root-context.xmlis the Spring Root contextual configuration . It's not obligatory. It is designed to configure non-web beans. This is required for Spring Security or OpenEntityManagerInView Filter. Better put it in meta-inf/spring.
servlet-context.xml - Spring . Spring beans -. root-context.xml, - beans root-context.xml beans servlet-context.xml.
web.xml , Tomcat. . - . web.xml, , -.
xml JavaConfig.