Technology : Han China And The Roman Empire

There were two major similarities between the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty. Both the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty were great empires that had large land areas under their control. Han China and the Roman Empire put a lot of effort into building and expanding their territories. The Han Dynasty expanded their territory further Qin boundary and Romans wanted more territory for military uses. They manufactured streets that helped with trade and built new buildings, pipes, and

The Hans and Romans understood the importance of technology, but unlike the Hans, the Romans viewed anyone who worked with tools or with their hands to be a person of lowly status. The Romans only showed appreciation for technologies that could hold some benefit for the upper-class. The upper-class Romans thought that craftsmen, people who made a living out of making tools, was hardly an occupation that deserved any respect. The Hans appreciated the use of tools in their labor and how it could help the people. The Hans showed a great appreciation of their technological advancements, and its effect on society.

The infrastructure of cities and roadways and the resultant cultural diffusion was an intricate part of both civilizations.

The Pax Romana was characterized by political stability, an increase of commerce, as well as cultural diffusion. Augustus was the emperor during this period, he got rid of the declining Senate and introduced the Principate; allowing an effective bureaucratic government to be introduced to Rome. Overtime Rome also granted the conquered populations the opportunity to become citizens. With the help of Rome’s technical innovations like roads, concretes, and arches the amount of trade that went on increased drastically. With military posts on these roads people felt safe traveling to other regions to trade. Because of this Rome’s culture and religion was able to diffuse, especially to the west. All these things were able to create a period of prosperity in Rome.

Both Rome and Han China equivalently constructed similar roads, bridges, and water development systems all to strengthen their economy. Verifications of this can be seen when Rome fully realized the potential of arches and bridges in their road systems that spanned more than 400,000 km of roads that were used for trade. Correspondingly, they also built aqueducts as a form of water engineering to constantly bring in a flow of water to the cities and towns. Similarly, Han China built massive fortified roadways for trade and walls for fortification comparable to the Great Wall of China as a means of defense. Also in comparison to Roman aqueducts, Han China built water canals as means to direct water as they pleased. These similarities defined their engineering skills as these inventions and constructions were used to help strengthen their economies. Rome built and constructed roads to aid their trade systems and make easier routes of travel. Furthermore, they used aqueducts to get water into the city saving money and the need for human labor. Similarly, Han China used their fortified roads to trade much easier and as a means of safer travel. This went hand in hand with China’s water canals that also aided their economy by directing water where needed saving much money and limiting the need for human labor as well.

The decline of China and Rome both shared similar economic strife in that they were both subject to barbarian and nomadic invasions, therefore having to spend large amounts of money on frontier defense; however, they differed in that the Han Empire collapsed in part due to the high taxes imposed on the peasant class resulting in a large peasant rebellion, such as the Yellow Turbans, while in Rome tax collections was in danger of abandonment as residents of the empire were few in number and in financial difficulty. In addition, the two empires were similar socially because of large epidemics, diseases, and plagues that caused a population decrease. Also, both experienced a

When watching the film, Star Wars, it is impossible not to be aware of the technology that is represented in the film, partly because it is so much more advanced than our own is now, but also because we can imagine how we might someday acquire such technology. The central theme in Star Wars is good versus evil, clearly demonstrated by the technology in the film. While the Rebels (the good guys) use technology primarily to fight for freedom and quality of life for all, the Empire (the bad guys) use technology to develop weapons of destruction and war in an attempt to rule the galaxy. In addition to these two opposing sides, there is another group that doesn’t use technology for war. This

The Han and Roman Empires are very important. They have greatly influenced the past, and many other societies worldwide. The Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire have different outlooks on technology, the Han Dynasty view technology as a practical application used to ease the workload of people, while the Roman Empire views certain technology as needed, despite the creator. If not for the technology and the technological views of the Han and Roman Empires, the world would be a much

The Han and Roman's attitudes towards technology resembled each other in a variety of ways like how both empires allowed non-government workers to practice engineering and other crafts that dealt with technology. However, during the first century of B.C.E the Han and Roman empires had many differences with their attitudes towards technology. For example, the Roman empire was against engineering and advancements in technology as it had government officials speak out against engineering and being a craftsman while the Han Empire was for technology and had government, officials be engineers. As well as the Han dynasty being more consistent for the practice of engineering and of crafts similar to it while the Roman empire had some

The Han Dynasty viewed technology as essential in various ways. Documents 1 and 2 show how technology is an essential thing and that although it is great, government intervening must take place to assure everything goes to plan. Document 1 mentions some organization and order that’s needed to make sure everything works, and document 2 mentions how the workers are using crude brittle tools and need to get new tools that are in good condition so they can work more efficiently. Both of these documents may have a slight bias considering both of them are written by Han government officials and they might want to get higher positions and this may influence their writings. It was interesting that in document

After studying the provided documents (#1-8) its come to my understanding that both the Han and Roman empires thought of technology as useful and somewhat revolutionary, but both of them had somewhat different feelings of it. The Han dynasties attitude toward technology was that they thought it was very benefical, and they admired it. The reason this was because they though it to be very helpful in agriculture and construction purposes. Evidence of the positive effects of this can be seen in Document 4: History of the Early Han Dynasty which tells of a governer of Nanynay and as the very generous and loving person he was his policies also refelcted his personality. He had so much love for his people he wanted to lift weight of their

The Han and Roman worlds were two of the largest and most complex early empires composed of different cultures, political systems, languages, beliefs, and ways of living. However, they had a few similarities; one of which is the introduction of various technologies during the first and second millennium. The Han in China and Romans in the Mediterranean experienced a time period of expansion in which they began to develop technology such as metallurgy and water systems to aid in military conquests and practical purposes. Although both Han and Roman had definite appreciation towards technology, the Han attitude towards technology was more glorifying in its effectiveness and utility; while the roman attitude was less glorifying as they focused on technology to display their civilizations advancements, while they neglected to glorify those who worked with tools. Han’s attitude towards technology was appreciative, glorified technology when its is supported by the government, and believed technology is essential for the empire. The Roman attitude includes inferiority of tools, aestheticism as main use of technology, and less glorification and importance on technology.

As technology grew, it was viewed in many different ways. Both han and roman empires had state of the art technology developments and advancements, and they both adapted technology from other people. However, they had different views on technology. The Han empire had a more open and optimistic view on new technology, when on the other hand the Romans had more of a neutral look on technology.

Though separated by immense distance, Imperial Rome and Han China paralleled each other in many ways. As vast empires, both maintained a large standing army to stabilize their borders and to conquer neighboring territories. Inwards, to facilitate communication and transportation, these empires built complex road system, connecting once isolated cities across their lands. Yet, in China, the ruler was seen as a son of god, if not god himself, while in Rome, the rulers had to fight for his position, promoting a ruler cult and to justify their reign. Prosperous and affluent, the Roman Empire and Han China were attractive targets of wealth-hungry nomadic tribes surrounding the empires.

In documents 2 and 5, they show how the Han and Roman society used technology . In Han china, the quality of the tools is everything. The tools were crucial for productivity and economic stimulations (document 2). In Rome, it was a different story. The dependence on productivity was more important than the labor/workers.