Fall of the Han Dynasty
Overview: Epidemic diseases struck by the time political turmoil began to weaken the Han Dynasty. Many of the officers lost the ability to keep the citizens under control, because certain officers were gaining too much power. This caused ripples throughout the dynasty, in the end, the dynasty fell. The Han dynasty collapsed due to 2 main reasons, disease and problems the government couldn't handle. The first problem that the government couldn't handle is the rise of factions amongst the citizens. More about factions below. Another big problem was the land distribution (developed by Wang Mang). More of that below as well. |
Factions and Land distributionFactions - Factions arose between rich families being brought together through marriage. they would form a network among the family members. They only sought out for their raise in leader ship in the governmental ladder, while trying to put others down as well. This resulted in huge, uncontrollable fights.
Land Distribution - Another problem they had to deal with was the equal distribution of land. This plan however, did not work out well. Wang Mang's (who created this plan) short term (9-23c.e) even out lasted this plan. The plan did not work out well, when the land was given to the poorer peoples from the rich, the poor could not maintain the land effectively. Thus worsening the land condition overall. |
Disease and Rebellion
Diseases - During the second and third centuries C.E., the Han Dynasty and Roman dynasty suffered large-scale outbreaks of epidemic disease. The most destructive of these diseases was smallpox and the measles. With Small pox being the most devastating. The diseases reached China much later than the Mediterranean, by the year 200 C.E., The Han dynasty had a population of 60 million, then by 400 C.E. (After the Han collapsed), they lost 10 million people.
Rebellion - The previous developments (Land distribution) caused the rich people to get very angry. Because the government was taking away their land to give to the poor. Anyway, the rich people gathered up small armies. They forced the government to push many of the taxes onto the poor people. The poor people got mad about this and revolted. This started the Yellow Turban rebellion. The significance of the Yellow turban rebellion is that even though they didn't "win", they shook up the government leaving them weak and susceptible to any future harming (which happened). |
After the Han Dynasty
By 190 C.E., the Han Emperor became a mere puppet because the generals were gaining so much power. The generals sided with the wealthy landowners and established themselves as “warlords” over the area. The generals still recognized the emperor until 220 C.E., when they split the country up into 3 different kingdoms. Effectively ending the Han Dynasty.
|
Comparison to the College Board.
- Demography (significant population increases, decreases, causes and effects of)
- Epidemic Disease to the Fall of Han China - Jordan Whiteley
- Disease struck the Han Dynasty at the worst time. The disease kind of put the icing on the cake in terms of making everyone loose complete control. The Population of Han China was around 60 Million in 200 C.E., Then about 200 years later, they lost 10 Million people! Due to the Small pox and the measles. Then about 100 years later they lost another 5 million people! So in the span of about 300 years (even though the Han dynasty fell in 220 C.E.) they lost a quarter of their population!