, because they were willing to sacrifice so many lives, spend so much money, and continue fighting for as long as necessary, as their tradition dictated. : never surrender. The Romans and their allies persevered in the First Punic War despite losing 250,000 men and over 500 warships from their newly constructed navy. The second war ensued when Sagunto fell under Carthaginian siege and this war lasted from 218 BC to 201 BC. The innovative Carthaginian general Hannibal, hardened by years of war in Spain, "shocked the Romans by marching a force of troops and elephants across the passes of the Alps to invade Italy." Shock turned to terror when Hannibal killed more than 30,000 Romans in a single day at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. Hannibal terrorized the Romans by marching along the borders of Italy for 15 years. The Romans, led by general Fabius Maximus, employed a strategy called "delaying" which, combined with loyal Italian support, became a handshake for Hannibal. Hannibal was ultimately defeated at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC by Scipio, a famous Roman general. The Romans imposed a punitive peace agreement on the Carthaginians, forcing them to downplay their navy, pay huge war indemnities, scheduled to last fifteen years, and abandon territories in Spain. The Romans then fought long series of wars for control of the region, but the enormous profits had to be made mainly from Spain's multitude of mineral resources, making these efforts worth it. The Romans continued to win every war they fought during the first 400 years of the Republic. These battles had major consequences because they lasted several years with prolonged bitter conflicts withterrible loss of life and expense of magnificence. These hard-won victories had both intended and unintended consequences for Rome and the values ​​of Roman society. By 100 BC, the Romans had established control of a territory larger than any nation. Roman imperialism could be defined as the desire of the Roman upper class and the Roman people in general to benefit financially from the rewards of war, conquest, and the traditional quest for glory. However, the unforeseen socio-economic effects caused by imperialist ideals have been far more damaging than expected. First, with the expansion of power and diplomacy, the Roman upper class reaped monetary benefits. This greed for wealth caused an increase in demand for newly ranked officials, capable not only of commanding foreign campaigns but also of profiting from plunder. Second, as the Romans continued to expand their territory, they needed more leaders with political power to govern the country. The traditional elected officials were unable to elect people from the new provinces because not only were they required to be part of the Roman upper class, but they had to come from wealth that the majority of people in the provinces did not possess. As a result of this dilemma, pre-elected officials were allowed to retain their positions of power for extended periods in more provinces, which went against traditional law which stated that seats could not be occupied for more than a given duration. amount of time. The level of autonomy the governors had and the fact that the provinces were governed by martial law fueled their greed and corruption and allowed them to commit crimes for which they did not have to answer. For hundreds of years, farmers working small-scale plots of land in the Italian countryside had become the economic backbone of Roman agricultural production. The farmers who farmed these lands were also constitutionally required to be a primary source of soldiers for the Roman army, as only men with property could serve. As a result, the Republic encountered serious economic, commercial, social, and military difficulties, as the wars of the second and third centuries BC had proven disastrous for many farms throughout Italy. More than 50% of adult Roman men lived 7 years. military service during this period, which required them to leave their families and property unattended for long periods of time, leaving their wives and children to handle the monotonous and physically arduous work of agriculture. In addition to this, women were also responsible for bringing water from wells to their families and weaving to create clothing for their children. As a result, many family farms fell into debt and had no choice but to sell their land. Rich landowners took advantage of poor farmers by purchasing their plots to create larger states. Landowners further increased their holdings by illegally occupying public lands that the Romans had initially confiscated from the vanquished in Italy and which had been earmarked specifically for public use. This was further evidence of the deep corruption that had infiltrated the Roman upper class. In this way, the wealthy acquired vast estates worked by slaves as well as free workers. The rich had a reserve of slaves to..