Preview

Compare and Contrast Han China and the Medeterrain World

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1080 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Compare and Contrast Han China and the Medeterrain World
Compare/Contrast Essay

Question: Compare the development of traditions and institutions in any TWO of the following major civilizations.

Han China and the Mediterranean World
The development of traditions and institutions in Mediterranean World and the Han period of Chinese history were momentous in the development of each society’s culture and identity. The Han, Romans, and Greeks all had strict family structures and gender rules and the Han and Romans both had a unique system of assimilating the peoples they conquered into their society. But the societies also were different, for example, the Roman and Greek religion was very different from Chinese religion, mostly because the Chinese did not have a national religion and more of a national philosophy (Confucianism) then a religion like Greece or Rome had. Additionally, while the Han ruled through Emperors, the many Greek city-states had a monarchy, oligarchy, or a democracy.
Similarities Differences
- The Romans and the Han used a unique system of assimilating conquered peoples into their society.
- The Han, Greeks, and Romans all followed strict gender rules

- The Greeks and the Romans had a very different religious system compared to Han China that had more of a national philosophy then a religion.
- The Han ruled through emperors, while the Greek city-states ruled either by monarchy, oligarchy, or a democracy and the Romans had a republic.

In both China during the Han dynasty and the Roman Republic/Empire, the way they absorbed conquered peoples into their society was a very savvy way of governing. When the Romans or Chinese had conquered an opposing nation, instead of taking over the towns and cities and disposing of their rulers, they allowed the conquered peoples to govern themselves as long as they stayed loyal and gave tribute to Rome or the Emperor respectively. For example, when the Romans had taken over Gaul (modern day

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Both Han China and Imperial Rome used a centralized government with roads to help them rule their large empire, yet Han China had Confucianism to legitimize their rule while Roman emperors were dependent on the support of a large military force for legitimacy from 204 B.C.E to 476 C.E.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    To begin with, the political systems in Han China and Imperial Rome were different, contributing to the sophistication of issues of its control. In China, a strong centralized government was established. The distribution of power was based upon kinship. The brothers were sent to govern the other provinces. The matrix was influenced by…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The classical empires experienced periods of great power by centralization of power and establishing belief systems to maintain power over their empire. This is true for both Han China and Mauryan India. Both of these classical empires were very successful in the ancient world because they were able to expand and create strong political policies to keep their empires strong and stable. While both Han China and Mauryan/Gupta India built distinct political structure to ensure that their officials were implementing their policies, Han China and Mauryan India used belief systems as techniques to ensure that there was order in their empires.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first comparison is that both Han China and Imperial Rome were bureaucracies. They had a sole ruler, but they had many others governing specific portions of the empire. This allowed for the empire as a whole to be in better shape. This is due to the fact that a more localized ruler would better know both the area and its needs. They would also be more dedicated to their job as they would be managing the area they live in, so every decision they make would impact not only their life but possibly the lives of family living in the regions they are governing. The empires would be much worse off if they had their single ruler managing everything, as they would not fully understand the needs of the areas, nor would they care as much as they would most likely have no personal ties to those regions. Due to this, both empires were much more powerful and well organized.…

    • 568 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rome did not develop a mostly unified religion until much later in the empire. From the beginning of Han China, the emperor was seen as having divine approval. The Mandate of Heaven gave the emperor this divine approval, and it could be taken away. Chinese emperors also often ruled with philosophical values, the most common of which was Confucianism. The philosophical value of legalism is what actually got China out of the warring states period and began Han China. Han China continued to rule according to the philosophical value of legalism, just their precursor, Qin China. Rome didn’t have a constant religion until late in the empire when Constantine made it legal to practice Christianity and endorsed it. Theodosius later made Christianity the official religion of Rome, but this occurred years after the empire was founded. Because the empires were ruled with different philosophies and religions, administrative techniques were…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imperial Rome and Han China are both well recognized empires, known as strong and fairly successful. Although the empires had some differences they also had similarities in their methods of political control. Similarities between these empires include the belief that leaders had connections to God, religious tolerance, and public works provided to citizens. Along with the similarities in political control the differences include Rome having a democracy while China had a centralized bureaucracy, Rome had lesser domestic repercussions while China had harsh punishments, and Rome offered assimilation to become a citizen while China did not need to offer assimilation because it conquered states that were already chinese.…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bureaucracy was founded on roman law and classical learning local officials. The Roman Army was considered the best trained and best fed, and Augustus was their set model for emperor established principate. Their laws were established by the “Twelve Tables” and they believed in citizenship. The Rome empire government believed in slave labor, while Han China’s emperor was considered the “son of heaven”. Their bureaucracy was founded on Confucian ideas and traditions used by local officials. The Han China Emperor proclaimed laws, as well as military and civilian conscription, and they used confucian scholars as government officials. The Han China empire had no idea of what citizenship was, and their laws were proclaimed by their emperor. While there were quite a few differences between the empires when it came to their government systems, the similarities included both having extensive road systems for the military which doubled as the spread of commerce and culture, due to enemies on their borders, while also emphasizing territorial…

