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The Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty. 753 B.C.E- 330 C.E. Rome: Geography. The city was ideally located for controlling Italy and the rest of its empire. Located about 15 minutes east of the western coast, on a major road and on the Tiber river.
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The Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty 753 B.C.E- 330 C.E.
Rome: Geography • The city was ideally located for controlling Italy and the rest of its empire. • Located about 15 minutes east of the western coast, on a major road and on the Tiber river. • Italy itself was centrally located to control the vast Roman empire.
Natural Resources • natural resources included: navigable rivers, forests, iron, a mild climate, and enough arable land to support a large population of farmers. • cheap labor made it easy for the Romans to exploit and use these resources to their advantage.
Rome: A Republic of Farmers • settled as early as 1000 B.C.E. • According to legend, seven kings ruled Rome from 753 B.C.E.-507 B.C.E. • 507 B.C.E. representatives of the senatorial class overthrew the king and established a republic. • Power resided with the Senate and two consuls. • Paterfamilias = absolute authority of oldest male • Patron/client relationship created inequality • Women's role: subordinate • Worship of major deities (Jupiter, Mars) ensured gods’ continued favor of Roman state.
Roman Society 2 • Roman Society was divided into citizens and non-citizens. • Citizens were divided by Classes: • Patricians-Original Family Line • Plebeians-Lower class • Soon wealthy plebeians would rise in rank and wealth becomes the equalizer of the classes. • Slaves were Non-Citizens.
Roman Expansion • Possible reasons: pride, greed, a need for consuls to prove military leadership, fear of being attacked. • By 290 B.C.E., Rome conquers the rest of Italy, wins support by granting citizenship. • New citizens then provide soldiers for the military. • 264-202 B.C.E., Rome defeats Carthage gains control of the western Mediterranean and Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain. • 200-30 B.C.E. Rome defeats the Hellenistic kingdoms to take control of the eastern Mediterranean. • 59-51 B.C.E Gaius Julius Caesar conquers the Celts of Gaul.
The Fall of the Republic • As Rome expands, independent farmers forced to serve in the army lose their farms to wealthy landowners who utilize slave labor • This led to a decline in both the number of soldiers available for Rome’s army, and in food production. • Displaced Italian peasants flood cities seeking jobs giving Roman commanders the ability to recruit private armies, which leads to several civil wars. • Julius Caesar’s grandnephew Octavian (a.k.a. Augustus) takes power in 31 B.C.E. He is a dictator, but instead he calls himself princeps, “first among equals.”
An Urban Empire • Even though 50-60 million of Rome’s citizens were rural farmers, the empire was run by a network of cities and towns. • In Rome the upper class lived in lavish houses, many also owned county villas. The poor lived in dark, fire-prone wooded tenements. • Smaller towns mirrored Rome in city planning and administration. Upper class dominated town councils. • Rural life in Rome involved hard work with little entertainment, rural people had little contact with representatives of the government.
The Rise of Christianity • Jesus lived in a society that hated Roman rule and believed a Messiah would arise to liberate them. • When Jesus sought to reform the Jewish religion, Jewish authorities turned him over to the Roman governor for execution. • After the execution Jesus’ disciples continued to spread his teachings and their belief that Jesus had been resurrected. • In the 40s-70s C.E. Paul of Tarsus began spreading Jesus’ teachings to non-Jews (gentiles).
The Rise of Christianity 2 • Christianity grew slowly for two centuries, developing a hierarchy of priests and bishops • By the late third century Christians were a sizeable minority. • The rise of Christianity came at a time when most Romans were dissatisfied with their traditional religion.
Technology and Transformation • The Romans were expert military and civil engineers, building bridges, ballistic weapons, elevated and underground aqueducts, the use of arches and domes, and the invention of concrete. • Following Augustus’ death, the army was organized primarily for defense: • The Rhine-Danube frontier protected by forts • Walls protected the frontiers of N. Africa and Britain • Rome fought for centuries with Parthians on eastern frontier; neither side made gains
Rome’s Third Century Crises • Symptoms included: frequent change of rulers, raids from German tribesmen from across Rhine-Danube frontier, and the rise of regional powers when Rome seemed unable to guarantee security. • Rome’s economy was undermined by the high cost of defense, inflation, a disruption of trade, reversion to a barter economy, disappearance of municipal aristocracy in provincial cities, and a population shift from urban back to rural areas.
Technology and Transformation: Part II • Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305) saved the Roman state by instituting a series of reforms that included price controls and regulations, such as hereditary trades; side effects included the black market and a growing resentment against the government. • Constantine (r. 306-37) converted to Christianity in 337 and patronized the Christian church, making Christianity the official religion of the empire, and he moved the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople.
Imperial China: Geography China is surrounded by mountains, deserts, hills and plains of the Mongolian steppe to the west. To the east the Pacific ocean. The Yellow and the Yangzi rivers facilitate east-west movement, for trade and movement.
Imperial China: Origins • The two most important resources that supported imperial China was agricultural production and labor. The best region was the Yangzi River Valley. • The Qin and Han dynasties exploited the labor power of rural China, with a periodic census. • The Han Chinese only settled in areas suitable for agriculture.
