BalompiÃ© de asociaciÃ³n

The Chinese Civilization is the current Civilization whose direct origins are oldest. Since 3 500 years, the successive dynasties developed a worked out bureaucratic system, which gives to the Chinese peasants an important advantage compared to the nomads and to the close mountain dwellers. Chinese civilization was still reinforced by the development of a national Idéologie based on the Confucianisme and by a written Langue common which makes it possible to bind the various local languages, all very different to the oral examination. When the China was conquered by the tribes Nomade S of north, like the Mongolian at the 13th century, the invaders adopted early or late the habits of Chinese civilization and named of the Chinese in their administration.

Prehistoric time

China was populated more than one million years ago by the Homo erectus . The excavations of Lantian and Yuanmou reveal early dwellings. The modern men probably reached China there is 75 000 years, and towards 7500 av. J. - C. developed an agricultural economics based on the millet, the Porc, the Chien and the Poulet (it exists some uncertainties on the dates: the archaeological evidence is rare).

The Neolithic culture most known is that of Yangshao. It is dated from Ve and thousand-year-old IVe front J. - C. and developed in the central plain, with the Henan, the Shanxi and the Shaanxi, before extending to the south towards the Yangzi Jiang and to the west towards the Gansu and the Qinghai. Its most representative site is that of the village of Banpo, close to Xi' year in the Shaanxi. More in the east, with the Shandong, was about contemporary culture of Dawenkou, especially known thanks to its burials. The saving in these two cultures was based on the millet. More in the south, in the seaboard provinces of the Jiangsu and the Zhejiang, the Riz was cultivated as of the year -5000, but within the framework of cultures which were certainly not Chinese. They were rather related to the islands of the Pacifique.

The Shandong, the culture of Longshan succeeds that of Dawenkou during first half of the OJ It is characterized by a very fine Poterie black, a pushed social hierarchisation and villages often protected by rammed ground enclosures. Principalities directed by an elite start to be formed. The breeding of the Sheep and the Bœuf makes its appearance, as well as the culture of the Blé and the Orge. This culture extends on the central plain and undoubtedly corresponds to the period of the “ten thousand kingdoms” ( wan guo ) about which speak the Chinese texts. The Chinese civilization of the Bronze Age, to III is girl of the culture of Longshan.

First dynasties

The Chinese historians traditionally began their accounts of the Chinese history with the Yellow Empereur, mythical civilizing sovereign, then the foundation of the Dynastie Xia by Yu Large the, with this dynasty is regarded as mythical, even if certain Chinese historians base themselves on the discovery of an archeological site with Erlitou (gone back to 1900-1350 av. J.C) to support its historical character. It is of this period that date the beginning of the Métallurgie thus the beginning of the Chinese Bronze Age. It is also of this period which go up the oldest scales of Tortue S marked of signs and the decorated potteries

It is followed Dynastie Shang (approximately - 1045 av. J. - C.), which occupied the average valley of the Huang He (Jaune river). The archaeological discoveries prove at least the existence of the Dynastie Shang. China of Shang had an advanced culture, somewhat different from posterior Chinese civilization, with city-palates, a writing, practices divinatoires, the metallurgy of the Bronze (in particular in the manufacture of Vaisselle of Sacrifice) and the use of the tanks. The archaeological excavations and the inscriptions on the objects out of bronze give an idea of the Shang company. A royal family occupies the top of a social hierarchy ic Clan, with chiefs of line who perpetuate the family worship.

In the center of the shang city is the palates and the temples devoted to the royal family, with a North-South and East-West orientation, whose remain the rammed ground foundations. This space is protected by an enclosure.

Shang practiced the divination using bone of animals flarings or Scapulomancie (generally of the carapaces of tortoise), which one interpreted the cracks, and who carry inscriptions divinatoires. This antiquated writing testifies to an extraordinary continuity until the Chinese characters current.

It is now established that Shangs were in liaison with Indo-European people , the Tokhariens, that the Chinese called Quanrong (either rong - dogs). Of warlike nature, the latter carried out frequent incursions in China. It is them which would have introduced the tank in China. The Chinese Mythologie, such as she is told in the texts of the Dynastie Han, would have been influenced by mythology tokharienne.

