Decline in China• 100 CE- Han China begins a serious decline;

Confucian activity becomes less prevalent • Central gvmt loses control, bureaucrats become

corrupt, and local landlords rule according to their own wishes

• Free peasants burdened with taxes and landlord’s wishes; most lost their farms and became day laborers; some sold their children into service

Daoist Rebellion• Daoist leaders (Yellow Turbans) promise relief

through divine magic• Yellow Turbans attack the weakness of the emperor

and also the self-indulgence of the bureaucracy• 30,000 students protest; the rebellion failed and

Chinese growth spiraled downhill• The split in the population made invasions from

Asiatic Huns very easy

Other Factors• Spread of devastating new epidemics kill ½ pop.• As Buddhism spread, China’s cultural unity was

threatened• Weak regional rulers rise and fall

Sui and Tang Dynasty• Native rulers in N. China drive out the

invaders (Sui)• Tang follow the Sui dynasty and revive

bureaucracy and Confucianism

Summary: China• The structures in China were too strong to be

overturned, even during period of weak emperors and invasions

• Invaders simply assimilated into Chinese traditions

Decline in India• Hun invaders begin as early as 500 CE• Many invaders integrate into the warrior caste,

forming a new group of regional princes• Regional princes (Rajput) emphasize military

conquest• Buddhism further declines, and Hinduism rises• Indian economy prosperity peaks

Other threats• Islam threatens Hinduism around 600 CE• Hindu texts begin being published in Hindi instead

of Sanskrit, which hindered mathematics & science• Arab traders take control of I.O. Trade Network,

which hinders India• REMAINDERS: regional political structures, the caste

system, and Hinduism survived the general decline in India

Decline and Fall of Rome

• After 180 CE, Rome faced difficulties in founding an army due to decline in population

• Tax collection became an issue because Roman residents hit economic hard times

• A general deflation of the Roman spirit• Series of weak emperors send Rome into

depression; army intervenes and selects emperors which deteriorates rule from the top

• Series of plagues emerge from intl. trade (750,000 ppl), further crippling the economy in Rome

• w/ less Romans, the gvmt hires mercenaries …Overall the plagues decimated the population, which led to other issues• Rome’s upper class becomes more materialistic,

straying from Roman culture• Upper classes stop reproducing because it’s

incompatible with “pleasure-seeking”• Plot farmers surrender their land to estate owners

for military and judicial protection; in the long run this weakens the power of the emperor

• Cities shrank as estates try self-reliance and stray from trade; this causes a cycle in which Roman cities would all but disappear

• None of the measures by Diocletian or Constantine revived the empire (moving the capital, claiming divine rule, etc.)

• Dividing the empire between the West and East caused decline in West

• Germanic invasions in 400 CE meet little resistance from lower classes; first German kingdom in 425 CE

• Rome is left in three pieces; would later make up three distinct civilizations

• In the East, the Byzantine Empire emerges with roots from the classical Roman Empire

• Byzantines have Greek language but Roman traditions• Byzantine emperor Justinian tries to recapture Roman

heritage