The First Great Divergence Conference Series

Two thousand years ago large empires—Rome and Han—Dominated both Western and Eastern Eurasia. We are hardly the first historians to notice that the similarities between the Roman and Han states outweighed the differences. In each empire a monarch with claims to divinity ruled about 60 million subjects, unevenly distributed across more than 1.5 million square miles. Each emperor governed with the help of a highly literate elite, including historians, philosophers, and scientists. Both aristocracies lived in cities with hundreds of thousands of residents, and believed that they represented the pinnacle of civilization. Both empires dissolved in sometimes strikingly similar processes of state/aristocracy struggles, central Asian population movements, and epidemics. Nineteenth-century social scientists were mistaken in calling the widening gap they saw opening between Europe and Chine the great divergence; it was in fact a second great divergence. The first had come between 500 and 800 CE.

The First Great Divergence Conference Series at Stanford will invite experts on Eastern Eurasia and the West to interact with interested Stanford faculty and students. Please stay tuned to the Classics website for more information.