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Compare and contrast roman and han empires
Compare and contrast roman and han empires
Han dynasty and roman empire
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During the rise of civilization, empires became a prominent way that this civilization was expressed. Two very powerful empires during this era were the Roman Empire and Han China. All empires, or governments that extend,to include many different lands and people, have inevitably fallen, and the collapse of Han China and the Roman Empire are similar for many reasons. In analyzing the similarities among the collapse of these civilizations, historians can see the problems with this type of government and some universal problems that were relevant at the time. According to Document One, the fall of Han China was because “the central government imposed increasingly heavy taxes on the peasants in the north”. This increase in taxes lead to flight and revolt of the people, and the Chinese central government lost power to private land-owning groups. The continuation of this issue is explained in Document Two, where we see that these powerful leaders created private …show more content…
military groups to help control the uprising rather than joining with the Han army. The document states that “While the central government decayed, these paramilitary groups grew in strength.”, which is why they became a reason for the fall of the Han empire. Document Three reiterates the point that the heavy taxes were a reason for Han collapse, while also stating the additional threat of nomadic raids. These two issues put together created a cycle, as the document states that “these raids and revolts weakened the Han Dynasty, forcing it to increase the army and taxes, and so on.” All three documents listed here concurrently prove that it was the rise of taxes and the problems created by it, combined with nomadic raids, that ended the Han Empire. The first document pertaining to the Roman Empire, Document Five, argues that Christianity was the cause for the Empire’s decline. While this is not a distinct similarity with the fall of Han China, Edward Gibbon states that Christianity resulted in the loss of public wealth, including military pay, due to devotion to charity, and the loss of military prowess because instead leaders “preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity”. The weakening of the military and wealth being lost by the people described here are both elements that lead to the fall of Han China, even if the Roman Empire came to this point differently. The problem argued by Document Six is that it was taxes that caused the fall of the Roman Empire. Here we see yet another similarity with the fall of Han China. According to the document, taxes “enfeebled and cut the fortunes of rich and poor alike” and “compelled some of the most distinguished families..to leave the country”.
Next, we see in Document Seven that many different nomadic groups had invaded and weakened the Roman Empire, which is argued as the cause for its collapse. This is yet another issue which was also faced by the Han Empire and lead to their eventual fall. From Documents Six and Seven, it is easy to draw similarities among the two empires, as the patterns described nearly mirror each other. The final pertinent document is Document Four, which describes the rise of methane levels around 2000 years ago. This was caused by deforestation using methane, which “show(s) a decrease around AD 200, which is related to population declines in China and Europe following the fall of the Han Dynasty and the decline of the Roman Empire.” This evidence shows that not only were the causes of these civilizations’ collapse similar, they also had the same effect
globally. The similarities between the decline of both Han China and the Roman Empire are undeniable. According to these documents, the ultimate causes were tax increase, weakened army, and nomadic raids. Historians can use this information to not only draw comparisons with empires of the time, but also contrast those empires with civilization today. The permanent effects of these civilizations, to the environment and to the evolution of civilization, show that even though these empires have fallen, they still have great importance today.
Han civilization declined for two reasons, internal dispute and foreign invasions. In the empire bureaucrats were competing for power and this caused crime to happen. Landowners rebelled against paying taxes witch caused peasants taxes to increase, landowners started privately making armies, and farmers were forced into enslavement. A clear sign of the collapse in the central state was
In Document 1,2, 3, and 4 the Han dynasty is shown making things and inventing things for their citizens to use. During this time period the Han dynasty was described as the Golden Age in China. Confucianism gave a new way to life. The Historical context is that during this time period when the Yellow river flooded the crops and trade would be put to a stop.
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.
Burbank and Cooper in their book Empires in World History portray the evolution of power and the development of different states. They elaborate on how powerful cities and states imposed their rules and waged conquest on surrounding territories. Political dynasties developed strongly among states inspired by religious, politic and economic trends. The Han dynasty of China and the Imperial Rome were some of the powerful states that developed during the third century. The two states adopted different strategies and ideas in developing of their emperor. The Roman, for instance, developed a more advanced for of governance as opposed to the Han. Their system of governance emerged as an expensive identity around the Mediterranean. These two empires controlled and conquered their territory in unique and different ways that made them strong and remarkable during their heyday.