Hierarchy, Obedience, and Belief • The family was the basic unit of society, conceived as an unbroken chain from the ancestors to current generations. • Confucius’ teachings formed the base for the structure of the family, the father being the ruler of the family. • The upper class believed that women were to cook, take care of the household chores, respect their parents-in-law, and obey their husbands. • The Chinese believed in a number of nature spirits , unusual phenomena were bad omens, the landscape was thought to channel the flow of evil and good power, and experts in fengshui were employed for buildings and graves.
The First Chinese Empire • After the Warring States Period (480-221B.C.E) the state of Qin was able to reunify China. • Factors in reunification: • The ruthlessness of the Qin ruler Shi Huangdi and his prime minister Li Si. • Qin dynasties position in the Wei valley • The ability to mobilize manpower.
The First Chinese Empire 2 • The Qin established a strong centralized state on the Legalist model including: • the suppression of Confucianism • the elimination of rival centers of authority • the abolishment of slavery and primogeniture • the construction of a rural economy of free landowning/tax-paying farmers
The First Chinese Empire 3 • They standardized weights and measures, knit the empire together with roads, and defended it with a long wall. • The oppressive nature of the Qin regime led to a number of popular rebellions that overthrew the dynasty after the death of Shi Huangdi in 210 B.C.E.
The Long Reign of the Han (206 B.C.E-220 C.E.) • Liu Bang, a peasant, established the Han dynasty, and based his government on Confucian philosophy and legalist techniques. • Emperor Wu (r. 140-87 B.C.E.) expanded the empire during his reign. • During the Western Han period (202 B.C.E.-8C.E.) the capital was in Chang’an, but during the Eastern Han period (23-22C.E.) the capital was in Luoyang. • Chang’an was an easily defended walled city. • The elite lived in lavish houses on well planned boulevards, peasants lived in tightly packed houses on poorly planned alleys.
The Long Reign of the Han (206 B.C.E-220 C.E.) 2 • The emperor was supreme in the state and society; he was considered the Son of Heaven, the link between heaven and the human world. • Emperors were the source of law. • Remember the Mandate of Heaven! • Emperors lived in seclusion surrounded by a royal retinue that included wives, family, servants, courtiers, and officials.
The Long Reign of the Han (206 B.C.E-220 C.E.) 3 • The central government was run by two chief officials and included a number of functionally specialized ministers, local officials collected taxes and drafted men for military service and corvee labor and settled local disputes. • Most people had no contact with the central government. • Local officials were a class of moderately wealthy, educated local landowners, that are referred to by historians as the “gentry.” • They adopted Confucianism as their ideology and pursued careers in civil service.
Technology and Trade • In metallurgy the Chinese advanced to the iron age by about 500 B.C.E. rather than make wrought-iron goods (as the Romans did), they melted the iron down and used molds to make cast-iron and steel tools and weapons. • Other technologies include the crossbow, cavalary, the watermill, and the horse collar. New transportation and communication technology included a road system, courier systems, and canals
Technology and Trade • The Han period saw a significant increase in the size and number of urban areas. • Long distance trade was a significant part of the Han economy. The most important export was silk, and the most important trade route was the Silk Road through Central Asia. • The Chinese government tried to control this route by sending armies and colonists to Central Asia.
Decline of the Han Empire • The major security threat was nomadic tribes on the northern border. • Nomadic groups were usually small but during the Han, the Chinese faced a confederacy of nomads called the Xiongnu. • China attempted to deal with this threat by strengthening its defenses, especially its cavalry, and by making more compliant nomads into tributaries.
Decline of the Han Empire 2 • The Han Empire was undermined by a number of factors including: • the cost of defending northern border • nobles built up large landholdings at the expense of the small farmers; these large landholders resisted taxation and became independent of government control • third the conscription army system fell apart, and the government was forced to rely on mercenaries • Other factors, including factionalism at court, corrupt officials, peasant uprisings, and nomadic attacks, led to the fall of the dynasty in 220 C.E.
Imperial Parallels • Similarities: • The Han and Roman empires were similar in respect to their family structure and values, their patterns of land tenure, taxation, and administration, and in their empire building and its consequences for the identity of the conquered areas. • Both empires faced common problems in terms of defense, and found their domestic economies undermined by their military expenditures. • Both Empires were overrun by new peoples who were then deeply influenced by the imperial cultures of Rome and of China.
Imperial Parallels: Part II • Differences: • In China, the imperial model was revived and the territory of the Han empire re-unified. The former Roman empire was never again reconstituted. • Historians have tried to explain this difference by pointing to differences between China and the Roman world in respect to the concept of the individual, the greater degree of social mobility in Rome than in Han China, and the different political ideologies and religions of the two empires.
Conclusion • The Qin and Han dynasties were able to unify China and build an empire quickly because the model was established for them during the Zhou and Warring States periods; Rome had to build slowly because it had no model to draw upon. • The Han and Roman empires maintained and administered vast empires because of their ability to organize large armies and large bureaucracies. • Both brought long periods of peace and prosperity but were undermined by the high cost of defense and high taxes this imposed on their peoples. • The Han dynasty built a political system that would be revived and used by later dynasties, but Rome’s empire would never be restored.
