The rise and fall of the Han and Roman empires

Rise and Fall of the Han and Roman Empires

Historically, the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire have been categorized as some of the largest and the most powerful administrative structures in terms of military powers as well as the physical demography. The Han dynasty extended from present day Vietnam all the way to the Korean Peninsula, conquering this stretch of land and dwellers for over four hundred years (Rit Nosotro, 2010).

The Roman Empire on the other hand stretched from the present day Iraq all the way to the British Isles and conquered the area for almost five hundred years with the Eastern Roman Empire lasting an additional one thousand years.

The Roman and Han Empires

The two empires enjoyed vast glory during their golden years and they saw their people experience immense prosperity during these years. Paradoxically, they both plunged into chaos at their sunset years and disintegrated in a similar fashion.

Roman Empire

The first emperor of Roman Empire, Augustus rules with a lot of order that saw a civil war that had raged on for over one hundred years come to an end. Through his leadership, the vast armies assembled for the civil war were disbanded under his watch and he immensely consolidated his powers through dictatorship. With the establishment of peace came the prosperity in commerce and trade and noble ideas freely flowed throughout the empire and implemented as necessary.

This peace and prosperity was however short lived since the successors of Augustus were not politically apt as their predecessor. Under the watch of four emperors who came after Augustus in succession, the empire fell back to civil war once more. These wars were again halted by the mergence of another line of emperors that was initiated by Vespasian. It is actually during his time that the Roman Empire reached its largest size geographically and these are the times considered as the Golden Years for the empire.

Decline of the Roma Empire

The decline of the Roman Empire after such great success was initiated by the rule of Emperor Commodus who indulged in immoral practices within the empire and the violent engagements; this was also accompanied by disregard for the rulers under him. His eventual assassination in 192 AD brought an end to the one century of stability era and with this event, the downward trend of the Roman Empire had begun.

The Romans drastically lost power and were subject to attacks from the Barbarian people located in the North. The Empire went into debts as succeeding emperors attempted to buy back the loyalty of the army. The moral standards of the Romans declined drastically, there was vast and rampant prosecution of Christians and violent deaths were watched and cheered in open grounds.

The empire lost control of the significant frontiers and the lack of maintenance of the bridges and roads led to the deterioration of the transport system and consequent decline in communication, trade and commerce within the empire. There were rampant riots against the governance system as there were frequent increments in taxes. The hard ties led the army generals to seize resources from the locals and food was terribly scarce (Socyberty, 2009).

The relative peace and stability came in the year 284 when Emperor Diocletian recognized the fact that it would be impossible for one emperor to keep all the armies loyal to him as well as single-handedly coordinate the defense against the barbarians. The united Roman Empire was ultimately divided into two; the Eastern and the Western Empires in 320s. The Western emperors were seen to be weaker and the barbarians freely controlled vast parts of the empire, finally coming to an end in 476, the Eastern Empire remained in place till 1453.

The Han Dynasty

This is an empire that sprung up before the establishment of the Roman Empire, the Han dynasty was an establishment of a former policeman immediately after the collapse of the Qin dynasty. Liu Bang was the son of peasants who managed to consolidate support and conquered his arch rivals in 202 B.C. overthrowing the Qin dynasty and forming the Han dynasty. Xiongnu was a feared nomadic group that was pacified by Liu by offering them tribute. Some of the issues that made Liu a favorite of many were the fact that he lowered taxes, he reduced the demand for labor from the state and the origin being from the peasants.

Liu appointed rich land owners as governors because of the distrust he had against merchants, he as well appointed officials that were loyal to him ensuring that he controlled all the powers within the dynasty. Liu died in 195 B.C and left a stable Han dynasty. Though there were power struggles within the dynasty after the death of Liu, they were resolved by capable leadership. The rule of Jingdi, Wendi and Wudi were predominantly peaceful, prosperous for peasants, expansion of China, art and trade thrived as well under Confucianism. The expansion saw northern Vietnam, Korean peninsula come under the Han dynasty. Trade routes to Asia were open including the famous Silk Road.

However, the wars of conquest meant availing large armies that ultimately became a burden to the economy of the dynasty. There was overpopulation and poverty struck. There was consequent banditry and even selling of children into slavery for survival. There was rampant corruption within the government even amidst the castigations by the Confucian moralists. As the years of Wudi were coming to an end, there was struggle between the concubines as to who was to be the heir. There was a compromise heir chosen to settle the war but there was little that could be done to save the dynasty that was fact deteriorating. The emperors that followed Wudi were no better as their reigns were laced with corruption, apathy and unprecedented levels of immorality (Cultural China, 2012).

Wang Mang who took over the reigns in 9 a.D attempted to revive the honor of the dynasty through his Confucian beliefs but this just killed the already ailing economy, abetted by terrible natural disasters. There was mass rebellion from the peasants till the death of Wang, a death that saw the dynasty fall into war again in scramble for power, a war which saw millions die and ultimately Liu Xui emerged victorious. Xui helped reestablish the dynasty but it never reached the heights it was at the beginning. There was corruption everywhere, court officials as well as warlords gained more power and many more societal levels. Ultimately China was split into various warring factions that were eventually consolidated into three major kingdoms bringing an end to Han dynasty in 220 a.D.