Imperialism is defined as "a policy, practice, or state support for extending power and dominion, especially through the direct acquisition of territory or by gaining control political and economic than other areas" 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 Lazio until 44 BC, when Julius Caesar declared himself "Dictator always" 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 witness the imperialistic ideals of a republic blossom in the widespread chaos caused by a wide gap between social classes. This was the result of cultural diffusion failure and the inability of a government body to adapt to changes as a result of their imperialistic greed. Although historians debate the real reasons behind 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 reason behind the expansion was the abundance of wealth and resources to be gained by conquering nearby lands, while others believe that pre-emptive wars to weaken perceived enemies were the best defense against attacks by others. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. However, the abundance of evidence demonstrating Rome's imperialistic greed suggests that the main motive may indeed have been wealth and power. By the 4th century BC the Roman army had surpassed all other forces in the Mediterranean area as an effective weapon of war. They were well organized units of foot soldiers and cavalry called Legions and within these were subdivisions known as Centurions. They built an intricate road network that covered the entire Italian peninsula and planted colonies of citizens on these networks, all for the purpose of encouraging the gradual fusion of Italy's different cultures into a more unified whole, but also as a means of providing protection to a dominated country from Rome where Latin became the common language. Around 300 BC, up to 150,000 people lived within the city walls, and 750,000 free Roman citizens inhabited various parts of Italy on lands taken from local populations. The massive gap between populations stemmed from the large amounts of land Rome had conquered during its campaigns. This large rural population had become the victim of growing economic hardship which can be traced to a rather unfortunate combination of rising birth rates, leading to an inability to support larger families, and the difficulties of keeping farms productive when many men were absent. in long-term military campaigns. Many wealthy landowners, however, managed to secure control of large tracts of this public land for their own use, which led to growing anger on the part of the poor as they watched the rich become richer through the illegal monopolization of public land intended for 'use of the working class. In the 3rd century BC wealthy and politically successful patricians and plebeians viewed their interests as similar rather than in conflict or competition. Their agreement on matters of state politics and finance amounted to a new definition of the upper class, making the old division of their "orders" obsolete. Members of the upper classes derived their wealth primarily from agricultural land, but began to increase their wealth through plunder.through their new rank of officers and to successful military expeditions against foreign enemies. The Roman state had no regular income or inheritance taxes, so financially prudent families could pass down their wealth from generation to generation, which the upper class began to abuse. All these factors fueled the greed of the rich Romans who had decided to expand to gain even more wealth but could not foresee the negative consequences of their greed. The true beginning of the imperialistic conquest of Rome came from the wars fought between the Romans and the Carthaginians, commonly called 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 advanced naval battle strategies which Rome lacked as all their conquests had been land battles up to that point. The first war began in 264 BC, when a band of mercenaries in the city of Mysina, at the north-eastern tip of Sicily, near Italy, failed to perform military service. In desperation, the mercenaries simultaneously asked Rome and Carthage for help. Appius Claudius Caudex, the patrician consul, convinced the Senate to vote for sending 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 decades-long conflict revealed why the Romans were consistently successful in their conquest as they were ready to sacrifice as many lives as possible, spend as much money and continue to fight for as long as necessary as was their tradition: never give up. The Romans and their allies persevered in the First Punic War despite the loss of 250,000 men and more than 500 warships from their new navy. The second war broke out when Saguntum fell to the Carthaginian siege and lasted from 218 BC to 201 BC. The innovative Carthaginian general Hannibal, hardened by years of warfare in Spain, “shocked the Romans by marching a force of troops and elephants through 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 "delay" which, combined with the loyal support of the Italians, became a real handful for Hannibal. Hannibal was finally 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 reduce their navy to a minimum, pay large war indemnities, expected to last fifteen years, and cede territory in Spain. The Romans subsequently fought a long series of wars for control of the area, but the enormous profits would have been made mainly from Spain's many mineral resources, which made the efforts worthwhile. The Romans continued to win every war fought in the first 400 years of the Republic. These battles had major consequences as they lasted for several years with prolonged periods of fierce conflict with terrible loss of life and enormous expense. 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 more territory than any other nation. Roman imperialism could be defined as the desire of both the upper classRoman Empire and the Roman people in general to benefit financially from the fruits of war, conquest and the traditional drive to achieve glory. However, the unanticipated socioeconomic effects brought about by imperialistic ideals were much more harmful than expected. First, with the expansion of power and diplomacy came the monetary profits that the Roman upper class reaped. This greed for wealth caused an increased demand for newly-ranked officials who could not only command foreign campaigns, but also profit from plunder. Second, as the Romans continued to expand their territory, they needed more leaders with political power to govern the territory. The traditional electors were unable to elect people from the new provinces because not only did they have to be part of the Roman upper class, but they had to come from a wealth that most people living in the provinces did not come from. As a result of this dilemma, pre-elected officials were allowed to hold their positions of power for long periods of time in a greater number of provinces, which went against the traditional law which stipulated that seats could not be held for more than one given period. amount of time The level of autonomy of the governors 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 were not held responsible. For hundreds of years, farmers working on modest-sized plots of land in the Italian countryside had become the economic backbone of Roman agricultural production. The peasants who worked these lands were also constitutionally required to be a major source of soldiers for the Roman army since only men who owned property could serve. As a result, the Republic encountered serious economic, commercial, social, and military difficulties as the wars of the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC had proven disastrous for many farms throughout Italy. Over 50% of Roman adult males spent 7 years in military service during this period, which forced them to leave their family and property unattended for long periods of time, leaving their wives and children to take care of the monotonous and physically demanding work of the agriculture. Beyond that, women were also responsible for bringing water from wells for 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 impoverished farmers by purchasing their plots to create larger states. Landowners further increased their holdings by illegally occupying public lands that the Romans originally confiscated from defeated populations in Italy and which had been specifically designated 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 both slaves and free workers. The rich had a ready supply of slaves to work on their mega farms due to the large number of prisoners taken in the same wars which had not favored the displacement of small Italian farmers. These actions once again deepened the social class divide as wealthy landowners began to take lands owned by common people and use them for their own personal financial benefit. The detrimental effect of Roman expansion on poor peasant families became a major issue that exacerbated the.