Comparative Essay
Two classical civilizations, the Han dynasty and Imperial Rome, both demonstrated evident methods of political control. Although the Han Dynasty demonstrated political control through the means of a bureaucracy and Confucianism, Imperial Rome portrayed political control through an aristocracy and a polytheistic religion. In spite of their differences, these two civilizations shared characteristics of political control, including the use of pre-existing class structures and the ruling of the empire by a single leader. To begin with, the Han dynasty had a single emperor and a group of bureaucrats. The bureaucrats served to advise the empire and played a key role in running the empire through executive privileges. The bureaucracy
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Ultimately, there were three social groups in Han China. This consisted of landowning aristocrats and bureaucrats at the top, then came urban artisans and peasants. Lastly came the mean people, who were people without any useful skills. In Imperial Rome, there were also three social classes. The first class was comprised of the patricians, which were members of the senate and other wealthy people. The second class was the plebeians which were lower class citizens. They were not allowed to take part in the senate. The third class was made up of slaves. Slaves were either war prisoners or plebeians who had refused to or were unable to pay taxes. Possibly Imperial Rome and Han China both had social classes because they kept the each class knew their role and performed it. Therefore, daily life ran more smoothly due to low social mobility. Political control was increased because every class performed their respective duties to get their share. Another similar method of political control between the two classical civilizations was that both Han China and Imperial Rome had one ruler at a time. A reason for this could be that one ruler led to less disputes, arguing, and dilemmas. At the same time, a group of advisers, but not rulers were implemented so the ruler did not have absolute
Han Dynasty and Roman Empire have many cultural aspects including religious, geographical, and political similarities that can be compared, though many differences are also widespread during this era. Though Roman and Han political structures, both emphasized bureaucracies, they came to them quite differently. Through many amounts of expansion, both societies spread culture and earned money, though expansion was eventually their downfall. Their religions differed greatly, with Rome, emphasizing polytheism and Han China focusing on Confucianism. The differences and similarities between these two civilizations are to be discussed in this essay. One might ask, Which civilization yielded the best
When comparing Han China and Classical Rome, many political, geographical, and religious similarities can be found, though many differences are also prevalent. Though Roman and Han political structures both emphasized bureaucracies, they came to them quite differently. Through copious amounts of expansion, both societies spread culture and earned money, though expansion was eventually their downfalls. Their religions differed immensely, with Rome emphasizing polytheism and Han China focusing on Confucianism. The differences and similarities between these two civilizations are to be discussed in this essay.
Most societies that developed in ancient civilizations were centered around some form of imperial administration and Imperial Rome (31 B.C.E.-476 C.E.) and Han China (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) were no different in this sense. Both civilizations had a network of cities and roads, with similar technologies that catalyzed cultural amalgamation and upgraded the standard of living, along with comparable organizational structures. Additionally, both civilizations had problems managing their borders and used similar tactics for defense. However, the Chinese Emperor was interpreted as a God while the Roman Emperor was a lugal, or big man, who had to fight not only to gain power, but to push through his initiatives. The similarities and differences
Although the foundation of both empires was built upon political integration, their organization of government differed. The Han Dynasty’s centralized power and administration was based on a bureaucratic system while the Roman Empire’s imperial power was based on a one-man sovereign. In order to improve Chinese society, which was under tyrannical rule under the Qin Dynasty, the Han Empire centralized their government with the synthesis between an imperial family and the new scholar-gentry class under a bureaucratic system. By securing power to overthrow the Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang provided lands to those military supporters who helped with the task. From the land grants given, the royal families and supporters were entitled
Empires on their outside may seem very different and unique. However, when you get down to their fundamentals, you begin to truly realize how similar they are. Just as the imposing pine tree and humble tomato plant may seem vastly different, their start from a lowly seed and craving for water and sunlight to survive unifies them. Such is also true with the Han and Roman empires. While key differences may be present, their social structures, influencing religions, and causes of collapse unify them.
The Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire vary in their political development and achievements. The Roman’s developed two different codes of law, one that applied to citizens and another that applied to non-citizens. Rome’s trade routes were built using stone, which made it very easy for merchants to travel from one city to another over a vast amount of land. China, however, used a single code of law for all their citizens and conquered peoples, and used a long and treacherous trail in their trade; that lead to the Middle East. Even though these two civilizations held many differences, they also shared rulers who personally oversaw their governments to prevent numerous dilemmas and used expansive trade routes to build up their economies and
In the English colonies there were six social classes. From the richest to the poorest, these were the gentry, the middle Class, poor whites, indentured servants, free africans and slaves. The people that made up these classes ranged from the most powerful to those with the least amount of rights, if any.
2. Contrast – In China, the Han rulers and people with the most power were the educated bureaucrats. India’s rulers were part of the ruling family who were leaders of the empire.
To begin with, both Imperial Rome and Han China were ruled under a bureaucracy. In Rome the emperor was the ultimate authority. The
Although Han China and Rome shared similarities in their techniques of imperial administration though military conquest and engineering’s aid toward the economy, they differed in their approach to land distribution.
Between the Han Dynasty and Imperial Rome, the dynasty and empire were similar in centralized political systems and common religion activities; however, they were different in their social class structure and trading routes. The Han Dynasty in east China was and absolute monarchy with one ruler, that was led by after the next male in that family member died. The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China after the Qin Dynasty. The Han dynasty was considered the Golden Age of China from 206 BCE to 220 CE. Imperial Rome was ruled by an emperor and senate, senate to please the lower class. The Romans were great architects and are known for constructing the best systems throughout the empire.
During the Classical Age we experienced the rise of the Han and Mauryan/Gupta Empire. These two empires were very different in the way they held together their people, government, and sustained a thriving empire. Methods of political control in Mauryan/Gupta India and Han china seem to have lots of differences and they are noticeably diverse yet they are still similar and unique. While the Han dynasty constructed extensive bureaucracy all over the empire, but India could not fully accomplish a strong thriving bureaucracy. However, there are also some similarities between two empires.
The highest part of the social class structure was the emperor. Emperors had to ability to have multiple wives and many slaves to assist with their everyday needs and wants. The advisors were next; they helped the emperor make decisions. They could also make decisions if the emperor was not there. The middle of the class system was the generals, nobles and workers. If someone was educated they could become a scholar official and is the most thriving social ranking but were still under the rank of nobles and generals. Scholar officials were the most attainable social status for and regular citizen. Last were the artists and peasants. They were at the bottom of the social structure and had the largest number of people. They were the common people who were abused and treated unjustly by the government and soldiers. Artists were more respected in society than peasants because rich people liked artist’s company and got paid for their services. Slaves were to serve all upper social classes, which was everyone. Rich families often had slaves to assist with daily duties. During this time having slaves seemed of high
The Ancient Roman society was very class conscious and status was extremely important. By design, Ancient Roman clothing revealed the status of its wearer, which made it easy for society to recognize and differentiate between those who belonged to the upper class and those who belonged to the lower class. Society was divided into six specific classes which were known as patricians, senators, equestrians, plebeians, freed people and slaves. Patricians, senators and equestrians were considered as the upper class people. Plebeians, also known as commoners, were considered as the middle class and freed people and slaves made up the lower class.
When the ancient history of the world is described before the emergence of Christianity, there are two empires that dominate the conversation because of their innovation in economics, agriculture, technology, and most importantly in government: The Ancient Chinese and Roman empires. More specifically, the rule of the Han dynasty in Ancient China and the rule of Augustus in Rome. The Han Dynasty is known as arguably the most successful of the Ancient Chinese dynasties because they introduced a centralized bureaucratic government which untied the many kingdoms in China. Likewise, Augustus’s rule in Rome not only centralized all of Italy, but it also was the spark that propelled the Roman Empire to flourish for many years. Through these Dynasties’ prosperity, they have both dominated the Ancient world, yet though the Han Dynasty and Augustus’s Rome reformed their civilizations in similar ways like centralizing their people and stopping the threat of civil war, they also differed in their strategies to achieve power.