Download Classical Empires Han China and Rome

Han & Rome Empires:
Decline of Empires
THE EARLY HAN DYNASTY
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Liu Bang
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A general, persistent man, a methodical planner
Restored order, established dynasty, 206 B.C.E.
Han was long-lived dynasty
Martial Emperor (141-87 B.C.E.)
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Han Wudi ruled for 54 years
Pursued centralization and expansion
HAN STATECRAFT
Han centralization
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Adopted Legalist policies
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Built an enormous bureaucracy to rule the empire
Continued to build roads and canals
Levied taxes on agriculture, trade, and craft
industries
Imperial monopolies on production of iron and salt
Established Confucian educational system for training
bureaucrats
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Confucianism as the basis of the curriculum in imperial university
Thirty thousand students enrolled in the university in Later Han
Han imperial expansion
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Invaded and colonized northern Vietnam and Korea
Extended China into central Asia
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Han organized vast armies to invade Xiongnu territory
Han enjoyed uncontested control in east and central Asia
HAN SOCIAL STRUCTURE
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Patriarchal, patrilocal households averaged five inhabitants
Large, multigenerational compound families also developed
Women's subordination (Ban Zhao Admonitions for Women)
Cultivators were the majority of the population
Differences apparent between noble, lower class women
Scholar bureaucrats: Confucian trained bureaucrats
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Scholar Gentry
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Officials selected through competitive testing
Used to run the government in Early Han
Confucian bureaucrats intermarried with
landed elite
New class comes to dominate local, national
offices
Strongest in late Han
Merchants held in low social esteem
TRADE AND COMMERCE
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Iron metallurgy: Farming tools, utensils, and weapons
State monopolies on liquor, salt and iron
Silk textiles
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Paper production
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Invented probably before 100 C.E.
Began to replace silk and bamboo as writing
materials
Population growth
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Sericulture spread all over China during the Han
High quality Chinese silk became a prized commodity
Traded as far afield as India, Persia, Mesopotamia, and Rome
Increased from twenty to sixty million from
220 B.C.E. to 9 C.E.
Despite light taxation, state revenue was
large
Silk Road established: horses for silk
Han and Roman Empire Similarities
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Highly stratified societies.
Patriarchal families.
Confucianism,
pater familias.
Agricultural base:
free peasants-small
farms or tenant farmers,
Heavy dependency
on slavery and latifundias.
Han and Roman Empire Similarities
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Educated civil service.
Confucian trained
scholar bureaucrats,
civic responsibility.
Highly centralized state
dynastic, empires with
appearance of limits
through Senate.
Han and Roman (continued)
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Multicultural empires—most conquered
assimilated, citizenship offered to best,
extension of Roman law and building
Extensive road systems
and urban communities
Subordinated women
Armies maintain the
empire internally and
externally.
Buddhism traveled the Silk
Road to China
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Buddhism arose in India in
the 6th Century BCE.
Gradually Buddhism made
its way with the merchants
along the silk roads to Iran,
central Asia, China, and
southeast Asia.
As Buddhism spread north
from India into central Asia
and China, both it and
Hinduism began to attract a
following.
Firmly established by 1st
Century BCE.
The Spread of Buddhism,
Hinduism and Christianity
Buddha Transformed as
He Traveled West
Indian Buddha
Decline of Empire
HAN TROUBLES
Expeditions consumed the empire's surplus
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Raised taxes and confiscated land of some wealthy individuals
Taxes, land confiscations discouraged investment
Much of defense consumed on defending against nomads
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Social tensions, stratification between the poor and rich
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Problems of land distribution
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Early Han supported land redistribution
Economic difficulties forced some small landowners to sell property
Some sold themselves or their families into slavery
Lands accumulated in the hands of a few
No land reform, because Han needed cooperation of large landowners
The reign of Wang Mang
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A powerful Han minister
Dethroned the baby emperor, claimed imperial title himself, 9 C.E.
Land reforms - the "socialist emperor"
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Overthrown by revolts, 23 C.E.
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LOSS OF THE MANDATE
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The Later Han Dynasty (25-220 C.E.)
