Define the word loyalist and explain how it was different from a patriot.

A loyalist is a person who is loyal to the established ruler or the government. The difference between a loyalist and a patriot is that patriots are the people who wanted America to gain independence and break away from Great Britain and loyalist remained loyal to Great Britain.

A loyalist was a colonist of the American revolutionary periods. They supported the British cause.
Google meaning: "The Revolutionary War split the people of the American colonies into two groups: the loyalists and the patriots. Patriots were people who wanted the American colonies to gain their independence from Britain. They wanted their own country called the United States."

Both the han and the roman empire decline as a result of social unrest during their collapse.