If the Eastern/Latter Han Dynasty can be the legitimate continuation of the Western/Former Han...

If the Eastern/Latter Han Dynasty can be the legitimate continuation of the Western/Former Han, why can't the Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantine Empire be the legitimate continuation of the Roman Empire?

because latter and former han spoke the same language and had the same religion/culture

Because the only people that deny the Eastern Roman Empires legacy are contrarians looking for (you)s

This, but also many argue it is a continuation. Usually they're the same people that say there was no collapse of the WRE.

t. Christos Pavlopoulos

It is. The only reason historians treat it separately is that you either learn Latin and study the early empire, or Greek and study the Eastern empire.

Muh Romans

>they called themselves Romaioi, or Romans. Modern historians agree with them only in part. The term East Rome accurately described the political unit embracing the Eastern provinces of the old Roman Empire until 476, while there were yet two emperors. The same term may even be used until the last half of the 6th century

>The same term may even be used until the last half of the 6th century, as long as men continued to act and think according to patterns not unlike those prevailing in an earlier Roman Empire. During those same centuries, nonetheless, there were changes so profound in their cumulative effect that after the 7th century state and society in the East differed markedly from their earlier forms. In an effort to recognize that distinction, historians traditionally have described the medieval empire as Byzantine.

BTFO
How will byzancucks ever recover???

Why can't the Ottoman Empire be a continuation of the Roman Empire?

But it is.

The term Byzantine didn't even start becoming a thing until a full one hundred years after the last part of the Byzantine Empire collapsed in the early 1450s AD.
And it was by a German guy who lived in the HRE. Clearly there was bias.
No, not really. People might not understand this, but China had many dialects and cultural differences as well. They also managed to absorb many "barbarian" tribes into their society. It was actually one of the reasons why there were several culture and counterculture clashes as the Chinese empire grew.

So did the Eastern Roman Empire compared with the Roman Empire of the 3rd century.

>Things change over time
>Lel lets give that shit a new name

In the future Historians will call the USA from today something different because there were such big differences between the 1800's and now.

The Eastern Han did eventually manage to reconquer more or less all the territories claimed by the Western Han and keep them until the fall of the dynasty and the Three Kingdoms. The Byzantines never managed to come close to retaking the whole of the Western Empire.

Keeps dreaming .

It's like Mexicans use Spanish instead of English as official language

Changed the name of United States of America to Los Estados Unidos de America

And claimed they wuz Americans

Sounds ridiculous? It's the same in case of greeks wewuzers

But Mexico is not a state of the United States, well as the Eastern Roman Empire was actually a part of the Roman Empire. A closer analogy is how Taiwan claims to be the Republic of China.

>But Mexico is not a state of the United States

Mexican immigrants

Modern historians have even been trying to phase out the term Byzantine Empire, it's really only something laypeople and pop historians still use.

I worked closely with Sinead O'Sullivan during my tenure and she was particularly adamant about it despite primarily being a historian of the early Holy Roman Empire.

Are you fucking daft? This is from a book written by John Teall, who is an economist, not a historian.

If Mexico had been part of the US for most of its history, Spanish had been the language of culture of the American elites for centuries, most of the Northern US had fallen to, say Russian invaders and the capital itself was moved south, to Los Angeles, then yes.

Los Estados Unidos de America would unironically be heir of the US, not the vodka drinking barbarians squatting in the ruins of Washington DC and opressing the American remnants there.

The "Byzantines" under Justinian and Belisarius managed to reconquer a large portion of the Western Empire and regained control of Rome for another what, 200 years, after losing it 100 years prior?
Reconquest of lost territory means nothing in terms of imperial lines of legitimacy.

Is the USA the legitimate continuation of the 13 colonies?

Fucking retard hipsters Rome existed as a state until the 1400s everyone knows this. If you want to be picky you can say the Empire ended with the Latin sack of Constantinople.

>learning Greek to study the Byzantines Empire instead of the glory that was Greece

O-Okay.

>why can't the Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantine Empire be the legitimate continuation of the Roman Empire
But it is. Literally no serious historian will tell you otherwise. Byzantine Empire not being the Roman Empire is just a Veeky Forums meme.

> Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantine Empire be the legitimate continuation of the Roman Empire?
Only oogabooga Germanics think so.
>because latter and former han spoke the same language and had the same religion/culture

The only legitimacy for rule over China is the recognition by the realm that the dynasty possesses the Mandate of Heaven and has attained Tianxia (literally: all under heaven. But meaning "Empire" as in unified rule).

This is why Nomadshits can be Chink emperors.

So the only legitimacy for rule over [place] is that you are able to conquer [place]? That's how it usually works isn't it?

The Mandate of Heaven was pretty no nonsense, yeap.

Mandate of Heaven also included a dose of Confucianism (the ruler must be virtuous and just and whatnot) and also natural disasters and famine were pointed to as proof that the ruling dynasty had lost the mandate.

>Byzantine Empire not being the Roman Empire is just a Veeky Forums meme.
It was also a HRE meme.

>Only oogabooga Germanics think so.
Errmmm, what?

Nuke Ho Chi Ming.

If Hitler had conquered England, would the Raj have been the legitimate continuation of the United Kingdom? Would Canada or Australia?

Nah, it's more like if America annexed all of Mexico way back in 1840, then 600 years later, although Spanish is still spoken in former Mexico, they're fully Americanized in religion (maybe they're all Protestants), government and institutions (they have the constitution or whatever).

The the north then falls to Canadian barbarians. Is the Spanish south, despite literally being the same state, not the United States?

Of course it is.

Portugal literally moved it's capital to Brazil when Napoleon invaded. It didn't stop being the Portuguese empire

The Mandate of Heaven was basically a clever way of saying:

>If times are good, dont over throw the Emperor
>If times are really bad, then its okay to overthrow the Emperor

While you might think all empires and most of human history is like this, it was put on paper in China and okayed.

Pretty unfair to blame earthquakes and floods on the emperor's supposed lack of virtue.

Well. Maybe the emperor should do something about it

Nice, that was the campaign name of the greeks in Age of Empires