Medieval chinese empire rise and fall Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Medieval chinese empire rise and fall - Essay Example raphy, economic system, society and the class structure have always influenced the upheaval of an empire, the role of the military systems has always been considered as the most significant factor that in the first place instigates the rise of an empire. Yet the military power with the superior technology, strategy, tactics, logistics etc has never been counted as the one and only the components of an empire. In an article, â€Å"Empire Builders, Culture Makers, and Culture Imprinters† Charles Issawi refers to the proper role of the military power in the making of an empire in the following rhetorical question, â€Å"Was this achievement because they were more successful as empire builders, that is, they showed greater political and military skill? These factors were certainly important, but they do not exhaust the question.†1 History of the world shows that successful culture builders are also the successful makers of a culture that is committed to the ideal of a unifi ed and single empire. In most cases, it happens that the empire builders have had to depend on a religion as the potential basis of the culture that will ensure commitment of the common people to the unity of the Empire. Religion has always played the role of an effective tool that can intimidate the common people internally with the least possible resentment. Indeed religion has served two-fold purpose: First, it assists the Empire builders to unify the people with one thread and then it helps to create a more stable society based on the fellow feeling, morality, and humanity. But in the imperial history of the world it is evident that religion and religion-based culture have often been manipulated by the rulers in order to tame the subject to a tyrannical end, because â€Å"It [religion] acted upon,† as Viscount Bryce notes, â€Å"the whole mass of a people, and more powerfully upon the lower than upon the more educated class. It touched those whom ordinary political disco ntents or aspirations might