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Han dynasty contrasted with Roman empire
Similarities and differences between Chinese and Roman civilization
Roman empire china
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End of an Era: The Fall of Rome and the Han Dynasty
The Classical Era was a time of greatness. Great empires rose to power, the likes of which the world had never seen before. In the west, Rome emerged as the dominant power. Originating in the Italian peninsula, the Roman Empire would eventually stretch from Britain to Mesopotamia and Egypt, a huge empire maintained through a vast network of roads. This empire was made of hundreds of different cultures. In the east, the Han dynasty ruled China, Vietnam, and northern Korea. Han China was united not only by government, but also by culture. Confucianism, a belief system focused on maintaining order, was extremely influential, as was another belief system called Daoism, to a lesser extent. During the Classical Age, the creation of powerful empires allowed for safer trade. Safer trade allowed huge amounts of cross-cultural interaction, trade and the sharing of ideas. But as other empires had done before, and as many did after, the empires of Rome and Han China fell. Rome and Han China had both similarities and differences. The most important similarity was plagues and diseases, and the most important difference was the destruction of culture.
Han China and the Roman empire enjoyed great prosperity because of long-distance trade. Goods and ideas could travel farther than ever before, protected by these empires. However, when people move, they bring their germs with them. Since the trade networks were so vast, uniting places that might have never have had contact with each other, it was easy for diseases to travel. People didn’t have resistance to foreign diseases or medicine to counteract them, so epidemics were able to devastate entire populations. Sanitation in the Roman empire an...
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...sical Age is hailed as a time of great cross-cultural interaction, yet it also unintentionally brought deadly diseases to places that might have never encountered them otherwise, causing millions of deaths. People traded goods and beliefs along with bacteria. Revolutionary ideas spread like wildfire, but they also undermined the empires that maintained stability and prosperity. Christianity promised salvation, but helped bring down Rome, paving the way for the Dark Ages. In the Classical Age, the factors that bring powerful civilizations down are heavily entwined with the things that make them great.
SOURCES
Gill, N. S. "Reasons for the Fall of Rome." About.com Ancient / Classical History. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
Bentley, Jerry H., and Herbert F. Ziegler. Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the past. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000. Print.
In a period of four centuries the Han, Roman, and Gupta empires fell. First in China, then in the Mediterranean, and lastly in India. The civilizations deteriorated from foreign invasion, internal conflicts, and internal weakness that made it to where invaders could invade and cause the decline of these major civilizations.
"The Fall of Ancient Rome." The Fall of Ancient Rome. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
All of the empires in chapter four certainly left their legacy. But what was their legacy about? As I see it, it was more about their destructive features than their ‘greatness’. Every empire had a rise and fall, the fall due to war or conflict. Rome and the Han Dynasty were the major two ‘empires’ with conflict. Next, Persia and the Greek empire’s conflicts.
Han China and Rome, despite having some political and cultural differences, fell in ways that were almost directly parallel to one another. Both civilizations experienced declines in everything from culture and population to economy and government, as well as both suffering from attacks by nomadic invaders. However, each civilization's fall had their own unique factors, and the lasting impact of their falls differed greatly.
The Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire were two grand empires that rose out of preexisting territories and provided relative peace over wide areas. The collapse of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE), which was the first great land-based empire in East Asia, came after a period of war, confusion, and tyrannical rule. Due to the political disorder that stemmed from the early dynastic activity, the emergence of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE- 228 CE) sprung to focus on restoring order. On the other hand, the rise of the Roman Empire (44 BCE- 476 CE) originated from consolidating authority over aristocratic landlords and overriding the democratic elements of the earlier Republic. Instead, the Roman Empire redefined the concept of “citizen” as subjects to the Roman emperor. Both empires shared similar agendas to exploit their vast territories and resources, which helped them expand their political dominance; however, despite having similar political goals and foundations, their government system, cultural ideologies and imperial expansionist natures diverged.