To III, one second culture starts to emerge in the valley of the Wei, that of the Zhou. With, Zhou reverse Shang. Their dynasty is the first for which there exists a reliable historical tradition. It seems to have started to control by a system of centralized Bureaucratie. The kings bear the name of tianzi (“wire of the Sky”), which legitimates their capacity by a celestial mandate. This design will perdurera until the end of the Chinese Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. The sovereigns zhou entrust the administration of certain territories to families related to the royal house. These principalities bear the name of guo , that one translates by “Fief”. Some historians qualified this feudal system of , while others are opposed to this denomination which extends too the direction of feudal and which implies with the European feudal system similarities which do not exist.

The time of Zhou is traditionally divided into two periods: that of the Western Zhou (1045-770 av. J.C.) and that of the Eastern Zhou (770-256 av. J.C.), according to the site of their capital.

This last period, characterized by the decline of the royal capacity, corresponds more or less with two periods that one calls “Printemps and Automnes” and “Royaumes combatants”.

The time of Springs and the Falls

The capacity splits up during the period of Zhou Eastern, time that annals name Period of springs and the autumns. The sovereign does not have any more but one moral authority. The principalities become hereditary and of the military conflicts great States make emerge which absorb smallest. One can distinguish the principalities from the center (for example the Jin or IQ) of the peripheral principalities (the Qin or the Chu). Initially, the principalities of the center play a part of chief of confederation, vis-a-vis the threat of tribes Barbare S. As from sixth century BC the peripheral kingdoms, such as Chu in the valley of the Yangzi Jiang, take the ascending one. It is at that time that the “hundred schools flower” (this number is symbolic system). In a world in upheaval, hatch a series of philosophical movements such as the Confucianisme, the Taoïsme, the Légisme, the Moïsme, which seek to give solutions to the political crisis and economic.

The Kingdoms combatants

As the political consolidation continued, there remained only seven major Statuses, and the period during which these some States fought the ones the others is known under the name of Period of the Kingdoms combatants. It is indeed a period of confrontations, as well inside the States between the central capacity and the big families, as outside, between States.

The conflicts oppose armies of infantrymen, while the role of the tanks decreases. A new weapon appears, the crossbow and the Chinese adopt the Cavalerie nomads of north.

The economic system is also deeply modified. The setting in culture of new grounds gets for the central government incomes which enable him to emerge from the influence of the big families. Technological advances are also remarkable: for example the cast iron replaces bronze gradually.

Although it had there an emperor zhou until in -256, it did not lay out any more any capacity.

For the ancient period , the antiquated Chinese was very different from the Chinese languages modern.

Chinese Empire

The Qin empire

Towards -220, prince Zheng of the Qin principality managed to conquer the other States and proclaimed itself first emperor of the Dynastie Qin, with the title of Qin Shi Huang di. Although its reign lasted only eleven years, it succeeds in subjecting most of what constitutes the current territory of the Han and unifying it under a government narrowly centralized based with Xianyang (close to Xi' year). It also began construction from what one calls today the Great wall. However its successor was not able to continue his work. The dynasty of Qin crumbled and the Dynastie Han succeeded to him after one period of war civil.

The empire Han (202 av. J. - C. - 220 a. J. - C.)

It was the first dynasty to adopt the Confucianisme, which became the ideological support of all the dynasties until the end of imperial China. Under the Dynasty Han, the History and the Art S opened out, of news inventions improved the life and of the emperors as Wudi reinforced and extended the Chinese Empire by pushing back the Xiongnu (sometimes assimilated with the Huns), by subjecting territories to the west, in the Bassin of Tarim, and in the south, the Vietnam. With the establishment of the Silk route, one observes for the first time the appearance of a trade between China and the Occident.

But at first century BC, the capacity of the sovereigns han decreased and in the year 9 of the Christian era, the usurper Wang Mang founded transitory the Dynastie Xin. In 25, the Dynastie Han was restored and lasted until the beginning of the 3rd century.

