Han China: 306 B.C.E- 220 C.E. and Imperial Rome: 31 B.C.E- 476 C.E.

Dovid Wolberg                                                                                9/13/17

Mr. Richter                                                                        Essay Question 2

Han China: 306 B.C.E- 220 C.E.

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Imperial Rome: 31 B.C.E- 476 C.E.

        There are three things that encompass a civilization, for the good. Firstly, origin and how this civilization started. Secondly, organization, how everything was placed in an orderly fashion to maintain the stability of the land. Finally, outcome. Meaning, how the previous steps helped creating a magnificent civilization that is widely spoken about until today. Accordingly, there is the reciprocal of these three attributes. Foundation, architectonics, and decay. These three are the exact opposite of the original three. Imperial Rome and Han China use these six attributes in their societies, showing the complexity of each civilization and how they were managed.

        Rome and China were and still are gigantic places still today in our modern world. Rome being the home of the Catholic Church, and China being the home of The Great Wall. How did these two civilizations get to this point? Simply because of expansion. Expansion is, in the case, the act of making civilizations bigger. There was a combination of things that attributed to this enormous expansion in these two civilizations. Firstly, political stability attributed to expansion. Political stability entices seamen to trade with these civilizations. Being that Rome was juxtaposed to the Mediterranean Sea, trade and travel was bountiful. Since trade was common in the Mediterranean Sea bordering Rome which has political stability, taxes will be fair, the traders will be given a warm welcome, and they could buy and sell as they please. Same is with China. Since China was surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side trade was plentiful. Another thing these two civilizations shared was mercantile rivals. A mercantile rival is a person or business that rivals another regarding money and trade. In Rome, Carthage, the emporium of tin and silver in the west, and Ch’i, the emporium of salt and iron in the east. The very fact they had ginormous emporium full of supplies and materials shows they were both big in trade and business.

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