A bureaucracy is when non-elected officials are in charge instead of elected representatives. This is important because the emperor in the Han empire who was intended to be in control was, in fact, not in control. Moreover, patriarchy was present in both empires. Men had more control than women, therefore, men controlled political control. The Han empire had an emperor known as the Martial(military) emperor.
The Han dynasty also followed the tradition of the Sui dynasty and used civil service exams to appoint government officials which favored the poor and allowed them to move up in the world. There emperor ruled with extreme power and control and there dynasty prospered. The Roman Empire was a republic which relied on the judicial, executive, and a legislative branch just as our government does today. The most powerful governing body in ancient Rome was the Roman senate until the period in time in which Caesar Augustus came to power and became the first emperor of Rome. Rome used its strong military forces to govern its lands and the surrounding territories in which they captured.
Han China vs. Imperial Rome The methods of political control used in Han China (206 B.C.E-220 C.E.) were similar to that of Imperial Rome (31 B.C.E-476 C.E. ); however, these societies greatly differed on their oppositions of governing and the techniques used in maintaining control over citizens, expansions, and their falls. Han China and Imperial Rome had similar governments because they were ruled under one central leader, however, Han China had an emperor that enforced policies and Imperial Rome had a republic because they felt the monarchy did no good to the people. The Senate of Rome had most control over the citizens.
During the period of Wen and Jing emperors before Han Wudi, China was peaceful and prosperous -- population grew greatly and industry and commerce were developed. Han Wudi, son of Emperor Jin, carried out a series of reforms and devoted himself to military conquests and territorial expansion. Han Wudi's most important military campaigns were against the Hun, an ancient tribe that lived in North China who posed a powerful threat to the Han Empire. After three expeditions, Han Wudi finally drove the Hun into the far north of Gobi, thus maintaining the safety of the Hexi Corridor. In order to avoid the aggression of other nomadic tribes, Han Wudi also ordered the construction of the Great Wall.
One similarity between these two are that one person rose to lead and start the empire. One difference is in the Han Empire, the nomads rose against the emperor which forced him to start an army, where in Gupta India, the emperor started an army because he felt it was necessary, not because someone was attacking his empire first, but to also gain economic profit. Another difference is in the Han Empire, the emperor chose his successor, while in the Gupta India Dynasty, the successor was automatically the oldest son. In the Han Dynasty, the leader who emerged from the dust of the fallen Qin dynasty to assume control was a military commander from a peasant background. Originally known as Liu Bang, he selected the name Gaozu once he assumed the imperial throne.
The years between 1792 and 1850 were a crucial period for both the British and Chinese empires; Britain expanded to become the greatest maritime empire while China, which had been the greatest land mass empire, became a shadow of its former self as the two fought for supremacy and control of trade. As Britain was a relatively small nation, its empire was by necessity outward looking. Characterised by a series of informal settlement colonies, economic policy was the key to expansion and it focussed on trade relationships between the metropole and peripheries; these were supported by a strong bureaucracy and powerful naval fleet. Cultural ideology had a role to play, but it could be argued that it was never as important. On the other hand, the autarkic Chinese empire was formal, insular, economically self-sufficient and relied heavily on both bureaucracy and an ethnocentric ideology to sustain itself.
So the best any empire could do was to establish regional hegemony. During this time period, China was the richest and most powerful of all, and extended its reach over most of Asia. 1 Tang & Song China THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF THE TANG AND SONG During the period after the fall of the Han Dynasty in the 3rd century C.E., China went into a time of chaos, following the established pattern of dynastic cycles. During the short-lived Sui Dynasty (589-618 C.E. ), China began to restore centralized imperial rule.
The Qin Dynasty is well known for beginning the Great Wall of China. The other major contributions of the Qin include the concept of a centralized government, the unification of the legal code, development of the written language, measurement, and currency of China after the tribulations of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods. The Han Dynasty emerged in 206 BC, with its founder Liu Bang proclaimed emperor in 202 BC. It was the first dynasty to embrace the philosophy of Confucianism, which became the ideological underpinning of all regimes until the end of imperial China. Under the Han Dynasty, China made great advances in many areas of the arts and sciences.
The Ming (1368 - 1644) came earlier. It is also often seen by Chinese people as being more Chinese, since it overthrew the Yuan dynasty, which had imposed Mongolian rule on China, and was composed of ethnic Han. The Qing dynasty succeeded the Ming, and the ruling family was Manchurian - a culture that Chinese often saw as barbarian. The Manchurians, like the Mongols, have origins as invaders of China, although they lived in China longer and have become more 'assimilated' culturally than the Mongols. Ming China, in its early years, was undoubtedly the most powerful and wealthiest nation on Earth.
The Han Dynasty was the third imperial dynasty of China. It lasted from 202 BCE to 220CE, when Liu Bang, prince of Han, defeated the Qin army in the valley of Wei. The Han dynasty basically rounded out China’s political and intellectual structure. Early Han rulers expanded Chinese territory into Korea, Indochina, and central Asia. The Qin dynasty was the second ruling empire in imperial China lasting from 221 to 202 BCE.