Han Dynasty Achievements

During this time, China was ruled by people whose main concern was war. They fought using horse-drawn chariots. Chariots are thought to have been introduced in China by neighboring civilizations. The king was in charge of the bureaucracy and a large army. The Chinese began the idea of veneration of ancestors at this time by sacrificing humans at the time of a king’s death.

In the Classical Era, two influential empires emerged, Han China and the Roman Empire. Both were order-focused societies, which greatly supported the rise of these empires. However, Han China was built off the foundation laid by previous empires and already had a governmental precedent. In the end, both empires eventually fell due to a number of shared factors, one being the overextension of their land causing expenses to rise and borders to become vulnerable.

In order to understand the similarities of how order was in the Han Dynasty and Roman Empire from 300 BCE to 300 CE, the beginnings of each empire should be understood. Before the Han Dynasty rose, the Qin Dynasty, which overtaxed their citizens and regulated their laws by censoring education (burning books). The Roman Empire started out as a city-state which began to conquer neighboring regions, such as Italy, and expanded through warfare. However, from 300 BCE to 300 CE, the Han Dynasty and Roman Empire both created order in society by having an agrarian economy, ideologies, and establishing an authority that shaped social structures. The first similarity of how the Romans and the Han both created order in society, from 300 BCE to 300 CE, was their agrarian economy.

1587: The Year of No Significance Précis Ray Huang contends, in 1587: The Year of No Significance, that the year of 1587 of the Ming Dynasty is significant for linking the past history of China and the future events of it (Huang 1). Huang exemplifies the importance of how the many failures of adapting and innovating by members of the government were led up to and realized in this year, along with their future effects on China (221). Altogether, Huang advocates for the noteworthiness of 1587 as a connecting point of Chinese history.

As China grew with population and technologies, so did their government. Their military was weak but they had the idea to make iron and steel weaponry. The increase of weapons allowed the Chinese military to have more power over the people. Yet, the downfall of their era was their tactics in controlling their army and the rebellious citizens. As China’s economy and population grows, so does the growth of politics and Urban life styles.

In the Han empire, one way of dealing with the Xiongnu was appeasement. An early, disastrous, defeat at the hands of the newly formed, powerful Xiongnu caused the policy of appeasement, known as he qin, in which gold, silk, grain, and Chinese princesses were sent to the Xiongnu in exchange for the agreement of peace (Lewis 2007, 132). The tributes sent to the Xiongnu each year were extremely expensive, but they did not satisfy the Xiongnu chieftains. Consequently, the Xiongnu kept raiding, and peace was only resumed on the premise of higher payments (Lewis 2007, 136). The policy of appeasement was very detrimental to the Han.

Executive Summary The goal of this essay is to understand the collapse of a complex society known as the Han dynasty. The Han dynasty ruled over from 202 BCE – 220 CE. Nearly 400 years of history, the Han dynasty is known for its peace and prosperity and its rich ecological and cultural background. A background that aids in the understanding of this complex societies demise. Thus, most explanations for the collapse of this complex society will come from Joseph Tainter’s (1988) book, The Collapse of Complex Societies.

The Han Dynasty controlled China for almost 400 years, during this time the empire was expanded greatly and a unified China prospered for over 200 years. However during the later Han there was a period of political decline. There were a number of struggles between Han rulers and the different factions of the courts. During the later Han the Eunuchs gained substantial power and became palace administrators. The eunuchs were used to check the power of the emperor’s wives’ families.

The Han Dynasty was one of the longest and major dynasties to rule China. After gaining control of the Silk Road in less that fifty years, they focused on the literacy rate. Before the dynasty had built the schools, the amount of people who knew how to fluently read and write were one in five people. After ten years when it was recorded again, the rate became four in five people. The monopoly of silk, and the building of the silk road, ultimately resulted in the Han dynasty being the most powerful in the world.

During the era of classical societies, the Han and Roman empires were two vast cosmopolitan societies which dominated regions all throughout Eurasia. In regards to the fall of the Han and Roman empires, both were similar in that they fell victim to internal government decay, but different in that Rome fell to foreign invasions, while Han suffered from rebellions of their own people. The Han and Roman empires were similar in their fall in that they both suffered from internal decay, specifically of their governments. In the Han empire, land distribution problems that were originally sought to be fixed by the “Socialist emperor” Wang Mang allowed large landowners to become even more influential than they previously were.

China, up until the Qin Dynasty, consisted of independent states controlled by kings fighting each other for land and power. This time period was called The Era of Warring States, which lasted two hundred years. After this time, the Qin Dynasty rose to power. They conquered all other dynasties, and established a centralized government, unifying China for the first time. The dynasty that succeeded the Qin, the Han, continued the centralized government and they started a westward expansion that would encourage trade and cultural diffusion.

The Han Dynasty in China and the Roman Empire shared many similarities and differences when it came to political rule and the nature of their political authority. The most significant difference between the two is how the Han dynasty enacted policies that were shaped to counter the wrongdoings of the previous Qin dynasty, whereas the Roman Empire enacted policies shaped to create and promote peace and stability. The difference in the two empire’s coming to power was to account for their variance in political rule. After the Qin dynasty, the Han ruled China for four centuries, enacting numerous political changes and governing one of the most efficacious dynasties in Chinese history.

January 26 2017 Table of contents Forward …………………………………………………1 China in the Middle ages picture ………… ………….. 2 China in the middle ages report……...……………..3-4 What I learned ……………… ………………………….

The Han Dynasty was known for their span over four centuries, their inventions, history, and as the Golden Age. The Han Dynasty is said to be the Golden Age because they were considered to be the ones that had the most scientific improvements and brought back learning to China. They were also considered to be the establishers of most of the Chinese culture today, that some people even created a word denoting someone that is ethnically Chinese as “Han.” The Han Dynasty had a substantial importance to how the Chinese culture is shaped today by both positive and negative improvements during 206 BCE-220CE. First of all, we need to learn a little about the Han Dynasty and how they came to be.

The "Middle Kingdom" or central plains of China have served as the crib of Chinese civilization for countless generations. A large number of China's most renowned inventions and artistic accomplishments were created in the Yangtze River and Yellow River valleys, which have long served as agricultural, commercial, and cultural hotspots. Finally, China's geography has shaped both its historical strengths and weaknesses. Its enormous size, an abundance of resources, and advantageous location have helped it rise to become a major world power, but its difficult terrain, frequently occurring catastrophes, and risk to outside influence have presented serious obstacles. Knowing China's geography is essential to understanding its history, culture, and aspirations for the