Compare and Contrast Essay While the Han Empire and Roman Empire were at complete opposites of the world and at completely different times, they share some of the same causes of their declines and collapses. Each empire had internal and external troubles that led to their falls. Each one had begun to have troubles with taxes and they both experienced decentralization. Along with their similarities, they had their differences like the Han Empire had epidemics break out and the Roman Empire had religious issues that caused problems. Both empires faced tax issues. The Roman Empire was growing and needed more soldiers to patrol and because of this, it brought a high tax burden on this Roman population that was already decreasing because of things like poverty and plague. The upper classes took advantage of this and started to become selfish and became less focused on their responsibilities, this also caused resentment towards the lower classes. The Han Empire had high tax burdens and as …show more content…
Each empire, overall, had wealth imbalances and fewer and fewer people were wealthy. Along with financial issues, both the Roman and Han empires faced decentralization problems. The Han Empire experienced decentralization because they lost the supervision of the central government and local landlords began to step up and take control over provinces creating a switch from the central government to local government which will weaken the empire. The Roman Empire faced decentralization when farmers and laborers would turn more towards local landlords for protection and security instead of the central government. They each had very similar causes for the decentralization. Although each empire shares a lot of similarities, they do share a few differences. The Han Empire had an epidemic outbreak that would wipe out half of the population. Because so many people died including peasants, grain
Han China and Rome are actually very similar in their geographical conquests. First of all, both civilizations were the largest and most expansive in their areas. Rome stretched from Spain, England, and France to Mesopotamia and North Africa. The Han dynasty expanded to Korea, china, and central Asia. These huge areas allowed a feeling of power and more economic stability, but also had a few downfall's. Even though the Roman Empire had close to 60 million people in the lands, the population began to dwindle by the end of its empire, they could no longer supply enough people to protect its borders, so they had to turn to outside sources for its military. These outside sources had distrusting loyalties, so, Rome’s borders were not so well protected and eventually fell to complete invasion. Han Dynasty fell to its fate. Both the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire's weakened so much that they both crippled under the weight of outside invasions. A huge difference between the two civilizations, however, was their level of isolation. Being in China, the Han Dynasty was on the east side and was much more isolated than Rome, which was a peninsula and quite open to everywhere. Though
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.
As you can see the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire possessed many differences both politically and through their accomplishments. That being said, they also shared an extensive variety of similarities. They varied in government, but
The Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty were both some of the greatest empires in their time. The fall of the Roman Empire was followed by the fall of the Han Dynasty. Three major things that contributed to these empires falling were the economic troubles these empires were going through at the time, taxation was a huge trouble for some of these empires, trade was also a big contribution, and being economically weak had an impact as well. Political reasons were a major of why these empires fell, both these empires had problems when it came down to their rulers, both these empires also split into two at a point, as well as the gap between the rich and the poor.
The Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire both had a great influence not only on its people but the world as a whole. The two had similar and different methods of political control. Both ruled their people under a bureaucracy, they had civil servants to maintain their large empires, and their foundations were made of great and strong rulers. Aside from the similarities they also had several differences. Take China for example, they focused more on Confucianism and they had a Mandate of Heaven. Rome on the other hand used entertainment to distract and control the masses of its population.
The decline of China and Rome both shared similar economic strife in that they were both subject to barbarian and nomadic invasions, therefore having to spend large amounts of money on frontier defense; however, they differed in that the Han Empire collapsed in part due to the high taxes imposed on the peasant class resulting in a large peasant rebellion, such as the Yellow Turbans, while in Rome tax collections was in danger of abandonment as residents of the empire were few in number and in financial difficulty. In addition, the two empires were similar socially because of large epidemics, diseases, and plagues that caused a population decrease. Also, both experienced a
Besides these similarities, the two empires also had several differences in terms of what had contributed to their downfalls. For one, the Han Dynasty had decentralization transpire and a rebellion. The Han Dynasty had decentralization occur because the power shifted from the central government to warlords which befell after a reform had taken over the empire. “After the reform, governors were granted executive authority over the province, Therefore, the governors not only had power over the civil decisions of the province, but they also became the military leaders” (Zhi). The
The Han and Roman Empires were extremely important empires during the time of their existence. The Han Empire began around 206 BCE and ended at around 220 CE. The Roman Empire began at around 27 BCE and broke apart into two halves, the West falling in 476 and the East collapsing in 1453. The Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire have different outlooks on technology, the Han Dynasty view technology as a practical application used to ease the workload of people, while the Roman Empire views certain technology as needed, despite the creator.
