Politics in the Han dynasty were very important to keep the empire together. In the Han dynasty, Liu Bang did something different and, instead of wealth or birth name, he gave government positions to those who were well educated and deserving of this position. Liu Bang wanted to be a strong dynasty like the Qin dynasty, but weak like Zhou at the same time. He chose to go down the middle path and be a mix of weak and strong. Bang divided the empire into administrative districts that were each governed by officials.
The empires of the “Classical World” evolved techniques that helped control the advancing civilizations. Those techniques helped civilizations become unique and share many similarities and differences. The Roman Empire and Han China were two empires that progressed strongly through the “Classical World” and expanded their empire with the use of a strong administrative structure. The non-hereditary administration in both empires were controlled by emperors (known as a “Consul” in Rome) and a representation of the elite population through the Senate in Rome and the government officials in Han China that were chosen through an exam. Techniques of the both empires also grew through their military that defended the empires and conquered neighboring lands.
Roman and Han Attitudes Towards Technology The Roman Empire and The Han Dynasty both had positive views on technology. (Doc. 1, 3, 4, 6, and 8) However there were also people who were against it (Doc. 2, 5, and 7). Although this is true, China was much more open and positive towards technological advancements, while Rome was more of a class-divided society, which in turn causes the general opinion on technology and advancements to be low.
It was an enormous weight on Rome's resources and power, when they had to stress over big wins. For example, when there was barely any food to support the developing empire. Similarities 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.
Having aggressive neighbors although being so far apart was one similarity in Han and Rome because in order to protect themselves from them they needed a strong military and also needed to build protecting walls. China, who had to protect themselves from the northern Xiongnu tribe while the Roman Empire needed a strong military due to the Samnium tribes in central Italy. A second similarity was how both empires depended on agriculture as a main source of income and caused them to have a population explosion and become urban empires. The use of the Silk Road was another way Rome and Han China were similar. Both empires used the road for trading while China traded silk and Rome traded olives and oils.
Such as not just giving power to citizens but how they distributed power in the empire. For example In Rome it was dived into offices and senate who held voice for the citizens. In china it was district officials. Han china ruled by an emperor who took mandate of heaven in deep consideration of all his political choices where as Imperial Rome had more religious freedoms not controlling its government or persuading its people to follow in one path due to religious beliefs. China was a closed unit compared to Rome who was more mingled structured.
This type of voting practice give the villages a false sense of expression, it gives them the thought that they do influence the outcome of their village. In China this is practiced only in rural villages and not in big cities like Beijing. Rural China consists of roughly two thirds of its population, almost 718 million people so people who live in the countryside play a huge role with this type of government. This is a strategy that the Chinese government has implaced to show the people that socialism does work and there is no need for change. This type of exercise can have one of two outcomes, one the village people will get a taste of voting and democracy and will demand more of political control and influence.
The Han see technology as a way to help people work less and get things done quicker, but the Romans had an opposite thought, they didn’t care about the common people like the Han, the upper class Romans were using the technology to benefit themselves not the commoners, both the Han and Roman both find technology appealing. The Han viewed technology as a way to help people with their work; they invented stuff like paper and etc. These inventions were mainly used to help people and fix the problems in their society. According to document 1, the Han government used technology to get rid of disasters like flood, this shows that they cared about their people enough to get rid of flood for them, it’s seemed like the Han mainly built their technology to help their people. In document 2, Haun Guan showed why technology is used to aid the Chinese, he talks about the problem that the people were having without the proper technology or without any technology such as iron tools that the workers uses.
POLITICS Chinese empire: ChineseIn China, political structure was led by the emperor, his officials, commoners and the slaves. Also, many philosophers influenced the structure with their ideas. For example, Confucius stated that there must be respect between the classes; legalist idea emphasized on development of the state, collective responsibility and punishment. On the other hand, the emperors had absolute power with a set of advisors. They could distribute land, build massive projects or execute by their will.RomanThe political structure in the roman empire varied from the time period.
India and China are considered “classical” because they both ran their governments the way that we run ours today. China and India are both similar in the fact that they both had more complex and organized governments than did the river valley civilizations. With the addition of all the new land they would control, both civilizations would need to have a complex and organized government to keep the civilization stable. And with all of the new land, there would be an addition of more people to the civilization. So both civilizations had to be organized so that their civilization would always be in control, no matter how large it gets.