A.P. World History Group 9
Bryan Taylor, Nadia Dockery and Armana Muhammad
 In Ancient China, deforestation was a serious problem,
consuming an area greater than that taken by
farmlands.
 90% of China’s desertification occurs in the west of the
country and approximately 30% of China’s surface area
was desert.
 Overgrazing and the expansion of agricultural land
could cause this area to increase.
 Deforestation during the Roman period was a result of the geographical
expansion of the Roman Empire, with its increased population, large-scale
agriculture, and unprecedented economic development.
 Wood was a primary source of heating and used extensively in industry.
Wood fuel constituted about 90 percent of the consumption overall, and was
a major factor in the Roman deforestation epidemic.
 Agriculture was the economic base for the Roman Empire. With an ever-
increasing population, the clearing of land for crops was a primary cause of
initial deforestation.
 A major contributor to the environmental degradation and barrier to the
regeneration of forests was the grazing of domestic animals. Animals
grazed and destroyed land areas unsuitable for cultivation.
 Desertification is the process by which fertile land is
transformed into desert, usually as a result of
deforestation, drought, and agriculture use/practices.
 Most of the desertification that these civilizations
experienced was as a result of agriculture,
deforestation, and associated changes in aridity and
the climate.
 The limited natural vegetation that is present is also
often overgrazed, leading to large-scale soil erosion
and increased runoff/decreased rainfall retention.
 Desertification in Han China happened rather fast
based on whether or not the current weather
conditions were cold or hot.
 It occurred because of agriculture, deforestation and
changes in the climate.
 Agriculture started to become limited because the
land was not properly irrigated which led to affects
such as salty soil and without agriculture the economy
started to become effected.
 Desertification could not support a large population.
 Soil erosion increases due to how much deforestation has
occurred in a place.
 The ongoing downward decline of soil fertility arrived just
when imperial Rome began to rely on its agriculture to give
an energy for its foreign conquests.
 Rome abandoned their land leaving their land not properly
cared for which caused greater erosion and loss of soil
fertility.
 Wet fields were no longer drained due to abandonment and
were left like swamps. As this spread across fields, the
mosquitoes started to appear and started the spread of
Malaria.

The main cause of soil erosion comes from the Yellow River in China and comes out on the Loess
Plateau.

It was unknown back then but the type of soil erosions were hydraulic erosion, surface erosion, rill
erosion, wind erosion, artificial erosion and gravitational erosion.

TA river where the deposit of silt (mud or clay) built upon the riverbed until it is higher than the
surrounding plains
 Natural activity (abrasion)
 Animal activity
 Human activity
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Plowing
Transportation
Forest Clearing
There was a lot of rain and the Loess had a soft surface and was very easily eroded.
 The Tiber River was the cause of silted rivers in Rome.
 This river was used for trade but eventually the heavy
sedimentation of the river made it difficult to travel.
 This river was so bad that it was used as a punishment
to throw criminals in. It is the third largest river in Italy
and is the main waterway of Rome.
 A river where the deposit of silt (mud or clay) built
upon the riverbed until it is higher than the
surrounding plains.
 The Yellow River is the second largest river in Asia and
it’s called China’s sorrow.
 Due to course changes and frequent floods caused by
river beds, a lot of surrounding farmlands have been
destroyed causing social and economic problems.
 The Yellow River’s floods are caused by large amounts
of the grain Loess which is deposited along the bottom
of its channel.
Expansion of Roman Empire required more
soldiers to patrol its borders and frontiers.
This action caused high taxes for a people who
were dying off because of plagues and poverty.
The lower class became frustrated because the
elites were becoming more and more selfcentered, engaging in extravagant lifestyles at
the expense of tax-paying citizens.
 The elites became less concerned with their social and
political responsibilities.
 The end result was that the empire became weakened
politically, economically, culturally and psychologically
which drained the strength and desire to fight off
invaders to the land.
 Decline came about by an empire that was too large, too
over-extended and too expensive to be sustained by
available resources.
 Central government’s authority was diminished by the
growth of large landowning families with large estates
because free peasants turned into impoverished tenant
farmers.
 A major peasant revolt occurred, along with the death of
much of the population due to rancid disease, caused
HAN China to quickly decline.
Decline of Mauryan
Empire
oThe decline of the Mauryan Empire began soon after the death of Emperor
Ashoka, which caused the empire to become divided.
oDivision in the empire caused internal wars between the sections of the land.
oAshoka’s successors were not strong enough to control the unrests and
revolts of the people. The empire continued to weaken in terms of warring and
military strength. This was partly due to Ashoka’s von-violent and peaceful
stance which weakened the army because they stopped fighting battles.
o Defending the borders was extremely difficult because it stretched for
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thousands of miles and costs lots of money to spread out the soldiers.
Germany and central Europe were defenseless . Usually desolate
frontiers like Britain and North Africa would have long walls built by
Romans to keep out foreigners.
Rome’s biggest threat was the Parthian Kingdom which controlled
eastern lands of present day Iran and Iraq, and would always war with
Rome over land.
Germanic tribesmen on the Rhine/Danube raided deep into the empire
of Rome during the “3rd century crisis” in which political , military and
economic problems had arisen.
Power was being given to any man that offered protection therefore, so
much money was put into defending the frontiers that it drained the
treasury.
 During the Han period, the Xiongu (a great confederacy of
Turkic people) were the Chinese civilizations major
external threat.
 Soldier-farmers and garrisons were placed on the frontier
in order to contain the Xiongu.
 Military vigilance along the frontier such as paying for
protection, the use of the tributary system (nomad rulers
accepted Chinese supremacy and paid tribute, and were
rewarded marriages to Chinese princesses, and gifts from
Han emperor that exceeded the value of the tribute) ruined
the economy and burdened Han finances.
 There were also attacks by nomadic groups on the
northwestern frontier.
 Long borders located from the administrative center combined with vigorous
neighbors who coveted the empire’s prosperity.
 Many walls, forts, garrisons had to be built in order to protect against
invasions.
 Frontier defenses required so much money that eventually, the economy of
both empires were affected.
 The gap in technology was eventually closed due to the empire’s neighbors
learning to become more familiar with using technology and their skills.
 Imperial governments started to lose their citizens’ trust because it
demanded taxes and their was a lack of trust as it refers to the military.
Powerful rural landowners were now sought out to protect many people.
 Over time, both empires had become so incapacitated that their borders had
become overrun as well as their central governments’ collapsed.