Chapter 6: An Age of Empires: Rome and Han China, 753BC-330CE
1. Introduction
a. Two new empires: Rome and Han China
b. Largest empires the world had seen to that point
c. Isolation
2. Rome’s creation of a Mediterranean Empire, 753BC-330BC
a. A republic of farmers
i. City of Rome
ii. Agriculture
iii. Roman republic and social structure
iv. Roman women
v. Religion
b. Expansion in Italy and the Mediterranean
i. What forces may have propelled expansion?
ii. Roman conquest of Italy
iii. Keys to success
iv. Expansion outside of the Mediterranean
c. The failure of the Republic
i. Causes of failure
ii. A series of ambitious individuals
iii. Octavian (Augustus)
iv. Countryside and land ownership
v. Commerce, trade and Romanization
d. An Urban empire
i. Upper classes
ii. Poor Romans
iii. Municipal aristocracy
e. The rise of Christianity
i. Jesus and the Apostles
ii. Paul used cosmopolitan nature of the empire to spread Christianity
iii. Growth of Christianity
f. Technology and transformation
i. Technological advancements and military reorganization
ii. “Third-Century crisis” 235-284CE
iii. Diocletian
iv. Constantine
3. The origins of Imperial China
a. Resources and population
i. Agricultural production
ii. Taking advantage of an expanding population
iii. expansion
b. Hierarchy, obedience and belief
i. The basic unit of Chinese society was the family
ii. Confucianism was the basis of the value system
iii. Experiences of women are difficult to pinpoint
iv. Religion
c. The first Chinese emperor
i. The rise of Shi Huangdi
ii. A successful totalitarian regime
iii. Qin building and standardization
d. The Long reign of the Han
i. Reconstructing the empire
ii. Chang’an
iii. “Son of Heaven” and the “Mandate of Heaven”
iv. Government organization and the role of the gentry
v. Daoism
e. Technology and trade
i. Metallurgy and weapons
ii. Roads and waterways
iii. Trade and commerce
f. Decline of the Han empire
i. Relations between settled Chinese and nomads
ii. Xiongnu
iii. Factors weakening the Han
4. Imperial Parallels
a. Similarities between Rome and Han China
i. Family and architecture
ii. Expansion and administration
iii. Technologies, towns and defense
b. Differences
i. Chinese attitude towards role of individual in the state
ii. Roman family
iii. Political and religious ideology in Rome and Han China
c. New belief systems
i. Christianity and Buddhism
5. Conclusion
a. The Qin Empire emerged rapidly
b. Early Roman state had no precedents for empire
c. Social order and then decline