The changes that took place in Western Europe in political and economic life after the end of the Roman Empire: 

(1) The Western provinces had their capital in Rome while Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern provinces.

(2) The Roman emperor Constantine had set up the new capital of the eastern territories, the ancient Greek city of Byzantine in 330 A.D. It came to be known as Constantinople after his name.

(3) The Roman Empire continued to exist in the East for almost a thousand years after it had collapsed in the West. It was known as the Eastern Roman or the Byzantine empire. This eastern civilization of Greek speaking people reached very high standards of economic and cultural life at a time when Western Europe was in a very backward condition.

(4) The Roman empire in the West came to an end by attacks of various Germanic tribes like the Goths, Vandals, Visigoths and Franks. After overthrowing the Roman empire in the West in 476 A.D., these invaders established separate tribal kingdoms.

(5) It is a historical fact that the new Germanic rulers did not exactly replace the earlier systems with their own. In fact Roman and Germanic societies came into close contact and merged with each other. As a result of this and the prevailing political and economic conditions a new type of society was born in Europe, with institutions and systems that were quite different from either Roman or Germanic ones. The most important institution of this new society was feudalism.