1. Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.
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2. The Roman and han empires
Flourished at roughly the same time (200 BCE- 200CE)
Occupied a similar area (approximately 1.5 million square miles)
Populations of a similar size (50 to 60 million)
Giant empires shaping the lives of close to half of the world’s populations
However, only dimly aware of each other
Had almost no direct contact
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5. Rome
Began as a small city-state in Italian peninsula in the eighth century BCE
Originally ruled by a king
Roman aristocrats overthrew monarchy around 509 BCE
Established a republic in which patricians, wealthy landowners, dominated
Two consuls exercised executive power
-Advised by patrician assembly – the Senate
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7. -Established office of tribune – represented plebeians
Conflict between patricians and plebeians led to some political changes
-Twelve Tables, Roman written laws, offered plebeians (common people) some protections
-Established office of tribune – represented plebeians
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8. Launched empire-building enterprise -Took more than 500 years
-Conquered Italian peninsula (began 490s BCE)
-Between BCE, Punic Wars with Carthage and victory
-Expansion in the eastern Mediterranean (Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia)
-Extended territories in Southern and Western Europe (Spain, France, and Britain)
-By 2nd century CE, reached its maximum extent
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9. Wealth of the empire enriched a few -large estates and slaves
But many free farmers forced into the cities and poverty
A small group of military leaders (Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Julius Caesar) depended on the poor
-brought civil war to Rome during the first century BCE
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10. When the civil war ended, power now was vested in an emperor
-Caesar Augustus (reigned 27 BCE – 14 CE)
The republic had ended – Rome was an empire
During the first two centuries CE, the empire provided security and prosperity
-Pax Romana
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11. However, with new territories came new vulnerabilities
Which led to new conquests
Rome’s central location in Mediterranean helped but its army built the empire
Brutal in war
-Carthage was completely destroyed
But Romans could be generous
-Granted citizenship to some of the conquered
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13. The Han Dynasty
Did not create something new but restored something old
The Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties had existed before
But by 500 BCE, unity vanished in the era of warring states
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15. Shihuangdi adopted Legalism
During the Qin Dynasty, Shihuangdi developed an effective bureaucracy, equipped his army with iron weapons, and increased unity
Shihuangdi adopted Legalism
-A philosophy based on harsh punishments to ensure obedience
-Dissident scholars executed – Books burned
Ruled from 221 – 210 BCE
Called himself “first emperor”
Laid the foundations for a unified Chinese state
-A state that has endured with periodic interruptions to the present
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17. Began construction on Great Wall of China
-To keep invaders out – keep “barbarians” out
Erected a mausoleum as emperor’s final resting place with some 7,500 life-size ceramic soldiers
Imposed a uniform system of weights, measures, and currency
Standardized the written form of the Chinese language
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19. The Han dynasty that followed (206 BCE – 220 CE)
-Retained centralized features of Shihuangdi’s creation
-Moderated the harshness of Qin policies
-Consolidated China’s imperial state and established the political patterns that lasted into the twentieth century
-Established Confucianism as the dominant philosophy
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21. Similarities – Roman and Han
Invested heavily in public works
-Roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, walls
Invoked supernatural sanctions to support rule
-Romans began viewing deceased emperors as gods and established a religious cult to bolster authority of living emperors
-Chinese emperors were viewed as the Son of Heaven and governed by the Mandate of Heaven so long as they ruled morally
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23. Both absorbed a foreign religious tradition
-Christianity in the Roman Empire and Buddhism in China
-Though Christianity developed slowly and by fourth century CE obtained state support to help a declining empire with a common religion
-Buddhism from India was introduced by Central Asian traders and received little support from rulers (appealed to people who felt bewildered after the collapse of the Han dynasty)
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24. Not until the Sui dynasty emperor Wendi ( CE) reunified China did the new religion gain state support and only temporarily
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25. The Collapse of Empires
The Western part of the Roman Empire collapsed in 476 CE after a decline of several centuries
-The eastern part began the Byzantine Empire
(preserved Greek and Roman learning)
In China, many free peasants turned into impoverished tenant farmers
-Led to a major peasant revolt known as the Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 CE
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26. Rivalry among elite factions
Empires too big, too overextended, too expensive
A growing threat from nomadic or semi- agricultural peoples occupying the frontier regions of both empires
But collapse and disunity in China was eventually replaced by a unified imperial state
Whereas Western Europe dissolved into a highly decentralized political system
-Europe would be a civilization without an encompassing imperial state
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29. How did Rome grow from a single city to the center of a huge empire?
Strayer Questions
How did Rome grow from a single city to the center of a huge empire?
How and why did the making of the Chinese Empire differ from that of the Roman Empire?
In comparing the Roman and Chinese empires, which do you find more striking - their similarities or their differences?
How did the collapse of empire play out differently in the Roman world and in China?
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