CONRAD-DEMAREST COMPARISON OF EMPIRES
Refer to the complete listing of characteristics in the C-D Model before completing the chart. Use specific examples, not generalities
Characteristics
Roman Empire
Han China
Gupta India
Timeframe
27 BCE – 476 CE
202 BCE – 220 CE
320 CE – 550 CE
1. Necessary preconditions for
the rise of empires—the region
must have:
a) State-level government
b) agricultural potential
c) An environmental mosaic
d) power vacuum
e) Mutual antagonism
f) military or technological
advantage
2. Ideology that promotes
personal
identification with the state,
empire, leader, conquest, and/or
militarism
3. Characteristics of well-run
empires
a) Build roads
b) Trade increases
c) Cosmopolitan cities
d) Effective bureaucracy
e) Communication
f) System of justice
g) Citizenship or rights
Reference Chapters 2, 3, 4 and
notes for each region
Characteristics
Roman Empire
Han China
Gupta India
Timeframe
4. Major results of empire:
a) Economic rewards
b) Relative stability and
prosperity
c) Population increase
27 BCE – 476 CE
202 BCE – 220 CE
320 CE – 550 CE
5. Empires fall because:
a) Failure of leadership
b) Expansion beyond a practical
limit:
c) Lack of new conquests erodes
economic base and lessens faith
in ideology that supported the
empire
d) Rebellions from within/
challenges from without
Pages to Reference for the Fall
of Empires:
a. Rome – handout (Fall of
Rome); textbook p. 107111
b. Han China – textbook p.
106
c. Gupta India – textbook
p. 107