Quick History of Ancient China
- People began settling in the Chang Jiang and Huang He river valleys around 7000 BC
- The Shang family was the first to take control of China in the 1500s BC
- During this time their greatest achievement was creating a writing system
- The Shang emperors ruled China until the 1100s BC
- The Zhou overthrew the Shang Dynasty in the 1100s BC and became the new rulers of China
- The Zhou claimed that heaven had chosen them to rule instead of the Shang
- The Zhou dynasty ended in 771 BC when invaders attacked and lords would not fight, so the emperor was overthrown
- China then broke down into separate states that fought against each other, and this was called the Warring States period
- The Qin ended the Warring States period in 221 BC and managed to take over china
- Shi Haungdi was a strong emperor was a strong and selfish emperor who was able to keep China unified
- After Shi Haungdi died, rebellions began and China went into a civil war
- Liu Bang led an army that took over China and began the Han Dynasty
- Liu Bang ruled less harsh than the Qin and worked with the common people
- In 140 BC, emperor Wudi took the throne
- Emperor wudi made confucianism the main philosophy of China
- After the Han Dynasty collapsed, it was followed by the Period of Disunion which lasted from 220 to 589
- Yang Jian conquered southern China and began the Sui Dynasty
- During the Sui Dynasty, the Grand Canal was started and restored
- The Sui Dynasty then shortly ended in 618
- The Tang Dynasty ruled after the Sui and ruled for about 300 years
- During the Tang Dynasty, it was ruled by Empress Wu who was the only woman to rule China
- After the Tang Dynasty collapse, China entered another period of chaos and disorder from 907-960
- China was reunified by the Song Dynasty in 960
- There were many achievements during the Song Dynasty much like the Tang
- Sadly, the Song Dynasty ended 300 years later in 1279
- The Mongols were a group of powerful people who conquered and terrorized China
- In 1211, Genghis Khan led his armies into northern China
- The Mongols fought southwards and by 1277 during the time of Genghis Khan's death, the Mongols had conquered all of northern China
- Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan became the ruler of the Mongol Empire in 1260
- He then completed the conquest of China and called himself emperor
- Kublai Khan began the Yuan Dynasty or Mongol Ascendancy
- Marco Polo visited China between 1271 and 1295, where he was amazed at the complex society
- Between 1274 and 1281, a Mongol army sailed to Japan with plans to invade, but their conquest failed and their army was greatly weakened
- Many Chinese groups rebelled against the Yuan in the 1300s
- In 1368 a monk by the name of Zhu Yuanzhang took charge of a rebel army and successfully overthrew the Mongols
- Zhu Yuanzhang then became the new emperor of China and began the Ming Dynasty
- During the Ming Dynasty, ships were improved and one of the greatest sailors of the time named Zheng He went on seven grand voyages around Asia between 1405 and 1433
- The Ming were also known for their many great building projects like the Forbidden City
- In the 1430s Zheng He was ordered to return and China went into a period of isolationism
- In the late 1800s, Westerners made huge technological advances that were used to eventually take over parts of China and their glory began to slowly disappear