Ancient Roman & Chinese Empires Compared (Which Empire was more effective?)

Additional info/correction Additional info The Han empire did a census in 2 AD, it says they had a population of 57,671,400. We know the Romans also did censuses but none of the results survive till today...but modern estimates put their population similarly over 50 million people. Correction -The dates at 7:38 (All dates written on screen should be AD not BC) I wrote BC instead of AD and somehow did not notice & fix sorry.

Fun Fact: Han dynasty Chinese name for Rome was Daqin, literally "Great Qin" ~ essentially "The other us." or the other great empire. The prefix da (大) or "great" signified that the Roman Empire was on par with the might of the Qin dynasty

"The foundation of the world lies in the nation. The foundation of the nation lies in the family. The foundation of the family lies in the individual" - MengTzu (孟子)

It just boggles my mind that empires so large and efficiently run existed so long ago.

This is what I like - comparison videos looking at similarities and differences and explaining how each got to where they are. Very different from WHO IS STRONGER videos.

Fun fact: Han praised Rome by saying 'they are just like us' At that age, Han people was so proud of themselves, saying some other country and its citizens are like Han prople is the highest praising they can give to a foreign nation.

It is crazy to think that China rivaled almost all empires after the fall of Summer, Ancient Egypt and Mesoptamia. The Chinese rivaled Persia, Greece, Rome, The Calliphate, The Russian empire, The British Empire and now the US.

One out of three people under the control of only 2 states in a world with far, FAR more polities than we have now. That's insane.

The production quality is getting insanely high for these videos I love it. Tons of drawings for every single thing, tons of maps, it’s great man keep it up.

Liu Bang was probably one of the most underrated Chinese historical figure in the west. People know Qin Shi Huang and Han empire, but not many know how the Han gained power, and that Liu Bang was an ordinary peasant and had no noble bloodline or connection to became an emperor. This was the first time that such thing happened in Chinese history and probably even in the entire world history.

One measure of salt costs 20 coins to carry for 100 Li. 1.73 measures of salt carried for 100 Li comes out to ~35 coins. However, since the actual measure of Li is 80, the man must be paid ~28 coins. 40/2 = 20 1.73x20 = 34.7 34.7x.8 = 27.7

Very interesting subject. Your illustrations of the chinese emperors and warlords are quite beautiful.

From a very generalized point of view Rome put more emphasis on the external (ex. adopting foreign gods, an army focused on constant conquest and glory, Emperors being very public figures often with a popular personality cult, successors could be anyone with sufficient influence) while the Han were very much focused on the internal (one state religion with mere toleration of others, an army focused on rapid response over continual defense, Emperors being more distant from their subjects, successors having to be from the family). Rome was bordered by another powerful empire, the Parthians and later the Sassanians as well as the Germans that would often form large confederations; while the Han had no such rivals with their main ones just being the large Xiongnu confederations of nomads in the north but no other centralized power presented a constant threat and so the greatest continual threat was rebellions rather than foreign invasion.

Idk why this video didn’t get as much videos as your other ones it’s by far some of the best content you’ve made yet

Its crazy that both China and Rome struggled in the 3rd century only to be united again at around the same time.

The biggest problem with Empires is people. So the secret to success is to have an empire without people. That means that animal farmers are the wisest rulers in the land.

Damn, the artworks keep getting even better and better

To solve the problem at 23:11, I defined the total labor of the task of carrying s measures of salt a distance of l li to be s*l (comparable to man-hours). Therefore, the pay rate for the task is c coins per (s*l). 40 coins; 2 measures; 100 li 40/(2*100) = 0.2 coins per measure-li c coins; 173 measures; 80 li c/(1.73*80) = 0.2 c/(138.4) = 0.2 c = 27.68 coins Edit: I did not see the decimal point in 1.73, mistaking it for 173. What a fool I am. I have adjusted the calculus accordingly.

Yay, a new video! I've been anxiously waiting for one. I always learn so much from you! Thanks always!🤩

I love to see Chinese history, it isn’t covered very often. Also, amazing video, keep up that great work!