Compare Contrast Fall of Han China and Roman Empire

The Roman and Han Empires were the most powerful empires among the Classical Empires. The Han Dynasty and Roman Empire were similar in their falls because they both fell to nomadic invaders, and because they both fell because of a decline in economic trade. The Han and the Roman Empires were different in their falls because the Han suffered from serious revolts whereas the Romans did not; also the effects of their falls were different because China was able to make a fairly quick comeback whereas Rome was never able to do so. The Roman and Han empires were similar in their falls because of they both fell to nomadic invaders. Nomads attacked the empires to try and conquer them. The Romans were attacked by Germanic tribes and Han China was attacked by the Huns. Because both empires borders were so large, they were unable to fully protect their borders making it easy for their invaders to defeat them. The Han and the Roman Empires failing due to nomadic invaders is similar to the fall of the Gupta because one of the main reasons they fell was because of nomadic invaders conquering them and then splitting them up into regional kingdoms. The Roman and Han empires falls’ were similar because of their decline in economic trade. Trade was extremely important for the Romans and Chinese so when it began to decline, so did the rest of the empire. As both empires borders expanded, they had to take more of the military to defend the borders rather than the trade routes, so the trade routes became compromised. People began stealing goods from merchants making the routes extremely dangerous. Because their was much less trade, the taxes to the government were greatly reduced so they had to tax the people more. Most people could not afford the hike in taxes so the government was still unable to get all of their money, thus resulting in decline. This is similar to the decline of the Qin Dynasty because the Qin Dynasty had to raise taxes on peasants to try and support the government, causing it to decline as well. The fall of the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire are different because the Han fell to revolts whereas it was not a major cause in the fall in the Roman Empire. The Han Dynasty had many revolts; an example is the Yellow Turban Revolt, caused by frustration in the government. In Rome there were not many revolts because the government provided the peasants with bread and circuses in order to boost morale and keep them loyal to the government, which worked fairly well. The effects of the falls of the Han and the Roman Empires are different because China was able to make a comeback whereas Rome was not. After the Han fell, China was able to pull together, largely due to the economic and culture unity, whereas Romans were unable to do so. The Roman empire fell separately so the people in the eastern and western halves were very different, along with the economies. They were so different they could not come together, the government was far to fractured and the people were no longer united.