The Fall of Classical Empires
HAN, GUPTA AND ROME
Reasons for the Fall of the Han Empire
 Social:
 Landholding elite held all of the power
 Disease
 Political:
 Political fighting between eunuchs, Confucian
scholars and nobles
 Government corruption and bribery
 Power in the hands of local landholders and
governors (decentralization)
 Because of no centralized power, China was
vulnerable
 Political and Social:
 Only wealthy elite could gain political position
Reasons for the Fall of the Han Empire
 Cultural
 Challenged by arrival of Buddhism
 Economic:
 Crop failure, flooding


-9 million die
Failure to implement land reform
Reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire
Social:
 Invasions from Germanic tribes
 The expansion of slavery
 Decline in Roman civic duty
 Moral decay
 The decline of patriotism
Reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire
 Cultural
 State not united by religion or philosophy
 Divided by language


Latin in west, Greek in east
Christianity challenges traditional Roman institutions
Reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire
Economic:
 Dependence on foreign products
 Traditional work ethic declined
 Decline of cities’ infrastructure
 Trade deficit
 The high cost of military, welfare and government
 Class economic warfare between rich and poor
 Unequal taxation
 The small farm disappears
Reasons for the Fall of the Roman Empire
Political:
 Problems of succession (the next emperor)
 Empire became too large for the government,
and reform came too little and too late
 Government became dominated by the rich and
military elites
 Citizens lost their interest in the government
 The military lost its prestige
Reasons for the Fall of the Gupta Empire
Political
 Inability to centralize the Raj princes
 Because of decentralization, no Indian leaders to
unify the subcontinent
 Hun invaders from the North
Aftermath
Han
 Confucianism is able to hold society
together despite the collapse of the
government
Note: 3 centuries before next united
dynasty - Tang
Note: No such self-sacrificing mentality
existed in the western Classical Empires
Aftermath
Roman
 The Eastern Roman Empire would adopt
Christianity as the state religion, and merge
religion and politics.
 The Western Empire did not do this, so their was
constant fighting between the Pope and kings
 The east was older, richer and more stable than
the west, with larger and most prosperous cities
 Trade and commerce flourish in the east
 Law and order existed in the east prior to Roman
government
 The east did not have to deal with foreign
invaders
 The west had foreign mercenaries working in
their military ranks
Aftermath
Gupta
 Caste system holds society together
 Hinduism gains against Buddhism
 Economic prosperity continues
 Regional factionalism prevents
unification of sub-continent
 Note: India not united until British Raj
Comparison of Collapse
Students should be able to discuss similarities and
differences in the following areas:
 Political corruption and infighting
 Decentralization
 Foreign invaders
 Social decay
 Disease (Han and Rome)
 Change in religious or philosophical systems
So, what did they have in common?
 Reasons for collapse of classical empires:
 Economic

Social

Political

Environmental