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Compare And Contrast The Decline Of The Han And Roman Empires

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The Roman and Han empires thrived for hundreds of years, making huge impacts on society and the way of life in classical civilizations. Both had many products to trade, had a strong bureaucracy, and created many advanced technologies that helped shape our world today. Yet some of these impacts on society played a major role in the demise of these two major empires. While the Han and Roman empires had many similarities that led to their decline, such as corrupt government officials and invasions by foreign groups, they also had key differences, such as the way the empire dealt with its immense amount of land and the level of assimilation of those they conquered.

Both the Han and Roman empires had many corrupt government officials that helped lead to their decline. In the Roman empire, people began to fight to become the next emperor. This infighting led to 25 unnatural deaths of Roman emperors in a 50 year span. Each new ruler became more and more corrupt, and wanted to become emperor for the title, not to help a fragile empire re-strengthen itself into one of the greatest world powers in history. Similarly, in the final days of the Han empire, the court officials began to focus on their personal needs rather than those of the dwindling …show more content…

In China, the nomadic Xiongnu tribe often tried to attack the strong empire. These conflicts were often very long and hard battles that, over time, drained the Chinese military. Much like China, Rome faced invasions from the Huns and the Goths. The Huns and Goths invaded the huge empire in many different locations, leading to a frenzied Roman military and many won battles. These two main foreign powers sacked Rome, leading to the fall of the Western Roman empire. Both of these empires faced fatal invasions from barbarians, which lead to a weakened military and had disastrous effects on the

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