To pay for its military campaigns and the settlement of newly conquered frontier territories, the Han dynasty government had nationalized the private salt and iron industries in 117 BCE.

These government monopolies are repealed during the Eastern Han period, and the lost revenue is recouped through heavily taxing private entrepreneurs.

The emperor is at the pinnacle of Han society.

He presides over the Han government but shares power with both the nobility and appointed ministers who came largely from the scholarly gentry class.

From the reign of Emperor Wu onward, the Chinese court officially sponsors Confucianism in education and court politics, synthesized with the cosmology of later scholars such as Dong Zhongshu.

This policy endures until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 CE.

Science and technology during the Han period see significant advances, including papermaking, the nautical steering rudder, the use of negative numbers in mathematics, the raised-relief map, the hydraulic-powered armillary sphere for astronomy, and a seismometer employing an inverted pendulum.After 92 CE, the palace eunuchs increasingly involve themselves in court politics, engaging in violent power struggles between the various consort clans of the empresses and empress dowagers, causing the Han's ultimate downfall.

Imperial authority is also seriously challenged by large Daoist religious societies which instigated the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion.

Following the death of Emperor Ling (r. 168–189 CE), the palace eunuchs suffer wholesale massacre by military officers, allowing members of the aristocracy and military governors to become warlords and divide the empire.

When Cao Pi, King of Wei, usurps the throne from Emperor Xian, the Han Dynasty ceases to exist.