The Iron-Age Empires proved to be relatively durable, as such things go. Their control of arable lands, well-developed agricultural systems, and manufacturing capacities all made it possible for them to maintain a large population that could support great armies in the field for long periods of time. They also had the surplus labor to build roads, dig canals, and improve other waterways that gave them the ability to move troops quickly to any part of the realm. In the frontier regions, they were able to construct fortresses, wall, ditches, and other great defense projects -- and to man them with permanent garrisons -- that discouraged raids by the nomads of the North. These states had more than enough power to ward off immediate threats, and they expanded more or less steadily. Sometimes they expanded to take over nearby small powers that they though might become threats in the future, and sometimes they expanded simple to acquire new lands for their increasing population to settle. Between about 200 B.C. and 100 B.C., four great imperial powers had emerged on the Eurasian continent, each of which had managed to unite two disparate geographic regions under a single rule.

CHINA

The Ch'in dynasty (221-207 BC) was a short-lived but important period in which a tyrannical emperor (Shi Huang Ti) instituted great reforms. The entire realm was reorganized, and a single law code, currency, and system of weights and measures imposed over all its various regions. The emperor even ordered the length of the axles of all carts and wagons to be identical, so that a standard road system could be built that would accommodate all vehicles. The people were disarmed simply by confiscated all weapons, melting them down, and making it illegal to possess such things. He then moved entire villages to settle lands along the frontiers to defend them, and had the settlers to build what we know as The Great Wall of China. He also used forced labor to dig a great canal southward from the Yellow River Valley to the valley of the Yang-tze River, and sent his army down the canal to conquer this southern region. He ordered all books other than those in government hands to be destroyed, while, at the same time, promoting the development of a new and simpler form of ideographic writing that he made the standard for his realms

Such rapid changes and tyrannical rule could not last, and civil war broke out between the emperor and one of his generals. By 202 BC, the struggle was over and the first emperor of the Han dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) was in power. China kept expanding under the Han emperors, but their major concern was always to unify the various lands that they had brought under their control. Much was done toward this end in the way of laws, roads and canals, uniform administration, and the like, but the most significant effort was the creation of a uniform and government-sponsored culture.

The philosopher Confucius (K'ung Ch'iu 551-479?) had recognized certain writings dating from the Chou dynasty (roughly 800-500 BC) as pre-eminent classics, and the Han administration made these the basis of all higher education. By 124 BC, a system had been established in which all people hoping to obtained government posts took an examination (held simultaneously at hundreds of examination centers throughout China) in which they wrote commentaries or critical essays on these classics. Those receiving the highest scores in this literary competition were appointed to high administrative posts. China's rulers continued to be chosen in this fashion until 1911.

The Han empire decayed politically and began to disintegrate in about 200 AD, but the basic cultural pattern of the Han -- in literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, drama, and almost everything else -- continued to develop. By this time, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Manchuria had established their own cultures, but all were based upon the Chinese model, and these peoples looked to the Han empire as their model.

INDIA

From about 500 to 321 BC, western India was dominated by first the Persians, then by Alexander the Great, and then by his successors. In 321, however, king Chandragupta(ca 321 - ca 297 BC) established the Mauryan dynasty (ca 321 - ca 200 BC) and united both the Indus River Valley and the valley of the Ganges River under his control, ruling about two-thirds of the sub-continent. During this period, Buddhism -- which had spread widely as an evangelical system of belief -- was slowly replaced by a revived and reformed Hindu faith. Although founded on the Sanskrit classics, this reformed Hinduism absorbed local religions to produce a strong popular element. The old Aryan god, Vishnu, was portrayed as coming to Earth periodically in the form of Krishna, the embodiment of Spring, and Rama, the embodiment of family and conjugal love. The immense epic poems, the Mahabharata (in which Krishna plays an important role) and the Ramayana (the story of Rama's rescue of his wife from an inhuman fiend) have become universally known and loved among the Indian people. At the same time, Hindu artists absorbed classical Greek techniques into their native traditions to form a distinctive and enduring style.

Beginning in the first century BC, the Mauryan empire disintegrated, and northern India fell under the control of a series of Afghan rulers. Mauryan/Hindu culture remained alive and dynamic, however, for the next five hundred years, and provided the basis for the golden age of the Guptan dynasty that finally brought northern India back under native rule in 321 AD.