Deck 7: Han Dynasty China and Imperial Rome 300 Bce-300 Ce

Question 1

The Qin dynasty used which of the following techniques to consolidate state power?

A) It abandoned territory in the south and northeast of China to concentrate on its remaining land.
B) It promoted as the guiding political idea the notion of "greater flexibility," which allowed individual regions to establish customs suited to their own traditions.
C) It established strict laws and harsh punishments that applied to everyone regardless of rank or status.
D) It embraced the ideas of Confucianism such as emphasizing rituals and ethics to create order within society.

Answer 1

It established strict laws and harsh punishments that applied to everyone regardless of rank or status.

Question 2

What hampered the Han military's effort to expand the empire in southwestern China?

A) Long supply lines that could not be adequately defended
B) Lack of immunity to southern diseases,such as malaria
C) Insufficient cavalry to repel nomads in southern deserts
D) The army was too disorganized to defend the northern frontiers.

Answer 2

Lack of immunity to southern diseases,such as malaria

Question 3

In contrast to Rome,Han monumental architecture was primarily associated with:

A) sites of mass entertainment,such as theaters.
B) religious shrines and temples.
C) palaces and tombs of rulers.
D) state offices and public buildings.

Answer 3

palaces and tombs of rulers.

Question 4

How did the role of merchants change under Han rule?

A) Merchants enjoyed the right to charge whatever price they liked for their goods,thus maximizing their profits.
B) Merchants used their financial resources to purchase land so they could abandon less-honorable merchant activity.
C) Merchants adopted the habit of living modest lifestyles to avoid incurring the wrath of less-wealthy-state officials.
D) Merchants found some of their independence undercut by the creation of state monopolies and price controls.

Question 5

The works of which of the following Axial Age thinkers provided the foundation for the Han bureaucracy and educational system?

A) Buddha
B) Plato
C) Zoroaster
D) Confucius

Question 6

In what way did Chinese philosophy change under the rule of Emperor Wu?

A) A new view of Daoism advocated looking to natural omens to direct state policy.
B) A new view of Legalism justified the role of the ruler in deciding and implementing law and morality.
C) A new view of Confucianism emphasized the authority of the ruler to set unbending moral law for all his subjects.
D) A new view of Confucianism turned Confucius into a lawgiver and uncrowned monarch.

Question 7

Liu Bang,after seizing power and establishing the Han dynasty,attempted to stabilize his rule by:

A) rejecting the past and all expression of Confucian thought.
B) eliminating the bureaucracy as too prone to abuse and corruption.
C) establishing an image of the Qin dynasty as cruel and oppressive,and Han rule as a return to morality.
D) emphasizing his noble origins in order to support his claim to authority.

Question 8

Which of the following was a cornerstone of Han political thought and practice?

A) The foundation of legitimate rule was the endorsement of religious authority.
B) A centralized bureaucracy provided a counterweight to the emperor's autocratic strength.
C) The people themselves could choose their leader under the mandate.
D) The past was rejected in favor of a focus on the new empire and its practices.

Question 9

Which of the following is the primary cause of the collapse of the Qin Empire?

A) The Xiongnu invaded the center of the Qin Empire and released the Qin's imprisoned rivals.
B) Heavy taxation and reliance on conscripted labor led desperate workers to rebel against the government.
C) Shi Huangdi's son and eldest grandson joined together to stage a mutiny against the emperor.
D) Peasants refused to allow their sons to be conscripted into the army,which became too small to keep order.

Question 10

Which of the following was a long-lasting cultural impact of Qin rule?

A) Encouraging Daoist art and scientific studies
B) Establishing a uniform written script
C) Granting teachers the right to present any material they chose
D) Encouraging private publication and ownership of books

Question 11

How did Zheng,the first emperor of the Qin dynasty,attempt to make his throne secure?

A) Zheng had himself appointed emperor by a council of the competing Warring States,ensuring broad support for his reign.
B) Zheng took the title "di," ancestral ruler,to emphasize his superiority over lesser rulers who were called kings.
C) Zheng forced the rulers of defeated states to move to his capital,Xianyang,to ensure that they were not plotting rebellion.
D) Zheng allowed local rulers retain authority because they could more efficiently collect taxes and put down local rebellions.

Question 12

Which of the following comparisons accurately reflects Han social ideals?

A) Peasants were subject to a range of controls while merchants were praised for the wealth they produced in society.
B) Peasants were honored for their productive labors while merchants were subject to a range of controls.
C) Peasants and merchants were both praised for their productivity.
D) Peasants and merchants were both distrusted as uneducated and uncultured.

Question 13

Which of the following was a means by which both the Roman and Han empires incorporated their conquered neighbors into their realms?

A) Requiring tribute of slaves from conquered territories
B) Offering civic representation to conquered peoples
C) Allowing local laws to remain in conquered territories
D) Tightly restricting the flow of trade goods within conquered territories

Question 14

The Zhou increased agricultural yield by allowing peasants to own their lands.Later,the Qin further extended agricultural production by:

A) conscripting farm laborers to build irrigation systems and canals to extend agricultural production.
B) increasing reliance on slave labor to produce taxable agricultural surpluses.
C) decreasing taxes on commercial goods needed by farmers.
D) removing restrictions and lowering taxes on farm households to encourage agricultural production.

