Patterns of empires and state expansion

The Qin and Han Dynasties had different methods of distributing power amongst the empire. The Qin Dynasty matched up with the Conrad Demarest Model of Empires, because it had state level government, and several small states with no clearly dominant state. The Qin Dynasty had forty administrative units called “ commadaries”. Each was staffed with three leading officials; one civil authority, one military authority, and one inspector representing the emperor. The officials were responsible for keeping one another balanced. The Han Dynasty is much unlike that of the Qin Dynasty.

The Han Dynasty only had a strong central government, not small states like the Qin had. The Hans distribution of power does not align with the Conrad Demarest Model of Empires. The falls of the Qin and Han Dynasties differ, though not drastically. In the Qin Dynasty, the reason for the fall was systematic problems, contests for power, fear, and disloyalty. Each resulted from one another. Systematic problems caused uproar, and a contest for power among officials. The contest for power caused fear and disloyalty amongst the citizens, who didn’t know what else to do. This fall does not exactly line up with the Conrad Demarest Model of Empires.

The fall of the Han Dynasty did match up exactly with the Model of Empires though. In the fall of the Han Dynasty, there were many revolutions. The main revolution, which in the end cause the fall of the weakening empire, was the revolution of the peasants. In the weakened state of the Han Dynasty towards the end, the peasants were being taken advantage of, and were fed up with not getting a fair share of the wealth in the empire. The ideology of the Hans and Qin Dynasties were drastically different. The Qin Dynasty had conflicting ideologies at first, between legalism and confucianism.

Overall, the Qin Dynasty believed in the Mandate of Heaven. The Mandate of Heaven stated that there were cosmic forces in the universe. It was generally believed throughout all of the Qin Dynasty. The Han Dynasty believed in Confucianism. It stated that the administration was superior to the government. Confucians did not believe in military expansion, which did not line up with the Conrad Demarest Model of Empires. Even with the differences in ideologies, fallings, and distribution of powers, both dynasties were indeed empires, according to Conrad Demarest Model of Empires.