Human mobility, in terms of European transcontinental exploration and colonization, began to truly flourish after the 1400s. This travel, inspired by financial motives and justified by religious goals, resulted in the European dominance and decimation of countless cultures in both the Americas and Eurasia. While at first glance it seems as though this dominance was achieved through mainly military means - European militias, like Spanish conquistadors, rolling over native tribes with their technologically advanced weapons - the reality is significantly more complex. The Europeans, most likely unknowingly, employed another, equally deadly weapon during their exploits. With their travel, they brought with them the infectious diseases of their homelands, exposing the defenseless natives to foreign malady that their bodies had no hope of developing immunities against. Because of the nature of disease and their limited knowledge about its modes of infection, the Europeans were able to dispense highly contagious and mortal illnesses while limiting their contraction of any native ones to the new territories. In short, they were able to kill without being killed. In this way, the travel of disease in conjunction with the travel of humans in a search for exotic commodities was able to limit or even halt the development of some cultures while allowing others to flourish at exponential rates.
...ther religions since they never really comitted to one main religion. Han China spread Confucianism by leading Confucius lives, they used Confucius ideas for their law codes and taught Confucius ideas to their children. The Confucian ideas spread by the Han helped rulers like Wudi have long reigns of power by embracing rule by morals and ethics. It also helped spread written exams as ways to determine peoples places and jobs in society based off of merit as opposed to putting anyone anywhere just to give people jobs. China also had a growing population of Daoists who believed in the power of nature. As time progressed both of their societies changed their religions. Rome slowly progressed from a basic Hellenistic polytheism to the once persecuted Christianity. Meanwhile China, which was mainly a Confucian and Daoist led society began to accept and embrace Buddhism.
There were “regulations against people washing clothes in or near waters used for drink, or against washing the entrails of beasts after slaughter”(Rowse 156). “…it is evident from innumerable documents how frequently they were broken” (Rowse 156). As long as people lived in small groups, isolated from each other, there were not many incidents of widespread disease. But as civilization progressed, people began clustering into cities. As the cities grew and became crowded, they also became the nesting places of water-borne, insect-borne, and skin-to-skin infectious diseases.
During the era known as the time of the classical civilizations, there were numerous noticeable changes occurring in many civilizations and city-states around the world. In India, China, and Persia in particular, one could see the influence of religion and philosophy on the political and social structure of the time.
Bentley, Jerry H., and Herbert F. Ziegler. Traditions & Encounters: A Global Persepective on the Past. Ed. Jessica Portz. 5th ed., 2011. 290-295. Print.
Heather, Peter. The Fall of the Roman Empire: a New History of Rome and the Barbarians. Oxford UP, 2005.
Collapse of the Han Dynasty Many years ago in China, the Han dynasty was the most powerful empire of its time. The Han dynasty took place from 221 BCE to 220 CE. The decline of the Han was due to the fact that both external and internal pressures began to build against the empire. During the two centuries of fighting in the Sino-Xiongnu Wars, the Han dynasty began to collapse due to financial burden and higher taxes being pushed onto the citizens. Another factor of external collapse was by a group called the Yellow-Turbans who rebelled against the Hans from 184 BCE to 204 CE.
The decline of the Han, China, the Roman Empires “Third Century Crisis”, and the United States today occurred (or are occurring- the United States) for many reasons. Economy is one of the most common and often the first domino to send a land into decline. Another mutuality between the three events is population. Also, government is a large contributing factor in any declining society. If a military is not loyal or strong, their home will suffer.
Bentley, Jerry H., Herbert F. Ziegler, and Heather E. Streets-Salter. Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History, Volume II, From 1500 to the Present, Second Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 411-29
The Han Dynasty, the amazing Chinese era to have said to unified China for over 400 years old. This era in China’s history began in 206 B.C when a rebel armies rose up against the Qin army. One rebellion, led by Chen Sheng and Wu Kuang was later joined by Xiang Liang, Xiang Yu, Ying Bu, and Peng Yue joined forces with Liu Bang. The people of the Qin Dynasty were unhappy under the rule of Qin Shihuang who was ran his empire with an iron fist. His rule was absolute and disagreeing was punishable by death, though Emperor Qin was the one who to end the Warring States as well as complete the conquering of China in 221 B.C, thus expanding the Chinese state. After the takeover, Liu Bang took the name as Emperor of China and changed his given name to Emperor Gaozu and the Qin laws were abolished.