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.
The start of Chinese Empire did not occur in a steady rate but an erratic rate. It all started when the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties created a Chinese state in and around present day China. After their system failed, all of the states were very competitive against each other which lead to a ruler of the Qin dynasty, Shihuangdi’s, unification in 221 B.C.E. The way the Roman Empire started was completely different from the way the Chinese Empire rose. No one really knows what happened, but legend has it that two Etruscan brothers Romulus and Remus were saved by a she-wolf. After that Romulus and Remus got into a deadly fight and Romulus succeeded and started an empire. Since his name was Romulus he named the civilization Rome. This all happened around 753 B.C.E. on the Tiber River around present day Italy.
After starting the Chinese Empire, Shihuangdi based the empire on a harsh law system called legalism and was also influenced by Confucianism. Since Shihuangdi was the only ruler of the empire, the government was considered a strong central monarchy. When the Chinese empire had a good start, they expanded their territories to northern Vietnam, Korea, and the northwest steppes. Shihuangdi believed the harsher the empire the more respected, so he invested heavily into a strong military army a...
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... these factors, Rome also perished.
Now you are probably wondering with all these similar factors that lead to the demise of the empires, how did China recover successfully? The Chinese empire unlike the Roman empire, held on to their cultural identity and tried not to accept diversity in cultures. This is also called cultural homogeneity. Cultural homogeneity create a sense of togetherness. This creates less organization and religious drama. China also had more advanced technological breakthroughs in the fields of agriculture and metallurgy. This is needed to progress and recover so you have ways of keeping up with the economy. The Chinese empire also had one common religion that mostly held up. Confucianism. Having mostly the same religion unifies most people, which is also needed for a recovery. With these main factors, the Chinese empire recovered successfully.
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 Roman Empire existed around the same time period and both lasted around 400 years. They each had large populations (around 50 million), conquered enemies they felt as a threat, wanted to spread their boundaries and had strong militaries. The Han Dynasty, located in China, was built on other dynasties such as the Qin and Zhou. The Great Wall of China was built during
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.
The Hans’ had shown a very characteristic feudal structure. They had emperor run the head of government and the emperor had to create the laws id the people, lead the arming force and as a chief executive officer when needed. They had also adopted the political system of the legalist and made the rules clear and harsh. Many tried to unify China through military and were able to defend and defeat other warring states around them. Their efforts were able to keep the formation but did not use brutal military forces and also tried building a wall known as “the Great Wall of China”. Soon later they were able to have positivity influence throughout china and sent standards for the Chinese written language and different stuff like currency, weights, and even measurements. Rome on the other hand was not your typical “rags to riches” story. Their empire’s political system had used Chinese domestic repercussions but had a brief transition into roman culture and did not last long. They governed small city states and always were watching the minority growth within the empire. They also had granted citizenship with very clear advantages and have things like a public office. Military units were big here to be known as legions and here the assimilation were kind and were offered to subject people.
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.
In the Classical Era, the collapse of the Roman Empire was similar to the collapse of the Han Dynasty in that they both fell due to external and internal conflict. However, they differed in that the Roman Empire became politically and culturally fragmented while the Han Dynasty was reconstituted as a political and cultural whole.
The Han dynasty and the Roman Empire were both powerful empires during their era. However, the ways they obtained their power varied greatly because they used different methods that involved their political structures, which revolved around their centralized governments. The Han dynasty and the Roman Empire acquired very unique techniques that allowed them to control social and political. For example, the Han dynasty adopted a religion known as Confucianism, which monitored everything in the lives of the Chinese. Contrary, the Roman Empire established a monarchy but allowed its residents more freedom as compared to the Han. Nevertheless, the two empires were similar in political structures in that the power was depended on the wealthy that were in authority, the peasants struggled with their lives because of concerning issues such as food supply. The empires were able to create and preserve a peaceful and sustainable lives for a long time, unlike the past empires. Social distribution were under the control of the wealthiest and they could effortlessly impact community viewpoints and interactions among the residents. These two empires existed during the Classical Period had comparable and various social, political, religions, as well as economical values and practices. However, they both possessed differences and similarities in their economic and social perspectives even though the two empires were established around the same era.
The Roman Empire In 27 BC, Augustus became the first emperor of Rome, thus creating a strong leader figure, which could shape and mold the Republic system into what was best for the empire or themselves. During the reign of the emperors, the political policies for Rome would vary according to, which emperor was in power. Not only were politics shaky, but there never was a clear-cut method of succession for the man who controlled those politics. Rome had created the position of emperor in hopes that men like Augustus would continue to lead her into prosperity, however the office of emperor struggled in attempting to find great men to lead Rome. The office never truly evolved into something greater than when it had been created, but rather the office varied according to the personality of the man in the position.
Two important, mighty Asian empires in history are the Ottoman Empire and the Ming China. These two empires are in totally different areas of Asia – the Ottomans were in the very west, the Chinese were in the oriental east. Therefore, these two empires, naturally, formed completely different cultures. However, surprisingly, these empires had many parts in common as well. The Ottoman Empire and the Ming Dynasty had both many different and distinct parts, as well as many similarities.
From 1700 to roughly 220 BCE (before the Common Era), the region currently known as China was divided into six states: Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Yan and Zhongshan, each ruled by different kings. These inter-warring states were already familiar with wall building techniques, each having constructed extensive fortifications to defend their own borders. When Shih Huangdi, the young king of the ancient Chinese state of Qin (also spelled Ch’in, from which the word China derives), conquered each of the remaining five states in 221 BCE, the continuous warring finally came to an end. By conquering these states, Shih Huangdi established the Qin Dynasty, thus creating the first unification of China, and the first Chinese central government. In his efforts to make this new concept of centralized rule “stick”, as well as prevent the reemergence of feudal lords, Shih Huangdi ordered the destruction of the wall sections that divided his empire along the forme...
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.
The Han Dynasty made China a more advanced country in fields such as technology and the political system. They created most of the cultural and political foundations for most of East Asia. To this day, the Han Dynasty is still known as “The Golden Age.” Both empires fell because of internal issues yet the exact reasons for their fall varied. The Roman Empire also made strong advancements in science and technology and they produced engineering accomplishments better than the Han. This Empire founded a legal code that is used today and they influenced technology and infrastructure that would help their successors. In conclusion, there were many differences between the famous Han Dynasty and Roman Empire however, these eras are both considered to be some of the strongest and most advanced generations.
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.
The Preeminence of china started in 589-1279 with Sui dynasty, Tang dynasty and Song Dynasty. China’s history didn’t occur twice but it had similar reoccurrence which was in the third century and the sixth century. The political structures, and social and economic structures of the Sui, Tang and Song dynasty happened at different times.
The Ming Dynasty had created an empire. They had the government, the military, and the economic system to prove it. At different points in time, The Chinese Empire was the greatest in the world, for trade, military, and other key factors in a society.