Post on 10-Feb-2016
description
Early China, part 1
Geography
Location:Early civilization
arouse on Huang He and Yangtze Rivers
(Yellow River Valley)
Geography
Himalaya MTS Gobi Desert Irregular coastline
Location Affecting Life
Mountains/desert have isolated China from outsiders
Called itself the Middle Kingdom
Very ethnocentric
Environmental Problems:• isolated cannot rely
on trade, must provide own goods (Where is everybody???)
• Rivers flooding • Invasions from East
and West where mountains do not exist
• Little farming land 10% is useable
– Mountains are not good farmland
The dynastic cycle:
• 1) Group claims mandate of Heaven• 2) Time of prosperity change• 3) As time goes on, corruption in
government takes over people believe they have lost mandate rebellion
• 4) New group takes over power and claims mandate
Early Dynasties Xia Dynasty—1st dynasty
• - irrigation and flooding methods to control river and let settlements grow
Qin dynasty –221- 206 BC
creation of wall for protection- Great Wall begins
They will be followed by the Han (206BC -222 AD)
Terracotta ArmyDiscovered in 1974
8,000 soldiers, 100 chariots with 400 horses and 300
cavalry horses
Chinese Culture:
Families: Respect your elders (parents) from Confucianism
Women were not equal men have power ( BAD WOMEN!!)
Social classes:
Nobles and Peasants
Merchants are lowest
Religion:
Traditionally Chinese were spiritual in form of ancestor worship (oracle bones)
Today: Buddhism and Confucianism
Writing System:
good things- unified people
Bad- instead of the 26 letters we have, can you remember over 10,000 characters?
Tang Dynasty 618-907
Stress education
Civil Service exam Created movable type Mechanical Clock
Song Dynasty 960- 1279
Improved farming methods of rice 10 cites of 1 million each Porcelain Compass Gun powder
Other Technology:
Canals and Roads
Coined money Furnaces to
produce iron
Trading: Along the Silk Road
Only link to west
Early Chinese Civilizations will eventually fall to the Mongols
(Mughals) Mongols famous leader: Genghis Khan
and Kublai Khan
Mongolians were nomadic barbarians
- Weapon technology: Bow and Arrow
Pax Mongolia
Time of peace in China under Mongol rule
Marco Polo visits China
Polo’s visit and journal of his visit to China increases European desire to interact with China
Took 24 years