Question 15

Which of the following is a valid comparison between Alexander the Great and Emperor Wu?

A) Alexander often led his army in battle,while Wu never led his army.
B) Wu,known as the martial emperor,was known as a better commander than Alexander.
C) Neither Wu nor Alexander were responsible for spreading their cultures to newly conquered regions.
D) Both Wu and Alexander were the founders of new dynasties.

Question 16

Which of the following represents one of Qin Shi Huangdi's techniques of governance?

A) He eliminated the nobility as a distinct designation of status in society to prevent possible opposition to his rule.
B) He ruled directly over the massive new state he had conquered,not trusting any advisers or bureaucrats.
C) He required regional and local officials to answer directly to the emperor,who could dismiss them at will.
D) He placed all provinces under the rule of a military governor,who had absolute power to keep the peace and collect tribute.

Question 17

What was the Han dynasty's preferred policy concerning governance of vassal states?

A) The Han set up members of the imperial family as local political leaders in vassal states.
B) The Han governed vassal states through large military outposts in their midst.
C) The Han held children of the local elites as hostages to be raised in the imperial household.
D) The Han did not intervene in their vassals' domestic policy unless they rebelled.

Question 18

In contrast to the Qin dynasty,the Han Empire was distinguished by:

A) the alliance between the imperial family and the scholar-gentry class.
B) the alliance between the imperial family and the nobility.
C) the alliance between the imperial family and Buddhist religious officials.
D) the alliance between the imperial family and Daoist religious officials.

Question 19

According to common belief during the Han dynasty,what would a cluster of calamities,prodigies,and heavenly omens usually portend?

A) The people should rally in defense of the emperor to prevent further disorder.
B) The emperor possessed the mandate of heaven.
C) The emperor had lost the mandate of heaven.
D) The emperor should be put to death for angering the gods.

Question 20

Which of the following cultural characteristics was common to both the Romans and the Han?

A) Both were strongly traditional and idealized their ancestors.
B) Both believed that imperial art and architecture should not to detract from the glorification of the common citizen.
C) Both valued minimalism in art.
D) Both sought to eliminate the role of religious rituals and ceremonies in civic life.

Question 21

Aside from expanding the state's borders,which of the following was the prime motivation for ambitious Roman military leaders during the first few centuries BCE?

A) Personal glory and acquiring great wealth
B) Increased status in the warrior religion,Mithraism
C) Acquiring more wealth through taking over manufactures and trade in conquered territories
D) The chance to become emperor of a conquered territory

Question 22

What was the context for the foundations of early Christianity?

A) A conflict between the Jewish people and their Islamic neighbors
B) A rejection of Southeast Asian polytheism
C) A direct confrontation with Roman imperial authority
D) The waning influence of Zoroastrianism

Question 23

How did Roman mining operations contribute to the efficient functioning of the Roman economy?

A) They helped create an industrial economy.
B) They provided capital leading to the growth of a middle class.
C) They provided iron for bridges along Roman Roads,which better connected the economy of disparate places.
D) They supported massive,standardized coinage.

Question 24

Which of the following is an accurate comparison of the ways the Han and Roman empires were governed?

A) Monarchs in both empires were successful in directly administering the functions of government.
B) In comparison with the Han Empire,the Roman Empire was relatively understaffed in central government officials.
C) Provincial governors in both empires had to depend on local help,sometimes aided by elite slaves who served as government bureaucrats.
D) While both Han and Roman emperors claimed to defend the empire from "barbarians," only the Han professionalized the army and presented themselves as victorious battlefield commanders.

Question 25

Which of the following characterized Roman social structure?

A) The wealthy fulfilled their public obligations through their political offices rather than through private charity.
B) The emperors were expected to focus on military issues,leaving the care of the poor to lesser officials.
C) Men and women of wealth and high social standing acted as patrons,protecting lower-class clients.
D) The wealthy rarely sponsored construction of civic buildings such as libraries,bath houses,or theaters.

Question 26

What was one of the most important factors that led to establishment of one-man rule of the Roman Republic?

A) Lands seized from poor Roman citizens by Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
B) The sudden de-urbanization of Rome,as city dwellers migrated into the countryside
C) Ambitious generals whose rivalry led to a series of civil wars
D) The massive number of deaths inflicted upon Romans by the Gauls

Question 27

What was a consequence for the Later Han dynasty of the landed elites' manipulating tax regulations?

A) Free peasants were forced to become tenant farmers whose rents rose rapidly.
B) Merchants saw declining wealth and power as long-distance trade decreased.
C) Buddhist monasteries were supported by the landowners to compensate for their treatment of peasants.
D) Political authority was increasingly centralized within the hands of the newly rich scholar-officials.

Question 28

Which of the following contributed to the fall of Wang Mang?

A) The fall of the hereditary privileged elite
B) The massive flooding of the Yellow River which affected half of the population
C) The rise of a millenarian Confucian cult called the Red Eyebrows
D) The widespread drought that ruined the agriculture upon which the state depended

Question 29

What technique did the Romans use to create their military might?

