©Edward J. Vajda
Chinese, like Russian history, is characterized by repeated conflict between a sedentary farming society and the nomads of the Inner Asian steppes. Just as Russia now dominates Siberia both politically and numerically, so modern China now extends its political control over the descendents of the steppe peoples in its sphere of influence. Today, several minorities in the northern and western parts of the People's Republic of China struggle to maintain their ethnic identity.
The Predynastic Period (down to ?1534BC)
During this period, millet and wheat farming, along with the domestication of the pig and dog, developed in northern China along the Yellow River (rice cultivation developed independently in the south of China). After 3000BC Indo-European speaking steppe nomads moving into China from the West may have influenced the development of certain aspects of China's already thriving neolithic culture (by introducing sheep and horse domestication, the potter's wheel, and perhaps some aspects of military organization). Chinese sources list various dynasties, heroes and rulers as having existed during the predynastic period, but none have been fully substantianted as historical personages.
The Shang and Zhou (Chou) Dynasties(?1534-221BC)
The beginnings of reliably recorded Chinese history. First use of bronze, then iron. The Shang witnessed the development of syllabic Chinese writing on the basis of ancient pictographs; the Zhou saw the first flowering of Confucian and Taoist thought, along with other native Chinese philosophical traditions, which would form the foundations of Chinese education and political thought until the 20th century. Development of the idea that China should be ruled by hereditary emperors who possess, by virtue of their dynastic founder's political success, the Mandate of Heaven. Until the 20th centuries, China would be ruled by hereditary emperors (called sons of heaven). During the last centuries of the Zhou period, China dissolved into a number of warring states. Such periods of political chaos were to alternate with times of unity throughout subsequent Chinese history up to the present day.
The Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty (221-201BC)
Unification of north and south China under Emperor Shih Huang-ti, who fortifies and unifies the various defensive walls in northern China, creating the Great Wall. This is done to fend off new attacks by a confederation of northern steppe nomads organized by the (probably) Turkic-speaking Hsiung-nu (also spelled "Xiong-nu"), the probable ancestors of the Huns.
The Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD)
For the first time (but not the last), China extends political control westward along the Silk Route into Central Asia as a response to continued conflict with the Hsiung-nu, some of whom go westward and become the Huns. The Indo-European states in the Tarim basin become China's tributaries, and Buddhism makes its way from India into China proper. The Han fend off the nomads and keep the country united. At its height, Han China is as large and powerful as the cotemporaneous Roman Empire on the other side of Eurasia.
The Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties Periods (220-581)
A period of warring states. At the collapse of the Han Dynasty, China is divided, first into three, then into many kingdoms. The Mongol (or possibly Turkic) Toba rule the northwest under the Wei Dynasty. Areas beyond the Great Wall are under the domination of a new steppe confederacy called by the Chinese the Juan-Juan (thought to be a Mongol-speaking people).
Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) Dynasties
A strong and unified China successfully holds its own against a new steppe confederacy under the Tu-chueh (the historical Turks, possibly the descendants of the Xiong-nu). In the 8th and 9th centuries, the Turkic-speaking Uighurs act as China's ally in the northern conflicts (until their destruction in 840). The Tang Dynasty period is considered the height of classical Chinese civilization and Tang culture is emulated by states in Tibet, Korea, and Japan.
The Ten Kingdoms Period (907-1279)
China again divided, with various groups of nomads (Turkic, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Tungusic) controlling the northern parts of the country. Sung (or Song) Dynasty controls parts of the north and all of the south. Importation of quick ripening rice which allows for two harvests per year sets in motion a significant population increase. In 1206 the Mongol Chingiz Khan unites the various steppe tribes and conquers the northern kingdoms. His successors eventually conquer all of China and establish a new dynasty.
The Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty (1279-1368)
The Mongol ruler Kubilai Khan conquers the Southern Sung Dynasty and rules all of China. For the first time Kubilai adds Tibet and Yunnan province to China's territory. Visit of the Italian Marco Polo, who works as an official in the Mongol bureaucracy. Beginning in 1352, China suffers significant depopulation (up to a third of the population is lost) from recurrent epidemics of bubonic plague.