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Overthrown of Wang Mang restores Han
New Han much weakened
Rule often through large families, gentry
Rise of Eunuchs in government as new source of power
The Yellow Turban Uprising (Daoist Revolt)
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Rulers restored order but did not address problem of landholding
Yellow Turban uprising inflicted serious damage on the Han
Collapse of the Han
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Factions at court paralyzed the central government
Han empire dissolved
China was divided into regional kingdoms
Devastated by plague
Invaded by Huns and other nomadic forces
ROMAN Decline:
Government
•Structure
•Imperial system
•Emperorship not hereditary
•Emperor selected arbitrarily
•Elite form imperial bureaucracy
•The Crisis
•Succession crises, many civil wars
• Many military coups
•Declining Loyalty to State
•Politicized generals
•Corruption, graft common
• Eastern, Western Empires too much to manage.
ROMAN Decline: Military
•Structure
• “All volunteer army”
• Poor, foreigners, criminals
• Citizens avoid military service
•Problems
• Politicized Generals, Incompetent
• Troops loyal to paying leader
• Troops largely “barbarians”
• Persia
• Major enemy
• Romans fight wrong force
• Roman troops in East
ROMAN Decline: Economics
• Economic Structure
• Capitalistic, mercantilistic
• Some command economy
• Commercial agriculture: grains, export
• Heavy reliance on slave labor
• Industry not wide-spread
• Problems
• Economic Stagnation, collapse
• Agriculture disrupted, famines
• Currency devalued, worthless
• Trade, commerce collapse
• Peasants overtaxed
• Feudalism on Rise
ROMAN Decline: Religion
• Original Roman Faith Traditions
• Nationalistic, ritualistic
• Unemotional
• Rise of Philosophies, Mystery Religions
• Rise of Christianity
• Christianity spreading, vibrant
• Attracts poor, women, slaves
• Good Romans enter Church
• Problem for Rome
• Loyalty to God, church, faith
• Christians live in East, urban areas
• Church is state within a state
ROMAN Decline:
The Germans
• Homeland
• Overpopulated, hunger for land
• Migrated to East, SE Europe
• Spread of agriculture
• Tribal Structure
• War-like kings led tribes
• Well-led, loyalty to leader
• Rule of king not rule of law
• Interactions: War, Faith, Diplomacy
•Enjoyed war, part of their code
•Superior in cavalry, archers
•Often strong Arian Christians
•Allied with Huns, Romans
•Turned on both in end
• Kings assign lands after conquest to
loyal supporters
Decline of Empires
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Empires too big—costly to defend the
frontiers
Burden of taxes on the poor, some flee
to evade taxes, as maintaining the
grows more costly—taxes go up, few
new sources of revenue, religious
groups and nobility exempt
Slavery in Roman so oppressive less
productive, fewer new sources, less
technological development
Decline of Empires
(continued)
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Administrative problems
succession—court intrigue, barrack emperors
failing bureaucracies—corruption of examination
system, lack of civic responsibility
Roman—bread and circuses to forestall revolts
Eroding economies—decline in trade when roads
not repaired or safe
Religion—Christianity a factor in the decline of
Rome, but not Buddhism in the decline of the Han
Dynasty.
Decline of Empires
(continued)
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Plagues—hit both empires hard, especially
in cities of Roman empire
Pressure from nomads—Huns, Xiongnu,
Germanic
Why did the west fall harder?
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More multiethnic Han Chinese—a true nation that
can endure beyond the dynasty.
In Roman empire most live outside Italy.
State and society not bonded together with the
same glue—China, Confucianism offers both order
for family, society and state—not true of Romans
Better assimilation of “barbarians” by China,
Germanic dismembered Roman empire, while
nomads absorbed by Chinese
Common language—Latin never really replaced
Greek in much of the empire
Why did the western Roman
empire fall and not the eastern?
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Deep, engrained civilization in the east—Greeks and before
East less impacted by nomadic invasion—maybe because
many enduring cities, large populations
Tribes on eastern borders were disorganized and
unmotivated
After separation of empire, east no longer has to send any
help to West
Even with changing political structure , little threat to social,
economic or cultural continuity
No cities in the west
German soldiers fill the ranks of Roman legions
When west cut from wealth of East, the tax base dwindled
ESSAY: What were 5 causes for the collapse of the
Classical Empires of Rome, and Han China? How were their
collapses similar and different? Which region had the hardest
fall and why?
ESSAY:
Which empire’s fall, Han or Rome, had
the greatest effect on the Classical World? Why?
C/C the collapse of TWO of the following empires in the Classical period.
Han China (206 B.C.E. – 220 C.E.)
Mauryan/Gupta India (320 B.C.E. – 550C.E.)
Imperial Rome (31 B.C.E. – 476 C.E.)