this video is brought to you by captivating history the history and people of china are as diverse as the land itself the culture that brought us kites porcelain and silk also gave us gunpowder paper currency and acupuncture in a slew of other world-changing inventions and discoveries it is a complex culture deeply rooted in tradition and honor for millennia different family dynasties have ruled over ancient china each leaving an indelible mark on history the simple beauty of chinese art and the delicate imagery created by its poetry belies the violence of the chinese military might that pushed expansionism and conquest a quick overview of the history of china will help us to better understand the complexity of this unique and fascinating culture although people inhabited china much longer historians believe that the first chinese dynasty was the shah dynasty which ruled between 2100 and 1600 bce the only evidence we have about the shia dynasty however comes from texts written around 1300 bce long after this dynasty's rule was over there is definitive proof of the shang dynasty which began around 1600 bce the center of the shang dynasty was the vassal state called zhao the peasants of the shang dynasty lived on the rice they farmed while the upper classes of society enjoyed beef pork poultry and venison to make their meager allotment of protein go further the chinese peasants developed a way to chop fish chicken or eggs into tiny bits that were stir-fried with rice and pieces of vegetable a method of cooking that remains popular in china and around the world to this day it is also during the shang dynasty that the chinese system of writing began the chinese script started as a series of pictograms but over time the images became easier to duplicate and serve more as a symbol than an actual depiction during the shang dynasty as many as 3 000 new chinese characters were introduced years later the people of china had arranged themselves into seven distinct states each with its own cultural identity leaders goals and customs one state the chin grew more powerful than the others as is usual with power comes greed in bce the chin state with a sizable well-organized army defeated the six other states to seize control of china although the qin army was formidable had the other six states banded together they could have been victorious however they chose not to work together against a common enemy when the final state fell the qin dynasty was born of course there were those who opposed the new qin dynasty according to one tale in 227 bce two would-be assassins presented king zhen of chin with a map of their region hidden within the rolled-up map however was a dagger the assassins were thwarted when the lengthy dagger failed to come easily out of the map giving time for the king's guards to subdue the assassins after this event king zhen changed his name to qin shi huang and was declared china's first emperor as emperor he sought to remain unseen by his subjects hidden in a temple and traveling from place to place via a network of elevated tree-lined roads built solely for his use he may have been hidden from his people but chinchi huang's orders were carried out across the land he was a stickler for standardization he wanted the wheels on carts to be the same distance apart so the ruts on the road would be uniform he also standardized all weights and measures his greatest accomplishment as emperor however was commissioning the construction of a feature that can be seen from space the great wall of china the great mongol leader genghis khan attacked the northern region of china in 1211. ongoing battles ensued ending with the mongols total defeat of the reigning jin dynasty of 1234 genghis khan's son ogidai khan took over command of the mongol horde upon his father's death but he too died in battle the rain passed to genghis khan's grandson kublai khan and his brother hulagu khan the brothers set their sights on a trading hub guarded by an impressive fort undeterred they used their secret weapons trebuchets catapult-like weapons the chong xin nu was a device that could shoot a volley of flaming arrows at the enemy while the thunder crash bombs were exploding metal cylinders filled with gunpowder the combination of these frightening weapons was enough for the mongols to destroy the song dynasty in 1279 the reign of kublai khan was like all of chinese history a strange mixture of culture and ruthless violence a learned man kublai khan was respectful and tolerant of all religions practiced in china buddhism taoism shamanism juism christianity and muslim he encouraged the arts and was a lover of poetry paintings and the theater but he also had expansionism and colonialism on his mind he set his sights on japan burma java and vietnam in 1281 kublai khan sent his troops to invade japan his fleet of more than 3 500 ships however had a catastrophic failure to communicate and the japanese forces repelled their advances the remaining men returned to china to lick their wounds and regroup in three battles in 1257 1284 and 1285 kublai khan's forces attempted to seize vietnam but in all three battles the great mongols were defeated between 1277 and 1287 khan's men engaged the armies of burma as they tried to invade that region this time they succeeded in subduing the people of burma but khan's