I got an oddly specific essay question surrounding the Roman Army and the impact that Roman occupation had on some of its provinces in the West.
So far, I'm planning to write about Roman loans/tributes in regions such as Tripolitania, to show how it negatively impacted the economy, but I also plan to write about how the Roman Army kept trade routes and sea routes safe, allowing for ease of trade and perhaps benefitting the economy in this sense, (although, of course, a lot of this would end up going back to Rome.) I also plan to write about how temperate Europe had a much greater military presence than the Mediterranean, but I'm not sure how I could implement economic factors into this?
Would I be able to discuss things such as the creation of Roman towns, which were formally legion camps? Could I write about the resources that regions such as Gaul and Britain offered, which may have intensified military presence in the region? Not looking for loads of answers, just point me in the right direction, thank you.
I can give you some further points to think about as you answer the essay prompt:
Your notion about the creation of towns is good. This is called urbanization. Why would the presence of thousands of soldiers in a certain spot fuel urbanization? What do soldiers want? Need? What of value do they have to give in return, specifically? What are the results of them, um, getting what they want?
What physical impact does a legionary fort have on the surroundings? the regional geography? Does the fort sit isolated from its surroundings? How is it accessed? How frequently? What is brought in to the fort, and how much of it, and from where, and by what means? Did those means exist before the fort?
What are the economic implications of the presence of armed force in a region? Does the presence of armed force stimulate the local economy? the regional? Why or why not? How was a given region different before the introduction of Roman rule?
What do Roman soldiers typically do when they aren't fighting? They were kept busy, generally speaking, but busy doing what?
Were Roman legions stationed in the provinces drawn from the local area, or were they from all over the Empire? Did they change over time? Does this matter? For the prompt?
On your point about resources: were Roman legions really stationed in such a way as to guarantee the extraction of resources from a place? If so, how does Hadrian's Wall work in that system? Or the border forts of the Danube frontier?