In the textbook Strayer gives many reasons on why the Roman and Chinese empires collapsed externally and internally. Even though these two huge empires had many differences they had many mistakes in common that ultimately diminished their empire. These empires both got way too big and too expensive to be sustained by the available resources, and no technology breakthrough was available to enlarge their empire as a whole. Rivalry between elite factions of government created shakiness in both empires and eroded the authority of many of emperors and empresses. In china, tension between court officials loyal to the emperor and Confucian educated scholars and bureaucrats eventually ended the empire. In the roman empire twenty-six individuals claimed the title of roman emperor and out of those 26 people, only one died from natural causes. In …show more content…
Epidemic disease impacted the Roman empire more significantly then the Chinese and the population declined by over 25 percent over only two centuries. Due to this demographic disaster many things occurred including a diminish in production, less revenue for the state, and fewer men were available for the defense of the empires huge frontiers. These were the main factors that caused the Roman empire to fall.
Not only was disease a huge issue in these empires but environmental factors were also a factor as well. Yet again this was more effective in the Roman empire rather than the Han Dynasty in China. Fluctuations in climate led to a drought in the third century and then cold and wet conditions in the fourth century. Towards the fifth century there was a huge increase in rainfall and cool temperatures, all of these variations generated considerable amounts of soil erosion and effected the