revision notes

World empires revision notes- roman empire and the qin and han dynastys
-both rome and china produced effective solutions to the fundamental problem of how to govern and exploit diverse populations.

Rome
-roman recognized the importance of romes mediterreanan location, Proximity to the sea, good communications to Greece and north Africa with their ports and hinterlands, a temperate climate, agrarian potential.
-creative political organization enabled rome to provide for a huge and spread out army, to give people incentives for cooperation with the imperial center and to propagate a persuasive culture based on military porewess, rule-based order, divinely sanctioned authority and the virtues of civic life.
-romans created their imperial space by conquering and incorporating tribes, cities and kingdoms. The first territory they conquered was Italy.
-as romans took over more places and people they adjusted their institutions to the task of ruling an imperial capital city and distant places. Rather than having kings they installed 2 consuls or chief magistrates who would hold office for 1 year. This radical move from kingship to republic was accompanied by measures designed to prevent a return to one-man rule. Personal authority in the republic was constrained by a strict term limit on magistracies.
-to govern outside their capital, romans developed strategies that would enter the repertoires of later empire buildres. One of these was the enlargement of the sphere of roman rights. The closest towns in italywere annexed, free males became roman citizens and elites could become roman nobles. The extension of citizenship beyond rome was an innovation of enormous consequence.
-romans also extened their realm by founding what they called colonies which were typically established areas that needed defence
-by the time the romans completed their conquest of Italy they had produced three different ways of attaching land and people their empire
1) annexation, limited citizenship and eventual assimilation
2) limited selfgovernment for non-latin cities and tribes
3) colonies of latins displaces to frontier regions

In 3 centuries the romans spread their empire over the whole of the mditerranean and its European and near Asian hinterlands
By the 2nd century BCE the tasks of imperial govt began to overwhelm the republics minimalist institutions. Struggles over power In republican rome took a violent turn in 133BCE when the tribune Tiberius Gracchus was assassinated by senetors. There were wars between rival leaders, Julius Caesar emerged victorious. He was seen to be trying to make himself a king and was assassinated his heir Octavian managed to makehimself the first emperor. (changed name to augustus) Augustus lived for 41 years which helped bring peace and stability. Augustus was granted the final say in all matters of public business. – he was very powerful.
-army: the standing arm was composed of citizens and a new elite corps- the praetorian guard protected the emperor. There was also a standing navy. Augustus sent roman legions to the borders which spread roman ways far over the empire.
The economy:
-not a thoughtout system
-wealth of the system depended on agriculture , precious metals and other natural resources and the ability to treat, transport and exchange these goods
-taxation was key to the whole operation
-came up with mechanisms to count, tax extract and distribute over 2000 years ago
-starvation was rare in the roman empire, people were well fed and the economy ran relatively well

Culture:
-empire was able to absord and integrate earlier cultures into a synthetic roman way
-roman improvements included water and sewage systems, public baths, sports facilities, amphitheaters.
-during the mid 2nd century BCE started employing people to draw up legal documents, advising magistrates, litigants and judges and passing on their learning to their students.

Religion:
-the romans at first with polytheists (believers in many gods)
-they often conquered an area and then brought its gods to rome.
-monotheism was a problem for romes inclusive religious regime. They allowed jews to practive their relgions but conflicts between jews and roman authorities led to a revolt in Palestine in 66-74Ce

New politics of the late empire:
-citizenship was central to roman politics from the republican days
The institution of citizenship was also connected to the most basic mechanisms of imperial rule- military service, law, taxes. 212Ce enlargement of citizen ship. If all free males in the mpire were made citizens they could be called to serve in the army, to submit compensation if they didn’t serve and pay inheritance taxes imposed on citizens.
-by the 3rd century Christianity had spread to many parts of the empire and dyring hard times people turned to Christianity with its promises of solace and salvation.
Constantine made Christianity one of the empires legalised religions. He took his opportunity to align sacred and secular universalism under a single god in attempt to reunite the divded empire. Over the next century Christianity was established as the state religion. Connecting the state to a single monotheistic religion narrowed possibilities for inclusion the polity even as it defined a universalizing vision of imperial culture
Humanitas- the idea that civilization was both a human capacity and the distinguishing possession of insider with the right to rule barbarians. The roman empire had a huge legac of language, culture and law

China
Qin king made himself emperor in 221BCE
Han rulers consolidated the Qins terrirotial, administrative and ideological achievements and over the next 4 centuries developed an imperial political culture that outlives dynastic failures, periods of disintegration, civil wars and even revolution.
The Qin ruled one of the several kingdoms that competed for space and remembered power of empires past. Keys to Qins success were their conscious adaptation of strategies designed to enhance central control and their rigorious, brutal efforts to prevent fragmentation from happening again.
The Qin eliminated the nobility so that they wouldn’t attempt to seize power
-war among competitng states spread military technology and state craft along what we know think of as Chinese space.
-shangyang reforms- enforced a political system based on 3 pillars; the sovereign, his law and regulated society.
-also proposed that the people themselves could become the enforces of law, could repot crimes and be punished if they didt.
-the regime was deeply suspicious of regional nobles, officials and cultural specialists.
-all social status was made dependent on military performance.
-the Qin dynasty unified language, currency, weights, measurements etc
Point of this was to help collect revenue service and information
The life blood of the empire was taxation which was assessed unequally on different groups.
Under qin powerful families were required to move to the capital so they could keep an eye on them
-after the death of the 1st emperor civil war broke out
After 8 years Liu bang declared victory over the empire
Became Gaozu first Han emperor and took a less centralised view to administration he established a second tier on nobles.
They key to the hans longer-lived dynasty was sustaining multiple lines of authority, avoiding too much centralisation or too much diffusion of power to intermediaries.
Under the Han dynasty confusciounsim came to prominence. – a code of conduct.
Buddhism reached the empire during the han dynasty.
-the emire turned away from universal military service, finally abolishing it in 32CE peasant infantries were no match for the nomads on the borders and during the last century BCE the mpire began to use peasants fees to employ professional soldiers
-over 2 centuries Han strategies had successfully undermined Xiongnu unity but the defeat of changy sovereignty had in the long run devastating consequences for than