plan to make them pay high taxes failed the bulk of the burmese people were poor farmers trying to eke out a living in a region besieged by drought they simply had nothing to give once kublai khan knew their plight he took pity on them he had grain cloth and other resources sent to the more impoverished areas sending workers to help rebuild houses and construct irrigation channels for a war-hungry ruler he was also a great humanitarian from 1368 to 1644 china was controlled by the great ming dynasty the leaders had an attitude of paranoia and sought to keep a tight reign on the people of china even if it meant ruthless executions in this atmosphere the conditions were ripe for rebellion and revolt the ming dynasty weathered each revolt and even produced an impressive collection of fine porcelain vases urns and bowls along the way although delicate mink porcelain pieces created in the 16th century remain to this day and are a highly prized collectible tragedy struck on may 30th 1626 a huge explosion rocked the city of beijing uprooting trees miles away and sending the bodies of victims high into the air more than twenty thousand people were killed in the blast reportedly centered at the wang gong chang armory a facility that manufactured gunpowder weapons and munitions an exact cause of the explosion was never determined but the superstitious chinese people took it as a sign from the gods that they were displeased with the rule of the ming dynasty by the late 1700s china was trading vigorously with britain and other parts of europe tea silk cotton and porcelain items were being shipped around the world another commodity however found its way onto the merchant ships opium the addictive drug was smuggled into china on british ships and sold to the general population opium is so addictive that the user must have continued access to the drug or face horrible withdrawal symptoms the emperor responded to this crisis by making opium illegal and set up a blockade around the harbor to prevent british ships from entering the heavily armed british responded by obliterating the chinese ships the conflict ended with the treaty of nine king signed in 1842 but it did not end the opium crisis in china opium was so widespread in china that the british pressured the chinese emperor to legalize the substance the situation came to a head when in 1856 chinese authorities captured a british ship loaded with opium bombed for china this time the french came to the aid of the british and both nations attacked the chinese this was the opportunity france was looking for as they had been trying to gain access to chinese ports for their trade ships for years france and britain along with the united states and russia forced china to sign the treaty of tianzin the treaty forced china to open teaports to foreign merchant ships to allow christian missionaries to spread the word of god across china and devastatingly to legalize opium imports fast forward to the mid-20th century and the nation of china was being pulled apart by different political factions and ideologies when mao zedong came to power he made a bold declaration he established a new government with a new name the people's republic of china mao portrayed himself as the hero of the common myth and an advocate of the working class however he sought a homogeneous society in which everyone thought the same way he murdered those who disagreed with him and even ordered the executions of wealthy capitalists who didn't fit his plan for a unified society he encouraged people to report their friends and neighbors who criticized the mao government and ordered thousands of people into forced labor camps beginning in 1966 mao zedong began his cultural revolution to rid the nation of counter-revolutionary elements in chinese society and those who spread them he closed the universities because he believed that education created capitalists who sought to exploit workers for their own gain paranoid mao was convinced that people within his own government were conspiring to oust him therefore he purged his own government the massacres starvation and famine killed somewhere around 20 million people when mao zedong died in 1976 his seat was filled by deng xiaoping deng's first order of business was to reverse the restrictions and culture of fear from mao's cultural revolution he reopened the universities reestablished civil services and brought order to the chaos of chinese government in the years since china has grown into a world power china is a leading manufacturing and exporting economy that has overcome many of its past problems to enjoy a stability it has rarely known the rich history and diverse past of china has contributed to its presence as an emerging global superpower with the potential to rival the united states in economy technology military and diplomacy to discover more about the history of china then check out our book history of china a captivating guide to chinese history including events such as the first emperor of china the mongol conquests of genghis khan the opium wars and the cultural revolution it's available as an e-book paperback and audiobook also grab your free mythology bundle ebook for free while still available all links are in the description if you enjoyed the video please hit the like button and subscribe for more videos like this