Compare and Contrast Han and Roman Empire

Han and Roman DBQ The Han Empire and Imperial Rome had their own unique view on different aspects of life. They based their views on different things such as their culture and past experiences. Upon analyzing Han and Roman attitudes toward technology it was found that they have different levels of intellectuality when it comes to their ideas on how to solve everyday problems, they make innovative discoveries when faced with a conundrum, and these two great empires use technology to better themselves economically. To begin with, in the Han Empire it was believed that Fuxi, a mythological wise emperor, invented pestle and mortar and that later on they were improved to withstand the whole weight of the body. This shows how the ancient Chinese used their intellect to advance themselves; they saw that their materials were not as strong as they needed to be so they bettered them to get them up to standards (Doc. 3). In contrast, the Romans were retarded in their advancements because of the way they looked at different jobs, some as degrading and vulgar. They didn’t like to take ideas from people that were in a lower social class because that’d make them unrefined as well (Doc.5). Gaius Gracchus was a very wise man; he was an expert at designing roads to maximize mobility. He paid close attention to the smallest details and he made sure everything was as perfect as possible. The idea of the road was to fix the problem of the time it took to get from place to place. It was important to receive the perspective of Plutarch because it shows that even as a bloody thirsty Roman official, he appreciated the art of road building (Doc. 6). Also, in order to make sure there was plenty of water in Rome they built extensive aqueducts. These aqueducts were very efficiently built, a special cement that hardened as water ran over it was invented by the Romans to strengthen these marvelous structures (Doc. 8). Both of these great empires had intellectual views towards technology