• 100 CE- Han China begins a serious decline;
Confucian activity becomes less prevalent
• Central gvmt loses control, bureaucrats become corrupt, and local landlords rule according to their own wishes
• Free peasants burdened with taxes and landlord’s wishes; most lost their farms and became day laborers; some sold their children into service

• Daoist leaders (Yellow Turbans) promise relief through divine magic
• Yellow Turbans attack the weakness of the emperor and also the self-indulgence of the bureaucracy
• 30,000 students protest; the rebellion failed and
Chinese growth spiraled downhill
• The split in the population made invasions from
Asiatic Huns very easy

• Spread of devastating new epidemics kill ½ pop.
• As Buddhism spread, China’s cultural unity was threatened
• Weak regional rulers rise and fall

• The structures in China were too strong to be overturned, even during period of weak emperors and invasions
• Invaders simply assimilated into Chinese traditions

• Hun invaders begin as early as 500 CE
• Many invaders integrate into the warrior caste, forming a new group of regional princes
• Regional princes (Rajput) emphasize military conquest
• Buddhism further declines, and Hinduism rises
• Indian economy prosperity peaks

• Islam threatens Hinduism around 600 CE
• Hindu texts begin being published in Hindi instead of Sanskrit, which hindered mathematics & science
• Arab traders take control of I.O. Trade Network, which hinders India
• REMAINDERS: regional political structures, the caste system, and Hinduism survived the general decline in India

• After 180 CE, Rome faced difficulties in founding an army due to decline in population
• Tax collection became an issue because Roman residents hit economic hard times
• A general deflation of the Roman spirit
• Series of weak emperors send Rome into depression; army intervenes and selects emperors which deteriorates rule from the top
• Series of plagues emerge from intl. trade (750,000 ppl), further crippling the economy in Rome

• w/ less Romans, the gvmt hires mercenaries
…Overall the plagues decimated the population, which led to other issues
• Rome’s upper class becomes more materialistic, straying from Roman culture
• Upper classes stop reproducing because it’s incompatible with “pleasure-seeking”
• Plot farmers surrender their land to estate owners for military and judicial protection; in the long run this weakens the power of the emperor
• Cities shrank as estates try self-reliance and stray from trade; this causes a cycle in which Roman cities would all but disappear

• None of the measures by Diocletian or Constantine revived the empire (moving the capital, claiming divine rule, etc.)
• Dividing the empire between the West and East caused decline in West
• Germanic invasions in 400 CE meet little resistance from lower classes; first German kingdom in 425 CE
• Rome is left in three pieces; would later make up three distinct civilizations
• In the East, the Byzantine Empire emerges with roots from the classical Roman Empire
• Byzantines have Greek language but Roman traditions
• Byzantine emperor Justinian tries to recapture Roman heritage