THE ROMANS AND CHINA

Robert King
HIEU 201-B05
September 29th, 2014

The West and East both had major super powers at the same time. The Romans in the West and the Han Dynasty in the East. Both had no idea how large the other was. The Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty both had created strong government systems, military and had vast technology advancement. Though they had major differences, they both made a lasting impression on Eastern and Western civilization as we know it today At the height of the Roman Empire it had close to nineteen provinces stretching as far as Syria. "The simple mention of the Roman Empire is sometimes enough to conjure up an image of something that is immensely stable." Roman's had an emperor which ultimately controlled everything. As same to the Han dynasty the emperor came to power with no regards to the law. The Roman empire had a different way to govern a provinces and a cities. they had some freedom on running their government but always had to pay tax and had to take command from a assigned governor. Then Han dynasty like the Roman's used their military power to take over their land. At the height of the Han dynasty they had thirty-one districts, creating law, currency, a weight system and a measurement system. These systems where to overtake old ones in all of the China. This did not go as well as the Romans approach. The Roman empire took control of areas but did not try and change their culture as much. They still had their own law, taxes and leaders put into effect. But there was more freedom in a sense. One of the major differences is the time spent at war. "One calculation puts the number of wars between the major states between 656 and 221 b.c.e. at 256."This is also a big factor in the decline of both the Roman empire and the Han dynasty. In the Han/Qin rule, warriors had a want to go to war because they would