1. Why did the results of Han China’s
decline differ from those of the
Roman Empire’s decline?
CHINA: Han was based upon the political
system, had invasions, nomadic invaders
were the Hun’s, central govt fell,
beauracrats became corrupt, land lords
took land from the poor, poor worked for
the wealthy, peasants were stuck in their
social status and rebelled, Confucism
declined and became less creative, Rulers
originally wanted to decrease the amount
of abuse and violence that the Qin
dynasty ruled with, Wu Ti was just as bad,
which led to central govt weakening,
China went into a state of chaos after govt
fell around 200 CE to 589 CE, had high
taxes poor had to sell their farms and
children, China’s culture was threatened
because of the spread of Buddhism, China
was importing an idea ( cultural
diffusion), tried to expand towards Korea,
Indochina and Central Asia, open ways for
India to come into China, opened trade
routes and Cultural Influences, had a large
population decrease because of Invasion
and disease, 184 CE Daoist started a
revolution, healing and magic, called
themselves the yellow turbins and
promised a golden age, students
demonstrated against government
morality, government was untruthful and
protested because of government
corruption, as the dynasty grew weaker
tax revenue declined; had internal
rebellions, after protest brought into a
Civil War, over threw the Han and
epidemics killed ½ of the population, the
epidemics caused 3 centuries of chaos,
Isolation, could not get help from others
when low on food supplies, invasions,
made trade difficult, put merchants down
on the social class, made it difficult for
them to trade and collect taxes, Invaders
couldn’t create a more elaborate for of
government.
ROME: didn’t have a central religion,
people were killed by plague, couldn’t
recruit citizens for military service,
population declined because of disease
(measles), hard time collecting taxes so
empire fell on hard times, many people
fled in poverty and some died and others
turned to religion, upper class lost their
devotion to politics because of bad
economics and turned to pleasure seeking
and lost your morals, Rome had to turn to
Germany for mercenaries for defense (
have to pay for solders, lack loyalty, know
your weaknesses, using state money to
pay, Rome had very little tax revenues,
internal dissention), Christianity began to
gain influence, Diocletian tried to political
loyalty for his own personal gain,
Constantine introduced Christianity as his
own faith in hopes reversing the tide of
Rome, Rome broke into 2 parts, broke
into East and Weston Roman empires and
they didn’t communicate much, Some
citizens had a problem with Christianity
because the State was not first, Christians
didn’t like Diocletian because he wanted
to be considered a god and be worshiped
as a god, desire for territory expansion
caused many invasions which led to the
loss of territory, after the East / West split
Germany came in and started to make
their own kingdom, 5% of German
invaders took over Rome, Greece and
Rome did not share bureaucratic
traditions and no way for others to pick it
up after Rome fell, had Civil Wars,
generals wanted more power, peasants
rebelled of high taxes, when Rome fell it
spilt in 3 zones that became the starting
points of 3 civilizations called Byzantium,
Kingdom of the Visigoths and Ostrogoths,
not all 3 parts fell at the same time which
did not allow any one group to take over,
all tried to regulate their economy in their
own zone which lowered tax revenue and
the government had less power, peasants
welcomed the Germanic Tribes and made
it easier for the take over, Eastern
Emperor Justian lost a lot of Provinces,
Eastern Empire will have more power,
Civilization was more entrenched.
DIFFER: ROME FELL INTO PIECES, CHINA
RESTORED AND KEPT THEIR
GOVERNMENT, ROME DIDN’T ETHICAL
PHILISOPHY WHERAS CHINA DID, ROME
INFLUENCE BY MANY CULTURES; CHINA
WAS ISOLATED.
QUESTION 2: Compare the major beliefs
and religious organization of Christianity
and Buddhism.
Christianity: the guidance of saints, we
not tolerant of other belief systems, Jesus
was their leader, placed emphasis on
church organization, had an emphasis on
a simple life and a spiritual equality of all
people, placed a premium on missionary
activity and wide spread conversions,
believed in a single god, god loves
humankind despite earthly sin, started off
as a Jewish priesthood until Jesus came,
are under the leadership of the pope,
believed in an afterlife in heaven and that
is where they meet with god, worked
against slavery, emphasized in sexual
restraint, god sent Christians to earth to
redeem human sin, was attractive to rich
and poor for the promise for salvation
and treated women equally in regards
worship, believed after Jesus died he will
come back and will bring the end of the
world, had Christian doctrine (the Bible),
completely devoted to their god, believed
that God is made of 3 people; the holy
trinity, father, the son, and the holy ghost,
God sent Jesus as the “perfect” sacrifice
for the sins of the world, believed in
baptism.
