HIS 1510
3/25/14

The Roman Empire and Han Dynasty were both very successful empires and dynasties in their time. They both prospered and united their countries. Of course they had their moments of falling as an empire and dynasty, but, they got back up and built from there and went onward grow. The Roman Empire, there are numerous reasons why the fall of this empire happened. First, the civil wars, there were always disagreements and the people of this empire loved fighting. So, war was above reasoning and agreements. Another main reason that helped with their fall was that the empire was too big for them to handle. They conquered most of Western Europe but could not keep up with it all. Military generals took advantage of this and took control of certain parts. There were 26 “barrack emperors,” all killing each other for rule over that part of the empire. Finally, the last reason is the invasion of the Germanic tribes. The main tribe to make an impact was the Huns. They attack fast and furiously and breached into Balkan from Hungary then onto Northern Italy. The Han dynasty, just like Roman Empire they too fell for numerous reasons. One reason is the emperors would appoint family and friends to positions with authority. This move would greatly corrupt the government. Second reason, Han expanded its territory too far to the point where it was too much to handle. So bureaucrats ruling towns far away from Han's capital could do anything they wanted. They would raise rent on peasants who didn’t have much which resulted in people going against authorities. One more reason is the Yellow Turban Uprising; this group of people rose up due to the hardships on the poor. The bureaucrats did not help at all and actually raised taxes and rent even when peasants didn’t have anything to give. The yellow turban rebels revolted against the Han dynasty gradually hurting the government little by little.