Rome/China
...s empire with elected officials. Shi Huangdi totally abolished Chinas original unifying idea, Feudalism. Feudalism is loosely organized government in which local lords govern their own lands. In feudalism, treason was a very liable thing and little there was little place where the King of the nobles could put his authority into play. This is an amazing accomplishment of Shi Huangdi to unit all these feudal lords. Due to all these changes, Shi Huangdi was afraid of being planned or attacked against, so he forced all the nobles to live inside the capitol. Shi Huangdi was threatened by these nobles wealth, he distributed their lands among peasants. Another form of unity Shi Huangdi brought to the Empire was the Great Wall. Although the great wall already remained in parts, Shi Huangdi joined all the separate parts the feudal nobles had created into one Great Wall. This in great depth symbolized the new unity of China, but also symbolized truly the end of feudalism, Chinas strongest political tradition. Shi Huangdi thought his empire would last forever, but when he died, it wasn’t legalism that ruled the next empire. It was Confucianism run by the Han. Confucianism is the idea of leading by example. The Mandate of Heaven still continued as one of Chinas political traditions. The Mandate of Heaven is the concept that a dynasty is given the right to rule from the Gods or ancestors. Legalism and Confucianism got placed on top of the Mandate of Heaven rather then replacing it completely. The Mandate of Heaven is demonstrated through Legalism with the Quin by just having different ways of running the empire. For example, Shi Huangdi burned all books about Confucianism, because he thought Confucianism would bring back Feudalism. And CIVIL SERVICE EXAM demonstrates the Mandate of Heaven through Confucianism with the Han? On the other hand, Rome didn’t need a new unifying idea. They were completely unified before and during the start of the empire. In a sense, the Romans felt unified through citizen ship which began before the start of the empire. Although citizen did progress with Augustus. He declared every free born male was granted citizenship. Augustus boasted about having increased the citizenship by 4 million people. Before the empire, Rome as a small city state, was limited. Citizen ship was only granted to those who had Roman parents. The benefits of citizen ship were they were allowed to own property, didn’t’ have taxes, contracts and were allowed to marry other Roman citizens. In return the citizens of Rome had to serve Rome. Then as Rome and its republic emerged into the provinces of Italy, they granted citizenship to a select few while others received partial citizenship. As the empire went along, more and more people were becoming citizens. (CITIZEN HAND OUT) Another political traditions of Rome was the idea of a temporary dictatorship. Even though Rome went from a republic that lasted over 500 years to an empire, the temporary dictator and the emperor were set out to do the same thing. Rome this way, got to have experience with an absolute ruler, where as China was exposed to something completely new. The job of the temporary dictator was to take over in a time of war. A good example of a temporary dictator was Cincinnatus. He only ruled for 16 days, but accomplished what he needed to do. An emperor is almost exactly like a temporary dictator, just for a longer amount of time. Communication and Military Mobilization were two things that differed in China from before the empire. Shi Huangdi set up his own taxes as well as standardizing everything. Coins, writing, languages, weights and measures, canals, axial carts and roads were all standardized throughout China. This way, people could all be on the same note. They could write, speak and even buy thing with each other without any...