China - History Timeline
China - History Timeline
China is one of the world's four ancient civilizations. The written history of China can be dated back to Shang Dynasty almost 3000 years back.
The history of China can be mainly divided in 5 eras.
- The Pre-historic China i.e. before 1600 BC which is mainly charted by legends and pre-historic evidence.
- The Ancient China era from 1600 BC to 221 BC.
- The imperial era of China from 221 BC to 1912 AD till the end of Qing Dynasty.
- The Republic of China era from 1912 AD to 1949 AD.
- The Modern China after 1949 AD.
The Pre-historic Era :-
The pre-historic era of China just like any other country can be divided into Paleolithic, Neolithic and the Bronze Age.
There is no reliable historical record about this period of Chinese history. It mostly comes from understanding the human activities and the archaeological sites and some from Chinese mythology.
Through out its history, China was ruled by several Dynasties. But the first of it is believed to have been established in the Early Bronze Age, the Xia Dynasty.
The Xia Dynasty :-
This is supposed to be the first of the several Dynasties in China, established around 2070 BC. It consisted of several clans living along the Yellow river. It is described in several ancient historical books like Records of the Grand Historians and Bamboo Annals.
The dynasty was considered as a myth by historians till the 1959 excavations in Erlitou, Henan. Rarly markings of this period can be found on pottery and shells. The dynasty ended at around 1600 BC as a consequence of Battle of Mingtiao.
Ancient China :-
The Ancient era of Chinese history began after the fall of Xia Dynasty in 1600 BC. Chinese civilization began along the Yellow river during the Shang Dynasty.
The Shang Dynasty :-
This was the first Chinese Dynasty with historical records. 31 kings ruled over the Shang Dynasty from 1600 BC to 1046 BC. The capital of the dynasty was moved 6 times before it was finalized in Yin in 1350 BC. This marked the beginning of dynasty's golden age.
The Shang dynasty territory was between the Yellow and Yangtze river.
The Zhou Dynasty :-
The Zhou Dynasty was the longest ruling dynasty in the Chinese history. It was founded by King Wu, who was appointed as a protector in the west by the Shang Dynasty. King Wu along with his brother defeated the Shang at the Battle of Muye.
It was during this period that major philosophies and religions like Confucianism and Daoism, which formed the basis of Chinese belief in later eras. During this period China expanded in population and territory.
The Zhou Dynasty era can be divided into 3 periods:
- The Western Zhou Period - Which marked the beginning of Zhou Dynasty
- The Spring and Autumn Period -During which the Zhou dynasty started falling apart and eventually got divided into hundreds of smaller states.
- The Warring States Period -After political consolidation, seven prominent states remained and started battling among themselves for power.
The Imperial China :-
The Imperial era is the most important part of the Chinese history. It was marked with the cyclic rise and fall of dynasties. Chinese civilization prospered a lot during this period and it was also reformed many times.
The Qin Dynasty :-
The Qin dynasty was the shortest dynasty in the Chinese history lasting for only about 15 years.
The founder of the Qin Dynasty, emperor Qin Shi Huang, was the first to use the title emperor in China. He united China and led the expansion of territory.
The major contributions of the Qin dynasty included the projects like 'The Great Wall Of China' and the Terracotta army. The other significant contributions include the centralized government and unification of legal code, the written language, measurements and currency of China after the Spring and Autumn period.
Although it was short lived, the Qin dynasty had a lot of influence on emerging Chinese Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty :-
The longest ruling dynasty from Imperial Era, the Han Dynasty was known for starting the Silk Route. This enabled China to trade with Central Asia and Europe.
It was founded by Liu Bang who emerged victorious in the Chu - Han battle that resulted in the fall of Qin Dynasty. Han dynasty expanded its kingdom to the far states of Tarim basin and to various small kingdoms to the south of Yangtze river valley.