Period of the Three Kingdoms

Then it still a period ago of disorders during which three States tried to divide the territory of China. It was the period known as of the Three Kingdoms.

Unified empire of Jin (280-316), then period of North and the South (316-581)

Although these three kingdoms were joined together temporarily in 280 by the emperor Wudi of the Dynastie Jin, the barbarians Wuhu devastated the country, causing a vast exodus of the Chinese in the south of the Yangzi Jiang. With the immigrants and the inhabitants of the South, the emperor Yuandi of the Dynastie Jin set up the first of the five Dynasties of the North and the South which resided at Jiangkang (close to current the Nankin). The barbarians of north were plain first once by Fu Jian of the former Qin in 376 then still by Taiwudi, third emperor of the Dynastie Wei of North in 439. The last unification meant the beginning of group of dynasties (Dynasties of North and South).

Unified empire of Sui (589-617)

China was directed by two independent dynasties, one in North and the other in the South. Transitory the Dynastie Sui succeeds in unifying the country in 589 after almost three hundred years of separation. It is of this time which the first Dictionnaire S Chinese indicating date the Prononciation. The language of this time is the medieval Chinese .

Unified empire of Tang (618-907)

In 618, the Dynastie Tang seized the power and a new era of prosperity started. The Buddhism which had slowly been introduced in China at the 1st century, became the prevalent religion and was largely adopted by the royal family. Chang' year (current the Xi' year), the capital of the time, was supposed to be more the big city of the world. However, Tang also ended up declining and another period of political chaos followed, the Period of the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms.

The Song empire and the Jin empire

In 960, the Dynastie Song seized the power on most of China and establishes its capital with Kaifeng while the Dynastie Liao controlled the current Mandchourie and part of the Mongolia. In 1115, the Second dynasty Jin arrived on the front of the scene. It destroyed the Dynastie Liao in ten years and the Dynastie Song itself lost China of North and moved its capital with Hangzhou. The Song dynasty also had to be humiliated by recognizing the suzerainty of the Jin dynasty.

In the years which followed, China was divided between the Song dynasty, the Jin dynasty and the Western Xia, controlled by the Tangoutes. This period partly allowed large technological projections in China of the South because of the military pressure North.

Mongols and the Chinese dynasty of Ming

The Jin dynasty was beaten by the Mongolian , which continued by beating Song of the South after a long bloody war, the first where the firearms played a big role. That allowed one period of peace in about all the Asia, called pax mongolica , allowing adventurous Westerners, like Marco Polo, to travel in all China and to bring back the first accounts of them to their compatriots incrédules. In China, the Mongols divided themselves between those which wanted to remain in the Steppe S and those which wanted to adopt the habits of the conquered people. Kubilai Khan belonged to the last group and establishes the Dynastie Yuan, the first which directed all the country and which had Beijing like capital. Beijing had already been the capital of the Jin dynasty.

The resentment of the population resulted finally in a revolt which marked the beginning of the Dynastie Ming in 1368. This dynasty begins during one period of economic rebirth Culture them and . The regular army counted a million men. More than ten tons of Fer per annum were produced in China of North. Many delivers S were printed thanks to mobile characters. One could say that China was the most advanced country of the world.

Hongwu, the founder of the dynasty, posed the bases of a State more interested by the incomes of the agricultural field than by the Commerce. Perhaps because of the past of Hongwu, old country, the economic system of Ming stressed agriculture, contrary to the Dynastie Song, which trusted the merchants and the traders for its incomes. The feudal land system (the Tenure) of Yuan and the end of Song stopped with the establishment of the Ming dynasty. Large territories were confiscated, split up and rented; the private Esclavage was prohibited. Consequently, after the death of the emperor Yongle, the small farmer owner prevailed in Chinese agriculture. These laws perhaps paved the way of the social harmony and removed worst of the Pauvreté of the Mongolian era. The laws against the merchants and the restrictions under which the Artisan S worked remained primarily the same ones as under Song, but now, the foreign merchants of the Mongolian time also fell under the blow from these laws and their influence decreased quickly.

