Roman Empire vs Han Dynasty (Concept 2.3)
[Note: This is being posted later than the 20th because my computer was having an issue where I could not log into the Tumblr account to post this until I finally figured out how to fix the problem 15 minutes ago.]
When empires rise, they expand their borders, linking together different regions, cities, economies, and cultures. It is in an empire’s best interests to keep their domestic stability high, and provinces peaceful; this usually means assigning soldiers to safeguard roads from bandits, and making navies patrol sea zones to fight piracy. These practices, although expensive, are the key to inter-regional trade, which couldn’t exist profitably without them. So the rise of inter-regional empires also facilitated the existence of long-distance trade routes.
The rise of the Han Dynasty led to the establishment of many such trade routes, which connected the distant parts of the empire, and circulated trade goods from the corners of the world. Other commodities, such as cultural artifacts or ideas also spread via trade, such as languages, religion/belief systems, art, philosophy, and technology. The Han also funded the creation of “imperial roads” to facilitate trade, these roads were protected from bandits, and connected large cities.
The same could be said about the rise of the Roman Empire, in the first centuries of the C.E., the merchants of the mediterranean experienced “Pax Romana” which meant trade was safe and productive, and was expedited by the large road network built by the Roman legions, which connected the northern border with the Germanic tribes, through Rome, and also the North African coast.
The domestication of horses in both Rome and Han china led to the creation of horse-drawn carts/wagons which both increased the distance goods and people could travel, but the productivity of the farms and mines which harvested the important trade goods. The first major boom of horse populations in East Asia was during the regime of Emperor Wudi when he expended vast amounts of currency importing horses from the west to “modernise” Chinese agriculture and military power.
Another new technology that facilitated trade was the compass, which was used by Chinese navigators in conjunction with the stars to calculate where exactly someone was on a map, what direction you were traveling, and how fast. This technology was used to improve the naval trade routes commonly used at the time by decreasing the chances of getting lost or misdirected, and by increasing the distance one ship could travel; this allowed the Han to expand their trade across the South China Sea to Borneo and Malacca and beyond.
Trade in Rome was similar, but there was a much larger focus of sea routes rather than roads, even though both options existed for traders. The reasons Roman merchants prefered naval travel over land travel for anything longer than a short distance was that it was much faster, and thus cheaper to travel that way. Not to mention most of the commodities that were in high demand (Silk, Gold/Ivory, and Wheat) were channeled to ports with exclusive export rights for that commodity; so it was easier to ship the goods. Trade was much more valuable to the Romans than the Han Chinese because the Roman Empire was completely connected by sea routes via the mediterranean, so trade overall was less costly.
A very valuable Chinese commodity, Silk was kept under a chinese monopoly for centuries. Because this good was much prized among the world and could only be found in one place, a very long trade route developed stretching across Eurasia. Sadly this large trade route allowed the spread of very harmful diseases like the Bubonic plague, Measles, and Smallpox.
A very major downside to trade, and the long-distance travel of people overall is that pathogens can live inside humans and the pests that travel within their trade cargo, as they travel. This means that the more trading that goes on within a civilization, the more chances of a disease spreading from one port to another.
Major disease outbreaks affected both the Romans and the Han in the early centuries of the C.E.; The first major outbreak of Smallpox in China happened in 161 C.E. and caused the deaths of many peasants and scholars alike. The widespread decimation of human lives caused some to question the authenticity of Confucian beliefs, and looked for an alternative (Buddhism). The plague of Smallpox also caused social turmoil that eventually became too much for the Han Dynasty to control, and was one of the causes for their fall.
Smallpox and measles outbreaks also affected the Romans as well, in 165 and also in 251, the massive destruction of these outbreaks helped lead to a period of anarchy and chaos in the third century that eventually caused the fall of the Romans by the sixth century. As with China, the widespread decimation of human lives led many to abandon their old roman pantheon of gods in favor of whatever alternatives were available. By this time Christianity was well known, and followers of christ were a significant part of the population in Anatolia and major port cities like Rome.
Another thing that trade spread was religion: during the Han Dynasty Buddhism spread via trade routes from India to China. Usually the first adopters for religion were ones of lower class or privilege, and in Han China, where Confucianism was widely adopted, women who thought they were oppressed converted to Buddhism to gain higher social standing. The religion was spread by the occupation which traveled the farthest, the quickest, the most; the merchant class.
In the Roman empire during this time, Christianity was on the rise and was starting to become a large minority of roman citizens. It’s spread was not wholly dependant on trade, there was many factors for it’s spread throughout the Roman Empire, but trade was still a large supporting factor in the history of Christianity. As with Buddhism in China, the early adopters of Christianity were the oppressed peoples of lower social class; particularly women, or those living on the edges of the empire who felt the effects of Roman Imperialism hard.