Revolution of China in ancient period
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- 2 Ancient China
- 3 Imperial China
- 3.1 Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC)
- 3.2 Han Dynasty (202 BC–AD 220)
- 3.3 Wei and Jin Period (AD 265–420)
- 3.4 Wu Hu Period (AD 304–439)
- 3.5 Southern and Northern Dynasties (AD 420–589)
- 3.6 Sui Dynasty (AD 589–618)
- 3.7 Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907)
- 3.8 Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (AD 907–960)
- 3.9 Song, Liao, Jin, and Western Xia Dynasties (AD 960–1234)
- 3.10 Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271–1368)
- 3.11 Ming Dynasty (AD 1368–1644)
- 3.12 Qing Dynasty (AD 1644–1911)
- By the 2nd century, the empire declined amidst land acquisitions, invasions, and feuding between consort clans and eunuchs. The Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out in AD 184, ushering in an era of warlords. In the ensuing turmoil, three states tried to gain predominance in the period of the Three Kingdoms. This time period has been greatly romanticized in works such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms
- Throughout the Yuan Dynasty, which lasted less than a century, there was relatively strong sentiment among the populace against the Mongol rule. The frequent natural disasters since the 1340s finally led to peasant revolts. The Yuan Dynasty was eventually overthrown by the Ming Dynasty in 1368.
- And the Ming Dynasty would be overthrown by Li Zicheng's peasants rebellion, with Beijing captured in 1644 and the last Ming Emperor Chongzhen committing suicide.
- The Manchu allied with the Ming Dynasty general Wu Sangui to seize Beijing, which was made the capital of the Qing dynasty, and then proceeded to subdue the remaining Ming's resistance in the south. The decades of Manchu conquest caused enormous loss of lives and the economic scale of China shrank drastically. Nevertheless, the Manchus adopted the Confucian norms of traditional Chinese government in their rule and were considered a Chinese dynasty.
- Over the next half-century, all areas previously under the Ming Dynasty were consolidated under the Qing. Xinjiang, Tibet, and Mongolia were also formally incorporated into Chinese territory. Between 1673 and 1681, the Emperor Kangxi suppressed an uprising of three generals in Southern China who had been denied hereditary rule to large fiefdoms granted by the previous emperor; he also put down a Ming restorationist invasion from Taiwan, called the Revolt of the Three Feudatories. In 1683, the Qing staged an amphibious assault on southern Taiwan, bringing down the rebel Grand Duchy of Tungning, which was founded by the Ming loyalist Koxinga in 1662 after the fall of the Southern Ming, and had served as a base for continued Ming resistance in Southern China.
- In the 19th century, the empire was internally stagnated and externally threatened by imperialism. The defeat by the British Empire in the First Opium War (1840) led to the Treaty of Nanking (1842), under which Hong Kong was ceded and opium import was legitimized. Subsequent military defeats and unequal treaties with other imperial powers would continue even after the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