The role of the emperor became even more autocratic, although Hongwu necessarily continued to make use of large secretaries to help it in the immense red tape of the bureaucracy, which included requests (petitions and recommendations for the throne), the imperial edict S in answer, the reports/ratios of various kinds and the recordings of Taxe S.

Under the Mongols, the population had lowered 40 %, to reach approximately sixty million individuals. Two centuries later, it had doubled. The Urbanisation thus progressed, with small scales, as the population grew and than the division of the labor became more complicated. Great urban centres, like Nankin and Beijing, also contributed to the progression of the private Industrie. In particular, small the Entreprise S often specialized in the Papier, the Soie, the Coton and the products in Porcelaine. In much of case, however, small urban centres with Marché S proliferated in the area, rather than the growth of some important cities. The markets of the cities sold mainly food with some essential products like Huile or pin S.

This period corresponds to an extension of the zone of influence of Ming. Under the reign of the Yongle emperor, Chinese forwardings explored unknown grounds and especially seas. The apogee of this exploring period is the epopee of Zheng He, Eunuque Chinese which went until in Africa and whose fleet, according to the British author Gavin Menzies, would have undertaken the exploration of the totality of the sphere, reaching the Australia and the Americas. The Chinese, by encouraging the Ambassador S of the other countries to pay them tributes and by showing them-even extremely generous with all the States of their zone of influence, did not seek to withdraw material benefit of these voyages, contrary to the Européens which started to explore the west coasts of Africa later a few decades.

At the end of the 15th century, imperial China prohibited on its subjects to build ships of high-sea and to leave the country. The contemporary historians are of agreement on the fact that this measurement was taken in answer to the Piraterie and, in any event, the restrictions on the emigration and the construction of ship was largely raised in the middle of the 17th century.

The Qing dynasty, Manchu

The last dynasty was established in 1644 when the nomads Mandchous built-in the army reversed the national dynasty of Ming, and founded the Dynastie Qing, with Beijing for capital. During the half next century, the Manchus extended their capacity to areas before under Ming control, such as the Yunnan and Taiwan and beyond while seizing the Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan), the Tibet and the Mongolia, at the price of much of gold and blood. First Qing last these successes with the combination of the military performances of the Manchus and the effectiveness of the Chinese administration.

For certain historians, the decline started under Ming continued under Qing, whereas for other, the 17th century and 18th Qing century were one period of progress, the coming decline only then. The emperor Kangxi made write most complete of the Dictionnaire S of the Chinese characters ever realized and under the emperor Qianlong, one compiled the catalog of all important works of the Chinese culture. The Qing period also saw continuing the development of the popular Littérature, with works such as the Dream in the red house ( hóng lóu mèng 红楼梦), one of largest the Romance Chinese, and especially of agricultural progress, like triple annual Récolte of Riz which made it possible the population to pass during the 18th century of one hundred eighty to four hundred million. On the other hand, it does not react to the increasingly obvious technical superiority of Europeans who came to trade with Canton, in particular in the fields of the Arme S or the ships, nor with their increasingly strong establishment in the Indian Ocean. It is true that Europeans did not think yet of being able to measure itself in China.

During the 19th century, the capacity of Qing weakens and prosperity decreased. China undergoes a strong social agitation, an economic stagnation, an explosive population growth, and interferences increasingly marked on behalf of the western powers. The British will to open the trade and in particular to continue its Exportation S of Opium, that imperial edicts made illegal, leads to the First war of opium, in 1840, and with the Chinese defeat. The United Kingdom obtained the transfer of HongKong to the Traité of Nankin in 1842, as well as the opening of others ports with the European trade. Thereafter, the United Kingdom and other western powers, including the the United States and later the Japan, obtained “concessions”, i.e. small often coastal territories under their control, as well as an influence in vast close areas, and commercial privileges. The revolt of Taiping in the Years 1850 and 1860, which was overcome only with the support of the Westerners, that of the Nian, the agitation maintained by the Russia in the frontier provinces, Xinjiang and Mongolia, completed to impoverish China and failed to put an end to the dynasty.