A) Building a naval fleet that permitted them to use the Mediterranean as a rapid transport route for the army
B) Developing a series of new weapons that gave the Romans a decisive technological advantage over their adversaries
C) Forming a special contingent of slave-soldiers to serve as support personnel for the regular army
D) Demanding that communities they conquered on the Italian peninsula provide a supply of military recruits every year

Question 30

Which of the following is an accurate comparison between the Han and Roman empires?

A) The Han economy was based on agriculture,while Rome's was based on trade.
B) The Han and the Romans both used large amounts of slave labor.
C) The Han and the Romans both based governance of their provinces on state-trained scholar elites.
D) The Han Empire covered a large contiguous land mass while the Roman empire was spread around the Mediterranean.

Question 31

The prosperity of the large-scale commercial plantations established by the Romans depended on:

A) chattel slavery.
B) tenant farmers.
C) the army,who bought most of their products.
D) links between agricultural output and manufacturing.

Question 32

Rome finally defeated which power in 146 BCE,resulting in Roman hegemony over the Mediterranean basin?

A) Libya
B) Egypt
C) Tuscany
D) Carthage

Question 33

What feature of Roman civil society endured long after the fall of the empire?

A) The system of patronage
B) The legal system and extensive written laws
C) The unquestioned authority of the paterfamilias
D) The idea of citizenship for all adult males

Question 34

To help secure the frontier along the desert regions,Emperor Wu:

A) built the Great Wall of China.
B) established military and farming settlements in which soldiers and their families could develop agricultural communities.
C) forced all men in conquered communities to serve in the army for 5 years.
D) relocated rebellious peoples into central China.

Question 35

Which of the following accurately describes the Yellow Turbans in China?

A) They were Buddhist clerics who came to China from northern India.
B) They called for a strengthening of the powers of the emperor over those of the local nobility.
C) They proclaimed a Daoist belief in a "Great Peace" and demanded equal distribution of all farmland.
D) They embraced a more tolerant version of Confucianism that emphasized conformity to rituals.

Question 36

How did Wang Mang attempt to remedy the crisis in rural areas?

A) By forcing free peasants into serfdom
B) By moving the poor from the cities onto empty farm land
C) By redistributing land and establishing communal plots to grow crops for trade
D) By creating new canals to irrigate more farmland

Question 37

To whom did Rome's poor citizens look for protection of their interests during the Republic?

A) To the Senate to protect their interests against large landowners
B) To army commanders to provide them with land and a decent income
C) To leaders of the state religion who promoted the equality of all people
D) To the faction that opposed the Gracchus brothers who attempted to strip the poor of their citizenship

Question 38

Roman emperors used which of the following to calm the people's concerns about the reinstitution of monarchy?

A) They presented themselves as civil rulers whose power depended on the consent of the Roman citizens and the power of the army.
B) They justified their power through religious ceremonies and auguries led by the pontifex maximus.
C) They claimed that the only way to prevent civil strife was through the citizens' surrendering ancient liberties to the strongest military leader.
D) They claimed that they could not become tyrants since they had no control over the military.

Question 39

What undermined Etruscan power on the Italian peninsula?

A) Lack of natural resources
B) Trade wars with the Carthaginians
C) Invasion by the Gauls
D) Superior Phoenician naval power

Question 40

Roman family life was characterized by which of the following?

A) Roman law gave husbands and fathers complete authority over their families.
B) Compared to the women in the Greek city-states,Roman women exercised much less freedom and control over their wealth and property.
C) As Roman imperial society expanded,the importance of family units diminished in urban centers as children were able to act more independently.
D) Roman women were rarely educated or in control of their own lives.

Question 41

Some elite women in both Han China and the Roman empire were educated,literate,and able to control their own lives.

Question 42

Compare and analyze the ways the Roman and Han Empires promoted peace and stability along their borders.

Question 43

What was the major commodity that the Romans wanted from the German and Goth populations to their north?

A) Gold
B) Wine
C) Slaves
D) Furs

Question 44

The Roman imperial government was so understaffed that it often had to rely on local peoples and even slaves and freedmen to run the bureaucracy.

Question 45

Evaluate the extent to which an emphasis on a war ethos helped or hurt the creation of the Roman republic and one of the following: the Macedonian empire or the Qin dynasty."

Question 46

Compare the imperial structures of the Han and Roman empires and analyze how the imperial structures related to social hierarchies in each society.

Question 47

Compare the labor systems and the use of forced labor in the Qin dynasty,the Han dynasty,and the Roman Empire.

Question 48

What marked the limits of Roman expansion to the east?

A) The Parthian Empire
B) The Indian Ocean
C) The Himalayas
D) The Persian Empire

Question 49

The Roman empire integrated its most distant regions by investing in extensive road building.

Question 50

Both the Han dynasty and the Roman Empire championed the use of slave labor to produce agricultural surpluses and tax revenues.

Question 51

The typical public servant in the Roman Empire was the civilian magistrate,while in the Han Empire the typical public servant was the military governor.

Question 52

Analyze the influence of Axial Age belief systems on the Mauryan and the Han empires.