The first empires began in Mesopotamia, the Nile valley, and the Yellow River valley. Empires often are not created. In some cases empires are formed then a transition from one ruler to another over the same region is made. For example the Persian Empire came from the conquering and incorporation of the Egyptian, Medes, Babylonian, and Lydian kingdoms that made up western Asia. Then the Persians were defeated by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, taking western Asia and extending Hellenistic culture as far east as India. What is an Empire?
The definition of an empire is the extension of political rule by one people over another, different peoples. The extension of political rule usually comes through warfare. One group forcibly dictating its rule over another group. In my paper I will look at how Rome, China, and India extended their rule over their neighbors. I will also compare and contrast their hierarchical structures, historical literature, and emphasis on armed forces. The traditional founding date of Rome is 753 B. C. E, although this may not be accurate it probably is not far off.
At conception the neighboring Etruscans ruled Rome. The Romans learned about city building from the Etruscans. They also adopted Etruscan art, religion, mythology, and language. The Romans expelled the Etruscans in 509 B. C. E. and declared itself a democracy. The Romans used force to bring others under their rule. The Romans began the spread of their rule by forming alliances with nearby city-states in Latium and began to rival its former rulers the Etruscans. In 405 B. C. E the Romans attacked the principal Etruscan City, Veii.
The Romans captured the city 396 B. C. E. Rome adopted a reverse domino theory. The Romans felt that each state outside its rule posed a threat. To the south Rome formed alliances with Campania. The Latin city-states encircled by these alliances felt threatened and opposed Roman expansion, but in 338 B. C. E they were conquered by the Romans in the Latin wars. In 340 B. C. E Campania attempted to annul their affiliation to Rome they were subdued by Roman forces. In less than a century the Romans dominated the northern part of the Italian Peninsula by conquering the Etuscans, Samnites, Gauls, and Umbrians.
The Romans then turned to the south and faced Pyrrus of Epirus. He won a few early, costly victories, Pyrric victories, but was eventually overcome by the Romans. The Romans also expelled the Greeks from the peninsula. In 264 B. C. E Pyrruhus troops withdrew and Rome, either threw alliance or conquest, controlled everything south of the Po valley. After gaining control over most of the Italian peninsula Rome turned set out to conquer Carthage, its arch-rival across the Mediterranean in Africa, in a and the rest of the Western Mediterranean.
Rome engaged Carthage in the Punic Wars. Due to advancement in Roman naval technology the first Punic war ended in victory for the Romans in 241 B. C. E. In 227 B. C. E Rome annexed Sardinia and Corsica. Taking advantage of mutiny by Carthaginian troops. The second Punic War begun when the Romans where defeated by Hannibal and the Carthaginians defeated the Romans at the Spanish city of Saguntum in 219 B. C. E. The Second Punic war was well fought by both sides. But, the Romans won the twenty-year struggle. In the third Punic war the Romans sacked Carthage.
With the most formidable adversary out of the way the Romans went on to conquer Southwestern Europe, Greece, Northwestern Europe and Britain. Rome did not always use warfare to conquer other peoples they sometimes would extend a limited citizenship to their others and incorporated men from conquered lands into their armies. Eventually the Roman army was not even Roman. The men who made up their armies where professional soldiers not from Rome. The period between 481 B. C. E and 221 B. C. E in Chinese history are known as the Warring States period.
It is called this because after the Zhou dynasty weekend, the powerful, independent states of the North China plain often fought among each other. In 221 B. C. E the Qin dynasty conquered the other states and created the first Chinese Empire. After the Qin the Han dynasty ruled China they spread imperial control far to the south and to the west deep into central Asia along the Silk Road. The Boarders they established have lasted to the present day. They often succeeded in converting the people on the boarders to the Chinese culture but sometimes met resistance.
By 2 C. E the second census showed that the total population dropped from 58 million to 48 million, however the regional distribution shifted from76 percent in north and 24 percent in the south, to 54 percent and 46 percent. Natural turbulence and pressure from the Xiongnu and the Tibetans caused the drop in population and may have caused the distribution. The Sue-Tang dynasties expanded even deeper into central Asia. Barbarians China once fought against in the north eventually moved behind the Great Wall and settled on its lands, enlisted in its armies, and intermarried with the Chinese.
Even when Barbarians conquered the Chinese during the interregnum between 2 C. E and 26 C. E they had to hire Chinese bureaucrats to administer their gains. Even they were conquered their rulers adapted to them usually the opposite is true. The people of China refer to themselves as the People of Han. This does not refer to their ethnic identity, but to their cultural unity. The Chinese speak two different languages, Mandarin and Cambodian, but their written language is the same and is a tool that links the people. The Vietnamese, Koreans, and Japanese all patterned their societies after the Chinese.
However they each resisted being assimilated into the Chinese Empire and retained their individual identities. The Indian Empire was created by the Maurya dynasty. Chandragupta Maurya seized control of the kingdom of Maghada and annexed lands to the west, eventually governing by 300 B. C. E the important trade routes to the Ganges and Indus Basins. His grandson Asoka extended the empire west into Seleucid Persia, and south through the we Kalinga to secure dominance of Deccan by 250 and controlled the entire sub-content except for the southern tip. In 320 C. E Chandra Gupta I came into power and began the Gupta dynasty.
The dynasty gained control of the middle Ganges. Then built an empire that controlled the center of the Indian Subcontinent from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. In Rome there was a split between the rich and the poor. Rome was an oligarchy. The rulers tended to be wealthy. They were known as Patricians. The commoners were known as Plebeians. There was constant friction between the two classes. The Plebeians demanded more rights from the Patricians. The Ideal Roman was to be a farmer-solider-citizen. But many Romans returned from military service to find that their homes impoverished.
The price of maintaining an empire lead to exploitation of the common people. To keep them from revolting Roman officials set up bread and circuses to keep the unemployed content. However, Rome was still suffered from slave revolts. Similar to in Rome wealth in China was consolidated into a privileged few. The price of maintaining an empire caused the elite to exploit the poor in China also. In 184 C. E the Yellow Turban revolt broke out. It was put down but it triggered a continuous string of additional outbreaks and lead to the breaking up of China for 400 years. In India there was a caste system.
The caste system is a part of the Hindu religion. In the caste system people are born into a role. They do what their parents did. This caste system has lasted until recent times. From Rome and China we have clear political, military, economic, administrative, and personal literature. When the Han came to power China became a Confucian society and Confucius put great emphasis on recording history. However in India we do not have such literature. For India we rely on accounts and observations of foreign visitors. We learn about their values from their religious texts.