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Differences Between The Roman And Han Dynasty

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Thesis: Due to a better centralized and staffed bureaucracy based on a common political philosophy the Han dynasty was able to more cohesively integrate the regions it ruled over, and because of this they were able to have a longer lasting influence. One necessary part of any large empire like the Roman empire or the Han dynasty is an organized power structure. Both the Romans and the Han had similar power structures in some functions, but they differed in ideologies and emphasis on roles of the power structure which accounts for the differences in success of integration. The ruler of the Roman and Han empires were emperors who had absolute control over every aspect of the empire. For the success of these two empires, a bureaucracy was …show more content…

The Han dynasty, instead, viewed their government bureaucracy in more high esteem. The origins of the Han dynasty bureaucracy were in the preceding Qin dynasty. This is described in one passage by Sima Qian, a Han historian, where he describes the first emperor of the Qin dynasty. In these writings he describes the first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, as a very cruel despot who burned important writings, imposed cruel penalties, and was very arrogant.(FOOTNOTE). However, even Sima Qian acknowledges that he unified China through the appointment of officials to rule provinces, and standardizing their measurements and writing system.(FOOTNOTE). When the Qin dynasty ended in 202 BCE, however their bureaucratic system survived through the Han dynasty.(FOOTNOTE). This is significant because even though the Han viewed the Qin dynasty very poorly, they still enacted a bureaucracy that was very similar. The unique attributes of this bureaucracy was that it was more centralized, and cohesive then that of the Roman empire. Also, as mentioned earlier, it was better staffed and more equipped. The aspect of the Han dynasty that allowed for them to have such a cohesive government and empire was that it was built upon Confucian ideals, or at least, they attempted to build it on Confucian ideals. Mencius, a famous Confucian philosopher, describes the ideal

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