The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
Return of native Chinese rule. The Ming emperors destroy Karakorum, the steppe capital of Mongolia, but cannot extend lasting Chinese political control either over the northern nomads or over Tibet, so the borders of China basically revert to their pre-Mongol limits. However, in areas incorporated into China such as parts of Inner Mongolia, the local ethnic groups gradually become minorities as a result of a steady influx of Chinese farmers.
The Qing (Ch'ing) Dynasty (1644-1911) (also known as the Manchu Period)
All of China is conquered by the Jurchens, a nomadic people from the Amur basin (Manchuria) who began to call themselves Manchu in 1635 (a word of unknown origin, possibly an imitation of "Mongol", to whom these people were not actually related). Although they constitute less than 2% of China's population, the Manchu maintain effective military control over a united China for nearly three centuries. However, within a few centuries they become so sinified that eventually they lose their native Manchu language. Food crops imported from the Americas (peanuts, peppers, corn, sweet potatoes, various types of beans) lead to a population explosion.
Under two able emperors, the early Qing dynasty becomes a period of great imperialist conquest and strength (The borders of today's People's Republic of China are, with the exception of independent Outer Mongolia, those established by the Qing in the second half of the 18th century. Tibet is brought under central control, and all of Mongolia is subjugated. During these conquests, the Western Mongols, who are called Oirats or Jungars, are almost annihilated; their remnants flee to southeastern Europe and become the Kalmyks, whose descendants still live southwest of the Volga River. Tibet and the Uighur areas (the future Xinjiang) are also subjugated. China also excludes the Russians from the Amur basis in 1689 (Treaty of Nerchinsk).
The last century of Manchu rule, however, becomes one of Chinese decline and humiliation, as the European imperial powers and Japan begin to encroach upon China. Taiping Rebellion in southern China kills millions and leads to the rise of warlords in the various provinces. China loses effective control over (Outer) Mongolia and Tibet. Russia seizes all territory north of the Amur (1858) as well as the territory between the Ussuri River and the Pacific (1860); the Chinese later call these agreements the "unequal treaties." Britain defeats China in three humiliating Opium Wars and forces her to conduct diplomacy along European lines and open her seaports to overseas trade. Qing rule collapses in 1911, when the two-year old emperor Pu Yi is deposed.
The Nationalist period (1911-1949)
China becomes a republic under Sun Yat-sen, who stresses the assimilation of China's minorities. China is soon beset by regional warlordism and Japanese military invasions (in 1931 the Japanese seize Manchuria, which they call Manchukuo, and set up a puppet government there ; in 1937 they invade China proper). Rise of the Kuomindang under Chiang Kai-shek, who tries to unify the country to meet the Japanese threat. Chiang becomes virtual military dictator and suppresses all other political parties. The fledgeling Chinese Communist Party is persecuted and goes on a Long March from their southern headquarters to the north. Mongolian independence is recognized in 1946. By 1949, the Communists with Soviet help defeat the Nationalists and Chiang Kai-shek flees to Taiwan.
The Communist Period (1949-to the present)
Mao Zedong rules China until 1976. Communist forces subjugate Tibet in 1950. Minorities are subjected to increasing pressures to assimilate to the Chinese majority. Rift with the Soviet Union in the late 1950's leads Mao to press for return of the Amur Region and other areas severed from Manchu China by Tsarist Russia. Mongols in Inner Mongolia swamped by Chinese immigration and suffer terrible persecution 1966-69 during Mao's so-called Cultural Revolution. In 1989 Tianamen Square demonstrations challenge but do not alter the Communist dictatorship. Tibetans, Uighurs, and other western and northern minorities continue to be discontented with Chinese rule. It remains to be seen whether democratization in China will bring independence for some of the major non-Chinese areas, notably Tibet and the Uighur region of Xinjiang.