When comparing different societies in ancient history you may not think that Han China and Ancient Rome had a lot in common. These two great societies had many similarities and differences, especially in their social structures. These similarities and differences are all due to Han China’s and Ancient Rome’s governments, family structures and religions. Both of these wonderful empires lasted for approximately 400 years and had lasting effects on the lands they conquered.
“While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; And when Rome falls - the World.” Lord Byron. This essay will discuss the similarities of military, economics and systems of government between the Roman Empire of the 6th century BCE and the United States of America of the 20th century. History has revealed that all superpowers fall eventually, although much time has passed since the glory days of Rome we see in 2015 the largest superpower in charge, the United States. There are many similarities that can be drawn between the American superpower and the Roman Empire such as the same founding of government and both dominated in military, as well as economic similarities. This leads to the conclusion that because the rise to power between the two powers was so similar, the downfall will be equally parallel.
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.
More than two thousand years ago, two great empires arose. The Chinese and the Roman Empires. Having different locations, there were obvious differences from the start, assembly and the collapse of the empires, but there were also astonishing similarities. Located in modern time Asia and Europe, the Chinese and Roman empires were revolutionary with their ideas and accomplishments in their time from the start to the end of their empires.
In conclusion, the belief, relevance, and importance of the repetition of Chinese history are all explained and propagated by concepts of the Good Life, Good Society and Good State presented within the teachings of Confucius, the Dynastic Cycle and the Han Synthesis. All three concepts evolved from the ideas of Confucius and all highlight that Chinese history repeats itself by focusing on the inevitable rise and fall of each new dynasty. This makes the state accountable to its people for its actions. Confucius’ ideas on filial piety and how a ruler should govern shaped the Han Synthesis. No matter how benevolent the individual is, time and history march inevitably onward. Benevolence gives way to corruption and the process of degeneration and creation are repeated.
Programs such as collectivization and land reformation were essentially a microcosm of Mao's impact on China. Under the policy of collectivization, the government promoted cooperative farming and redistributed the land on the principle that the product of labor could be better distributed if the la...
Most of the civilizations throughout history have been taken over or replaced by other civilizations due to disunity and chaos. Although an empire might seem prosperous, the decline and fall of empires are sometimes inevitable. Even though an empire might seem invincible, there are many factors that could lead to the sudden decline or fall of an empire. Over many centuries, historians have composed many reasons, such as weak militaries, economic burdens, dynastic successions, and external enemies, which have been known to contribute to the rise and fall of many once successful empires.
One of the most influential reason for the fall of the Han Dynasty was Taxation. The reason why taxation had such a big impact was because once the Han Dynasty was getting weaker it could no longer tax many of its subjects. It was no longer strong enough to force anyone or anything to pay their taxes, or even give the work time that they owed to the government. Eventually when that didn’t work either the Han dynasty had to increase taxation levels. The Han tried to get rid of the power of the wealthy by raising the taxation levels but once it started to fall, it just made the wealthy even more powerful and they used the fall to their advantage, which just made the Han dynasty even more weak. On the other hand, Western Rome also had a similar
When the new Chinese Government was set up in 1949, the new government faced a lot of problems. First on their agenda was how to re-build the country. As Communist Party of China (CPC) is a socialist party, their policies at the time were similar to that of the Soviet Union’s. Consequently, the CPC used a centrally planned strategy as its economic strategy when it first began. For a long time, the Chinese economy was a centrally planned economy in which none other than the state owned all companies. In fact, there were absolutely no entrepreneurs. As time went on, the problems of a centrally planned economy started to appear, such as low productivity, which was the key reason for restricting the development of China. With the population growing, the limitations of the centrally planned economy were clear. In 1978 China started its economic reform whose goal was to generate sufficient surplus value to finance the modernization of the Chinese economy. In the beginning, in the late 1970s and early 19...
The purpose of this paper is to tell the history of the Ming Dynasty’s impact on the Chinese Empire, and to explain why the Chinese Empire was in fact an empire.