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Compare And Contrast Han China And Imperial Rome

Decent Essays

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 …show more content…

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

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