    • 1002 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    During the classical period two early civilizations appeared. Ancient Athens arose with its intelligence and love for the human physique, while Han China arose with its strong beliefs of religion and love of nature. Even though Han China and Ancient Athens both have politically strong governments, they are very different in cultural beliefs and social structure because of how they treat women and how they feel about infanticide of babies.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    From 206 B.C.E. - 220 C.E., the Han dynasty, in China, accumulated many political control methods, as did Imperial Rome reigning from 31 B.C.E. – 476 C.E. However, there were more differences than similarities between the two empires/dynasties. Two main differences were China and Rome’s territorial expansion and their political philosophies (mandate of heaven and monarchy). A similarity between these two empires would be their centralized government adopting bureaucracy.…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The roman and Han Empire were different in their political and governmental control through the use of the monarchy and the republic system. The monarchy of the Han Empire was a method of political control because it really strengthened the power of the government to really crackdown on the citizens to make sure that there were no protests or any riots. This control also showed the kinds of beliefs that they had in Han China. Also another type of political control that they used was the filial piety. Filial piety is the respect for your father and elders. This kept the people in check because they had to respect all their elders and the people that were above them. In the Roman Empire the republic method was more based on keeping the society happy then using political authority power. They would hold bread circuses and different events such as the gladiatorial games to keep them happy and prevent riots. The effectiveness of the system in Rome is demonstrated by the explosion of art, giving credit to people that…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One thing that was a key aspect in both societies was religion. While the Han empire brought Confucianism as a main element in daily life, the Roman’s had several different religions that each played a key role. The Han empire trained bureaucrats formally in the teachings of Confucian philosophy. The Roman emperors were sometimes, after death, referred to as demigods. At the same time this was going on in the Roman empire, Jews and Christians were being persecuted.…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Athens Vs Han China Essay

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Han China and Ancient Athens were both very successful cities. The Chinese empire was much larger and was a more unified nation than Greece. Greece was made of many city-states that fought between themselves more often than they fought together. But despite their disputes, Greece had managed to produce many talented philosophers and historians, such as Pericles, Sophocles, Socrates, and Plato. Many historians think it was because of the Greek political system. The following document will compare and contrast Ancient Athens and Han China and show how different the two nations really are using facts about the cities’ physical nature, their governments, and their citizenship:…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dbq- Han China and Greece

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages

    After viewing the documents, it is clear that Classical Athens and Han China are very different politically. Athens focused on the rights of the individual whereas Han China preferred dominance that used an imperialist approach. However, the reason for this difference in political beliefs can be based on the difference of population. It is easier to be a democracy with a smaller population than a larger one. That said it is also easier to rule many people with a select elite. Another difference is that their social aspects are opposites. Athenians believed that everyone should obey the laws of society and turn in those who break them. Han china thought that it is better to obey the rules but should always prefer family over government. Despite many differences, both Classical Athens and Han China thought there should be class distinctions between poor and the wealthy, few and many, free people and slaves.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Analyze the similarities and differences in techniques of imperial administration in two of the following empires.…

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Another reason why ancient Greece and ancient China differed from each other was due to the fact that their political systems were so different. Their political…

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays