Civilization: China’s Han Dynasty

Tyler Cook

Civilization: China’s Han Dynasty

August 27,2012

Civilizations are an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached.  Most civilizations are usually urbanized or hierarchal.  Many countries inside the seven continents have history of different civilizations for centuries.  Particularly, one of the world’s most known civilizations is China’s “Han Dynasty” of 206 BCE–220 CE.

The Han Dynasty was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, also known as Emperor Gaozu of Han.  It was separated into two parts for over four centuries, Western Han (206 BCE – 9 CE) and Eastern Han (25–220 CE).This occurred because of the interruption of the Xin Dynasty and there leader Wang Mang.  These Four centuries where considered the Golden Age.  The Han Dynasty was considered a Monarchy. It had three different capitols and a population of over 57,000,000 people.  The language they spoke was Old Chinese.

During the rise of the Han Dynasty, many factors played a big part in its growth.  After a defeat in war in 200 BC, a political marriage alliance had been formed in which the Han became the de facto inferior partner of Xiongnu.  After the treaty, Xiongnu consistently invaded the Han borders. To protect themselves, Emperor Wu of Han ordered military assistance against Xiongnu.  The victory in these wars forced Xiongnu to accept The Han dynasty and to become Han tributaries.  Those campaigns helped the Han to enter the Tarim Basin of Central Asia and helped establish the vast trade network known as the Silk Road, which reached as far as the Mediterranean.  This forced the Xiongnu divide the Xiongnu into two competing nations, the Southern and Northern Xiongnu, and forced the Northern Xiongnu across the Ili River.

The Han Dynasty became the age of economic prosperity and a significant growth of the money economy was first established during the Zhou Dynasty.  Also, the government nationalized the salt and iron industries to restrict industrialist powers. This meant that peasants employed by merchants in salt and iron workshops could go back to farming and this would increase agricultural tax revenue.  The biggest contribute to the Han economy was the opening of the Silk Road.  The invention of the “loom” enabled silk to be produced and traded to the western people through the Silk Road.  Silk was sometimes even used as a currency. Chinese borders were expanded to include Vietnam and North Korea making the Han dynasty the largest empire at this time.  The creation of irrigation and water conservation projects was also a huge accomplishment of the Han Dynasty.  Improvements in the making of farming tools also contributed greatly to the rise in agricultural revenues which helped boost the Han economy very quickly.  The Han military contributes also played a big part in the rise to growth of the Dynasty.