This period is also known as the golden age in Chinese history. During the Han era, agriculture, handicrafts and commerce was well developed. The multi-ethnic country became a more unified one under the Han regime.
The Three Kingdoms :-
With the fall of Han empire in 220 AD, it was fractured into 3 kingdoms namely, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The Sui Dynasty :-
It was the dynasty which reunited China for more stable medieval age. The Sui Dynasty pioneered many new institutions, namely the Government system of 3 departments and 6 ministries and also imperial examinations for selecting the officials. These policies were adopted by later dynasties.
Sui Dynasty was known for many mega - projects . It led the construction of the Grand Canal, linking the capital Daxing to the southeast region. The Great Wall was also expanded during this period.
 |
| The Grand Canal |
The disastrous failure during Goguryeo-Sui war of Korean Peninsula, triggered the fall of the Sui Dynasty.
The Tang Dynasty :-
The Tang Dynasty is regarded as the high point of Imperial China. It was founded by Emperor Gazou in 618 AD. Chang'an the national capital was the largest city in the world at that time.
The second emperor Taizong, is regarded as the greatest emperor in the Chinese History. Trade flourished to a great extent during his regime. Many neighboring countries like Japan started adopted Tang culture.
This era is regarded by many as the Golden Era in Chinese history. Poetry, painting, tricolor-ed glazed pottery and woodblock printing are notable contributions of this dynasty.
The Yuan Dynasty :-
The foundation of Yuan Dynasty was led by the Great Genghis Khan, whose empire ruled over a unprecedented part of Asia.
Later his grandson Kublai Khan conquered Song China and founded Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty was the first foreign - led dynasty in China. Dadu(now Beijing) was the capital city of Yuan Dynasty.
A large network of roads and postal systems was established to connect the vast empire. Local maritime trade also started to flourish with Gangzhou and Hangzhou.
Many traders and adventurous travelers from west settled in China during this period. The most notable among them being Marco Polo from Venice, who traveled China exclusively and wrote about Chinese culture and marvels in his books 'Travels' .
The Ming Dynasty :-
In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the waning Yuan Dynasty with the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming dynasty was known for its large army of almost 1 million soldiers.
This dynasty was known for urbanization of many cities like Nanjing and Beijing which contributed to the growth of private industry. Small scale industries like paper, silk, cotton and porcelain goods flourished during this period. This resulted in increase in foreign trade.
The Forbidden City in Beijing was created by Emperor Zhi Di, when he officially made Beijing his capital. Most of the Great Wall which remains today was either created or repaired by Ming Dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty :-
This was the last Imperial dynasty in China. It was founded by Manchus, and was the only second dynasty to rule over entire China.
Once the peasants rebellion had overthrown the Ming Dynasty, the Manchus allied with former Ming general Wu Sangui and captured Beijing. They later proceeded to capture the remnants of the south China.
By the end of Qing Dynasty, China ruled over one third of the world's population.
Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong were the two most famous emperors of the Qing Dynasty.
The Republic Of China Era :-
This period marked the end of dynastic rule in China and the formation of Chinese Republic.
Due to resistance to change and weakness, many young officials, military officers and students began to advocate to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. They were influenced by the revolutionary ideas of Sun Yat - Sen.
 |
| Sun Yat - Sen |
The first provisional government of Republic of China was formed in Nanjing in 1912. They later went on to end the 2000 year dynastic rule in China. Sun Yat - Sen was declared the president,but was soon forced to turn over power to Yuan Shikai.
Yuan proceeded to abolish the national and provincial assemblies and declared himself as the emperor. After Yuan's death, the republican government in China began to fall apart.
Once again San Yet Sen began a campaign to reunite China with Soviet Union's assistance.
Chaing Kai-Shek who succeeded Sun Yet Sen, brought most of South and Central China under the repulican rule.
Modern Era :-
The Modern Era of Chinese history began with the formation of People's Republic of China in 1949.
With this China entered the Communist era of stability.
References :-
Comments
Post a Comment