Similarities and Differences of Rome and Han China
Although Han China and Rome shared similarities in their techniques of imperial administration though military conquest and engineering’s aid toward the economy, they differed in their approach to land distribution.
Rome and Han China shared similar techniques in their methods of military conquest in relation to their imperial administration. Both Rome and Han China established control of their territory though fighting and defending land. Testaments of this can be seen when Rome used legions that consisted of heavy infantry. Each legion had thousands of soldiers and was sent to the battlefield head first to fight. These legions were considered standing units and a professional army
…show more content…
Both Rome and Han China equivalently constructed similar roads, bridges, and water development systems all to strengthen their economy. Verifications of this can be seen when Rome fully realized the potential of arches and bridges in their road systems that spanned more than 400,000 km of roads that were used for trade. Correspondingly, they also built aqueducts as a form of water engineering to constantly bring in a flow of water to the cities and towns. Similarly, Han China built massive fortified roadways for trade and walls for fortification comparable to the Great Wall of China as a means of defense. Also in comparison to Roman aqueducts, Han China built water canals as means to direct water as they pleased. These similarities defined their engineering skills as these inventions and constructions were used to help strengthen their economies. Rome built and constructed roads to aid their trade systems and make easier routes of travel. Furthermore, they used aqueducts to get water into the city saving money and the need for human labor. Similarly, Han China used their fortified roads to trade much easier and as a means of safer travel. This went hand in hand with China’s water canals that also aided their economy by directing water where needed saving much money and limiting the need for human labor as well.
Rome and Han China had relatively different approaches to land ownership as a means of imperial
There were two major similarities between the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty. Both the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty were great empires that had large land areas under their control. Han China and the Roman Empire put a lot of effort into building and expanding their territories. The Han Dynasty expanded their territory further Qin boundary and Romans wanted more territory for military uses. They manufactured streets that helped with trade and built new buildings, pipes, and
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
Though they were both able to trade due to their expansions and coasts, Rome did much more trade than Han China. Also, due to this vastness, both societies’ cultures were spread all over the world (which led to other civilizations forming) and their economies were boosted (which led to better conditions for the people).
Most societies that developed in ancient civilizations were centered around some form of imperial administration and Imperial Rome (31 B.C.E.-476 C.E.) and Han China (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) were no different in this sense. Both civilizations had a network of cities and roads, with similar technologies that catalyzed cultural amalgamation and upgraded the standard of living, along with comparable organizational structures. Additionally, both civilizations had problems managing their borders and used similar tactics for defense. However, the Chinese Emperor was interpreted as a God while the Roman Emperor was a lugal, or big man, who had to fight not only to gain power, but to push through his initiatives. The similarities and differences
The third social similarity that both civilizations cherished was that the emperor was given a religious meaning. In the Roman Empire the emperor was has worshipped like a god, and in China the emperor was said to have been chosen from heaven in a concept known as the Mandate of Heaven. In the world of economics both classical giants shared similarities. For instance, both empires heavily relied on the mastering of agriculture to supply the empire with income and food. Secondly, both empires avoided isolationism and did practice trading with other factions. For both Rome and China the epicenter for their trade routes was in the Middle East. Both empires created complex trade routes in the Middle East and beyond and even trading with one another through the Middle East during the prime of the Silk Road trading. As similarities did exist, there were also major differences in politics, social life, and economic foundation for both empires. The first political difference amongst the two empires was that the Chinese established provincial bureaucracies to apply provincial-political action, but the Romans did not have bureaucracies, but they had a Senate which collected and appointed and dealt with
Although the foundation of both empires was built upon political integration, their organization of government differed. The Han Dynasty’s centralized power and administration was based on a bureaucratic system while the Roman Empire’s imperial power was based on a one-man sovereign. In order to improve Chinese society, which was under tyrannical rule under the Qin Dynasty, the Han Empire centralized their government with the synthesis between an imperial family and the new scholar-gentry class under a bureaucratic system. By securing power to overthrow the Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang provided lands to those military supporters who helped with the task. From the land grants given, the royal families and supporters were entitled
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.
There are many differences and similarities between the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty like their technological achievements, social classes, and political leaders. In the Han Dynasty a leader’s actions were backed up by the Mandate of Heaven and if they lost the Mandate a new leader would come to power. However in early Rome there was a struggle between the elites and the plebeians; the majority of the population. Romans expanded on the concept of arches, created concrete, and aqueducts while Han used many canals. Both the Han and Romans broaden the use and creation of roads. The Han society was
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.
Comparing the Roman aqueducts and the Hans, the Hans usually built water canals which they used to direct water as they wanted. These similarities showed that their engineering skills were similar in many ways as
Both the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire became massive empires and dominated their region for a long time. In addition, both of these empires also had large impact on the world and extremely influenced the development of human civilization. Even in the modern times, the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire have been the major subjects of historians and scholars especially when dealing with the development of stable societies . Although both of these empires grew in massive size, their political, economic, social and religious developments are extremely different. The objective of this paper is to analyze and compare the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire in terms of political, economic, social and religious developments. It also opts to evaluate their overall impact to their
The Roman Empire is still known today as one of history’s most powerful period. Rome government had stick rules and policies. The Roman government at this point was known as the Roman Republic. The Roman Republic was controlled by the roar Rome. Bureaucracy was ran throughout the region, but Rome did not want this nor could they afford it. However, they did allow small cities to run a lower level of government. The exercise of indirect rule thus became a basic principle of imperial government. The business of local administration and jurisdiction was delegated to the existing communities of city or tribe. This type of structure was deemed to be a weakness to some historians because of the consequences. Consequences that allow a third level government to enforce the emperor’s rules. Because of the expansion of the territory, this was the only reasonable way for it to function normally. The empire was a "commonwealth of cities" which acted as economic and cultural of the Roman world and were integrated into the administrative system as local foci of government. This imperial ruling was first implemented by Rome. It came about because of social trends and not the Roman strategic policies that was often changed by Romanized upper class citizens. These upper classman brought about firmness throughout the land with their strategic and educated planning.
Romans were also known to be the greatest builders and architects. They built the longest and the largest roads during the ancient period. The Roman roads that stretched for about 56, 000 miles had 29 highways. The Romans built the roads to transport their soldiers across their large territory and also used it for trade. It is one of the reasons the Roman Empire became more economically prosperous than any other territories in the ancient world. On the other hand, Han Dynasty also had better roads. They are known to have established the Silk Road which was used to conduct trade and to link the dynasty to different markets. Majority of the products that Han people sold were artwork. One reason that the Han Dynasty stood out during the
Over the last three centuries, Rome and the Han Dynasty were successful in their expansion throughout their respected parts of the world. Although both ran a very similar government, both successful civilizations did so using different methods. The Han would govern using imperial rule in addition to the Analects of Confucianism to run their political ideology. The Han Dynasty would eventually even change the text of the Analects per how they ruled through the original tablets. The Roman Empire would also use their religion of the Imperial Cult, worshipping past emperors and their families. Using several legislative branches and a senate, Rome would move on to become one of the most powerful civilizations in the world at the time. Although
The empires of this time period had some innovative ideas and discoveries that permanently changed their nations and in some cases, the world. Both Rome and China had two unique and important cultural characteristics that completely changed their nations. For the Romans, their unique cultural characteristics were new ideas. The first of these new ideas, their unique Judicial System is the basis for many current judicial systems around the world, the other new idea, Christianity is now one of the worlds most practiced Religions. Whereas the unique cultural characteristics of China, namely the creation of paper and the formation of the “silk road” were more practical cultural characteristics, but no less impactful for both their