The process of the fall of the western part of the Roman empire
were its invasions by the Germanic peoples. This part of the empire
lost political cohesion and was unable to deal with the invasions.
There was a lot of infighting and a string of usurpations. There
were three shadow emperors who were commanders-in-chief of the
western Roman army and who installed puppet emperors and were the
effective rulers. Ricimer, a Germanic, installed three puppet
emperors (Majorian, Libius Severus and Olybrius). His nephew,
Gundobad, installed Glycerius, but did not hold the strings of
power as he had to return to his native Burgundy to deal with feuds
there. Orestes installed his 15-year old son, Romulus Augustus, who
was the last emperor of the west. One emperor, Avitus, was
proclaimed emperor by Theodoric II, the king of the Visigoths.
The eastern part of the Roman Empire was not affected by these
invasions and continued to exist for nearly 1,000 years