The differences between Classical Athens and Han China were major and distinctive. The background information, government, values of the individual, and art of each society show how differently each empire developed.
The collapse of the Han and the Roman Empires during the classical era has some similar factors on the social and economic aspects, namely the decline in the trade and the widespread epidemic disease. However, each faced unique factors contributing to their collapse. In the Han Empire, the weak emperors didn't have a proper position as a emperor while the influence of army generals rise up gradually, whereas Rome’ ineffective later emperors concerned more with a life of pleasure than a desire to rule wisely.
In the first few centuries C.E., two of the largest empires ever in the world collapsed within 100 years of each other, and in many of the same ways. Although both Rome and Han China both differed in that Han China experienced natural disasters, while Rome did not, ultimately they are more similar because their militaries played a large part in their downfall, both empires had problems defending themselves, and both were ravaged by disease and food shortages. The downfalls of Ancient Rome and Han China differed in that in Han China, the rapid population growth in earlier Han times gradually resulted in the deforestation of large areas of land. Without trees to help absorb rainfall and hold the loose soil in place, flooding and erosion occurred.
China mainly faced internal struggles, while the Romans mainly faced problems from external sources. One problem was the aristocrats forming factions among each other, with each faction seeking to gain more power for itself, which weakened the central government. Another problem was the uneven distribution of land. Many landowners that possessed most of the land, were powerful figures in the government who shifted the tax burden onto peasants. This angered the peasants, who started the Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 C.E. While the rebellion was unsuccessful in overthrowing the empire, the unhappiness of the peasants would later lead to many more uprisings. By 220 C.E, the emperor had no real political power and the Han generals abolished the empire and divided it into three large kingdoms. On the other hand, the Romans were faced with a massive empire that they struggled to manage. From 235 to 284 C.E, there were 26 different barrack emperors who controlled Rome. The position was unstable, and many of them were betrayed and killed. The Roman economy was also going downhill, and they were also faced with a population decline. These factors also created a lack of resources needed to protect the empire. China’s internal problems were due to the peasants feeling like they were being mistreated; Rome’s problems were due to its size and the population
Even though the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire had many similar causes that led to their falls, the effects were not similar at all. One major difference in the falls was the fact that only half of the Roman Empire fell whereas the whole Han Dynasty fell. The Han Dynasty would become decentralized because the whole thing collapsed, and it would not become centralized again for approximately 350 years. This differs from Rome because they became decentralized and never truly became
Just after the significant transition from B.C. to C.E. a mystical dynasty from China referred to as the Han subsided. Likewise, the Roman Empire which was quite powerful at one point, collapsed in this same era. The way these organizations collapsed can be compared in many ways but they also contrast in unique ways. One way they compare is they were both invaded by an outside territory. The Han dynasty had trouble with the Xiongnu invading, and the Roman Empire was invaded by the Huns who were led by Attila at the time. Also, the Han Dynasty found it difficult to enforce taxes on the wealthy, and in the Roman Empire the wealthy elites were not required to pay taxes either. The fall of these nations can be compared in a lot of ways but there are also many differences. A main difference was in the Han Dynasty they had the Yellow Turban Rebellion where there was an internal rebellion that was created by the peasants, but in the Roman Empire most conflict came externally, they didn’t really have a group of people rebelling. The Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire were two organizations that collapsed around the same time and the way they collapsed can be compared and contrasted in many ways.
One factor they played a role in the fall of both empires was poor leadership in their empires. During the final days of Western Rome, there was no strong unifying leader in place due to the number of generals that would claim leader then be quickly killed off. Rome's military were only loyal to their generals, and when the generals would gather the power to overthrow the current rule, they were not well received by the public or the rest of the army. They did not unify they public and the government under strong rule, causing discord and distrust amongst the people. This lead to many revolts and needless violence that hurt the empire. Similarly, in the Han Dynasty, the lack of strong leaders caused people to become unsatisfied with their government. The people did not follow the will of their leaders and the aristocrats refused to pay taxes and support the government. Like Rome, this lack of poor leadership lead to revolts and needless violence that would ultimately hurt their citizens, military, and entirety of their empires.