The spheres of the capacity were not very eager to admit the Western trade, particularly that of opium. The Occident thus could be satisfied to establish “spheres of influence there”. On the contrary for example of the sub-Saharan Africa, it was possible to enter the Chinese market without establishing a formal political control. Following the first war of opium, the British trade and later the capital invested by other industrialized countries were possible with less direct Western control than in Africa, Southeast Asia, or in the Pacifique. By many aspects, China was a colony and the destination of very important Western Investissement S (the first with the turning of the century). The western powers (by including Japan sometimes there) intervened militarily to maintain the order, in particular while putting an end to the revolt of Taiping where with that of the boxers. The British general Charles Gordon, later unhappy defender of Khartoum, is often credited to have saved the Manchu dynasty of the insurrection of Taiping.

Starting from the Years 1860, Qing, controlled by an empress preserving dowager (Cixi, who assumed the capacity of 1860 with 1908), having repressed the rebellions with militia organized by the aristocracy, started the modernization of the country. But the new armies were defeats by France (Franco-Chinese Guerre for the control of the Indo-China, 1883 - 1885) then by Japan (first Sino-Japanese war for the control of the Korea, 1894 - 1895). Major reforms were essential.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Qing dynasty faced a dilemma: to continue the reforms and to dissatisfy an idle aristocracy or at it to put a term and to consolidate the revolutionists who predicted the end of this mode. It stuck to medium term and alienated everyone, by in particular supporting the Révolte of the Boxers.

The Republic of China (中华民国; Hanyu pinyin : Zhōnghuá Míngúo )

See also: History of the Republic of Chine#Révolution Chinese and fighting period, History of the Republic of China

Frustrated by resistances of the imperial court to the reforms, of young civils servant, officers and students, inspired by the revolutionary ideas of Sun Yat-SEN (孫逸仙; Hanyu pinyin : Sūn Yìxiān ; also called 孫中山/孙中山; hanyu pinyin : Sūn Zhōngshān ), starts to consider the inversion of the Qing dynasty to the profit of a République. A military revolt, the Rising of Wuchang, the October 10th 1911 with Wuhan involves the abdication of the last emperor Qing, Aixinjueluo Puyi. A provisional government is formed with Nankin the March 12th 1912, chaired by Sun Yat-SEN. Sun had to yield the capacity to the general Yuan Shikai, ordering army. In a few years, Yuan Shikai abolishes the National Assemblies and provincial. The republican chiefs had to exile themselves, Sun taking refuge with the Japan. Yuan Shikai proclaimed emperor. Its imperial claims met a given opposition of its military subordinates and, risking a rebellion, it had to give up it. He died a little later in 1916, leaving the vacant capacity. The republican government broke up and an era of “lords of the war” opened, during which China was devastated by the fights between moving coalitions provincial military chiefs.

In the Years 1920, Sun Yat-SEN establishes a revolutionary base in the South, and started to reunify the nation. Receiving the assistance of the Soviet , it was combined with small the Chinese Communist party (PCC). With died of Sun in 1925, one of its lieutenants Tchang Kaï-chek took the control of its party, the Guomindang (國民黨/国民党 hanyu pinyin : Gúomíntáng , “left national the people”, KMT) and succeeds in controlling the essence of China of the South and the Center, thanks to a military campaign called Expédition of North. Having overcome the lords of the war of the South and Center, it obtained the formal allegiance of those of North. Starting from 1927, it was turned over against the Communists, attacking their chiefs as with their troops in their bases of the South and the East. In 1934, demolished and driven out of their bases in the mountains, the Communists undertook the Long walk , through the sorriest areas of the country, towards the North-West. They established their new base of guerilla with Yan' year, in the province of the Shaanxi.

During Long walk, the Communists reorganized around Mao Zedong. The fight baited between the KMT and the PCC continued, sometimes at the great day, sometimes secretly during the fourteen long years of the Japanese invasion, of 1931 with 1945, although both were formally combined against the invaders during the Sino-Japanese Guerre (1937-1945), the Asian shutter of the Second world war.

The war between the two parties began again after the Japanese defeat of 1945. In 1949, the PCC occupied the essence of the country. Tchang Kaï-chek took refuge in the island of Taiwan with the remainders of the government and the armed forces of Guomindang, and proclaimed provisional Taipei capital of the République of China, while waiting to be able to reconquer the continent.

