Reference no: EM13125722

Please check this critical thinking paper. check it for spelling, transitions and other things. The question for this paper is: compare and contrast the three empires: Hellenistic World, Qin dynasty, and Han dynasty

       The rise and fall of the Empires

        It is a cycle; an empire rises and another empire falls. Throughout history, we see the rise and fall of many empires. Some empire survive more than others. When comparing the different empires, we see that there are similarities and difference on how the different empires rise and fall. Like many other empires, Hellenistic World, Qin dynasty, and Han dynasty have risen and fallen.

        The Hellenistic World started with a strong kind, Philip II, who organizes a strong and well trained military and a unified empire. After his death, his son Alexander the Great, became a king. With the well trained military, Alexander expand the Hellenistic World. He conquered the Persian Empire and was aiming to conquer the Indian Empire. By his death, Alexander has built a enormous empire. Alexander died without a clear heir. Therefore, his generals appointed themselves as governors of different part of the empire. Then, conflicts broke between the generals that led to the death of three of them and all Alexander's direct family members. With three generals finding their own three dynasties, the Hellenistic World fell.

        In addition, the Qin dynasty like the Hellenistic World, grew stronger, expanded, and was unified under a strong king, Shi Huangdi.  He had harsh laws, but made it a stable society. He conquered new lands as Alexander did, but Alexander conquered more lands. Also, Shi Huangdi built roads and unified weights, measures, and Chinese writing system. On the other hand, Qin dynasty collapsed somewhat differently than the Hellenistic World. Shi Huangdi built roads, canals, and the Great Wall. To pay for all this construction, he taxed the people. The people got really upset from the tax, the harsh, legalistic laws, and from destroying the  Confucianism books and schools and killing its scholars. After Shi Huangdi died rebellions arose. His heirs could not keep the dynasty together. Ziying one of Shi Huangdi heirs came to the throne of the Qin dynasty. With the surrender of ziying to Liu Bang, the Qin dynasty ended.The people of the Qin dynasty were tired of the harsh laws of the emperor Shi Huangdi and his heirs. Therefore, they joined Liu Bang.

        The Han dynasty started by Liu Bang killing Ziying and his family. Liu Bang claimed control because of popular support; Also, Xiang Yu claimed control too, but Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu and became the Emperor of the Han dynasty. The people liked him because he made the punishments less sever and reduced taxes. The government accumulated vast cash reserves because he increased agricultural production and surplus. After few rulers, Han Wudi came to the throne. As Alexander and Shi Huangdi did, he expand china aggressively. He reestablished the government monopolies on salt, iron, coins, and copper. It was practiced by the Qin dynasty. After Han Wudi died, the former Han dynasty started to decline. Then it felt because of overall state revenues declined, the rise of Rebellions and Succession of Weak emperors.

        To conclude, these three empires had a lot of similarities and some differences. They become empires by expanding and by having strong and intelligent leaders. However, they fell because of week successors, and the arose of rebellions.  These were some of the similarities on how did the three empires arose and how did the fell.