Buddhism: had a central figure called
Buddha, believed that if a person lived
“saintly” they could obtain Nirvana (state
of perfection/happiness/enlightment/
spirituality), changed from a religion
based on ethics to an emotional cult
offering salvation, believed prayers and
rituals could help ordinary people,
evolved further to China after the fall of
the Han dynasty, spread through the
teachings of monks to have Buddha seen
as the divine, spread to east Asia and
called Mahayana or the greater vehicle,
believed that their souls resided in a
super heaven after death and could
receive prayers and aid people, had a big
effect on women and led them to live a
more meaningful life, had Bodhisattvas
and helped encourage the religion after
Buddha’s death, accepted the truth
behind reincarnation after death, souls do
not die, come back as a different being
depending on how they lived their life
(cow), to find enlighlightenment one had
to abandon their selfish desires or earthly
things, whole villages created shrines to
Buddha, were organized with priests,
temples, creeds and rituals, Confusist
leaders found that Buddhist beliefs in the
afterlife were a diverversion from
political interests, saw it as a threat
because it would serve as a distraction
from being loyal to the emperor,
Buddhism came to China it divided into
different versions of the faith because of
conflicting views on morals.
QUESTION 3: WHAT WERE THE MAIN
FACTORS IN ROME’S DECLINE? WHICH
DO YOU JUDGE MOST IMPORTANT?
WHY?
Did not have a central religion, couldn’t
recruit an effective Army, were more
centered on centralizing their
government instead of their
surroundings, difficult to collect because
people did not have money because of
disease / measles and the plague which
wiped out 75% of the population, had to
hire Germanic mercanaries, Rome’s
upperclass became more pleasure
seeking which turned them away from
their political devotion and economics
vigor, Germans eventually invaded them,
it was under aristocratic control through
popular voice, political confusion
produced weak leaders, landlords began
to obtain greater political authority /
more than the emperor, because of
pleasure seeking child rearing became
less important,
REASON FOR DECLINE AND WHY?
Plesure seeking and not having children,
because it did not increase the overall
population, which you cannot have a
civilization, cannot have solders,
governmental systems, and taxes, instead
of furthering their knowledge they wrote
more textbooks.
To many personal wants and needs of the
emperors caused the lower classes to give
up land to landlords because of frequent
invasions from Germanic Tribes for
protection, Invaders were welcomed.
No central religion caused people to
pleasure seek, see above for reasons.
Plague and disease desimated the
population by 75% which decreased tax
collection, military, see above reasons.
Aristocrats and Emperors began to fight
for power of who was left.
QUESTION 4: EXPLORE THE DIFFERENCE
IN THE EASTERN AND WESTERN
PORTIONS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
HOW DID THESE DIFFERENCES ARISE?
IN WHAT WAYS CAN IT BE ARGUD THAT
THE ROMAN EMPIRE SURVIVED IN THE
EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN EVEN
AFTER IT COLLAPSED IN THE WEST?
East: were active in trade and had good
agriculture, were artistically creative,
centered in Constantinople and traded
with the Muslims, created by Constatine,
further by Justinian, Diocletian; Justinian
tried to recapture the heritage of Rome in
the east, Dioclitian wanted the people to
worship the emperor as a God, Constatine
set up a second capital city to regulate the
empire more efficiently, tried to use
Christianity to unify the empire and
adopts Christianity on his death bed as
the “official religion”, had fewer
pressures from invaders, named
themselves the Byzantium Empire.
West: events in the east made it worse in
the west because they centralizing the
power in the east, were being invaded by
the Germanic tribes, division weaken the
western western half, poor attempts to
regulate the economy tax revenues
decline, had a hard time trading with
around Italy and France because
Germanic kingdoms and developed in
those parts, had a loss of comprehension
and understanding the doctrine of
Augistine and the inability to write write
well, Christianity could not sustain the
sophisticated culture of literature or art,
system was not organized at all picking a
new emperor meant very little and loses
power, Army deterioriated and put up
little fight when Germans invade, plague
and disease wiped out population,
QUESTION 5: TAKING INTO ACCOUNT
BOTH EGYPT AND KUSH, WHAT WERE
THE MAIN FEATURES OF CIVILIZATION
IN AFRICA PRIOR TO THE FIRST
CENTURY C.E?
EGYPT: based around a pharaoh and had
monks and priest and son would get the
throne, was polytheistic, built tombs for
pharaohs in which would house all of
their positions in to the Pyramids,
writings were hiroglyphics and mastered
the use of Iron, were advanced in math,
had slaves, were conqured by the
Kushites, had very lively art which
reflected their views on the afterlife,
architure were very influential,
maintained a unifed state throughout
their history, economy was more
govenmnet driven, because of
government control it made the pharaohs
godlike.