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Compare and Contrast Han China and Rome Essay

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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. Society cannot exist without a unified social doctrine, as is true with both the Han and Roman empires. While there may be vast differences between them, at their roots is the same thing, a structure built on family. In this family …show more content…

Throughout the course of time, religion has had an enormous influence on societies. This also is true for the Han on Roman empires. In both societies, the genesis of their key religions were quite similar. Both were mainly based off of forces of nature and kept shrines in places that were pure and natural. Polytheism was a common practice and a different god was devoted to each different aspect of nature, such as wind, fire, and agriculture. Both empires also stemmed off from these nature based religions and absorbed religious theories and practices of other cultures that were introduced to them. however, the religions and practices that were introduced to them were quite different. In Rome, Christianity was introduced and become widely accepted. This was, of course, after many years of persecution and discrimination. Christianity promoted monotheism, or the belief in a single god, but this caused problems. Due to this practice, many early Christians were punished because they would not worship the emperor as a god. After many years of turmoil and bloodshed, Christianity was adopted into society. In Han China, a different religion had effect, or technically two religions. These were Daosim and Buddhism. Doasim entailed a magical and mythological belief and was mainly practiced by the common people. In Daoism it was common to practice alchemy and search for potions of

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