China under Mao Zedong

The Maoists controlled the whole of the continent in 1949, and proclaim the Popular republic of China to Beijing, on October 1st 1949. The nationalists did not hold soon any more that Hainan and Taiwan, then held nothing any more but the Archipel of Taiwan.

For the continent, the period 1949 - 1954 is that of the installation of a communist State. The Chinese Communist party, winner, monopolizes the station-keys, while it offers an appearance of Multipartisme. The assembly votes the Chinese Constitution of 1954. A first five-year plan is launched, which seems a success and encourages Mao Zedong to launch his Grand Step ahead in 1958. But the exaggerated efforts in the Sidérurgie by peasants proves finally a disaster. The idea must be semi-officially abandoned towards 1960, officially in 1962. Twenties to fifty million Chinese would have died of the Famine in the adventure.

Of 1960 with 1966, continental China is in a relative calm, agitated few huntings for the drifts. The system of production is in convalescence, and begins again little by little. In 1966 begins the Cultural revolution. The students are agitated in order to clean China of the “new Capitaliste S”, they become the red guards of the revolution, defending the communist ideals, and organizing punitive forwardings everywhere in China. Jiang Qing, the woman of Mao, and the Bande of the Four agitates the movement against the cultural chains of the last one: many old works, delivers S, Sculpture S, buildings, etc are destroyed. The intellectuals are attacked. China is terrorized vis-a-vis arbitrary and the precipitation of these red guards. The army and Flax Biao its chief, faithful to Mao, become again a key element. August 1966, Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and Peng Zhen, moderated, are retrogressed. End 1967, the army finally decides to repress the movement. The army, Flax Biao and Mao Zedong leave there reinforced, with the red guards, they shorted-circuit the apparatus of the State. The party is shaken to build new according to the wishes of Mao.

But the death of Mao, the April 6th 1976, opens the fight for the succession. The band of the Four is stopped in October. Hua Guofeng carries out from now on China with more pragmatism, but it is especially the arrival of Deng Xiaoping which launches the phase of reforms. It legitimates the search of tangible properties as being a transitional stage before Communism, it opens China with the overseas investments, creates “special economic zones” and proposes the idea of “a country, two systems” (socialist and capitalist) like being able perfectly to coexist.

Popular republic of China at the time of the “socialism of market”

Starting from 1979, China takes the route of a moderated Communism, said Socialisme of market. China begins a phase of strong growth then. In 1984, the Chinese areas acquire davantages autonomy and can be free their investments. In 1989, the students of Beijing are agitated, and occupied the place of Tian' anmen in favor of democratic reforms. But the movement is repressed, of the tanks roll finally on the statue of the Démocratie which had been built. Since, the Chinese seem to be satisfied with an economic prosperity, in exchange of which they close the eyes on severity and the monopartism of the country. Since the Years 1990 and 2000, the economy of China knows a growth very fast, higher than 8-9 % per annum, because of the low and possibility cost of labor of exchange offered by technologies.

Both China

With the proclamation of the Popular republic of China to Beijing, on October 1st 1949, China was found with two governments, the Popular republic of China on the continent, and the République of China on the island of Taiwan. Each one is regarded as the legitimate Chinese government. Since the beginning of the Years 1990, pacified relations were established between the two parts, although they remain tended. Certain Taiwanese parties wish to declare the independence of the island, i.e. to pass from the situation of Chinese government “rebels” controlling only Taiwan, with that of government of independent Taiwan. This option was still retained by no Taiwanese government, because Beijing clearly stated that a declaration of independence would be for him a reason for an armed intervention.

In May 2005, the KMT, opposition party, sign of the agreements with the PCC, recognizing the sovereignty of this last on China, and granting to the Taiwanese parties the capacity on the province of Taiwan. This agreement has value only symbolic system in measurement or Guomindang, in the opposition to Taiwan, does not have any mandate to sign a treaty with the government of Beijing.

See too

Internal bonds

Chronology of China

External bonds

history and culture of China
China and its civilization
the Republic of China 1912-1914 per Jean-Pierre Duteil, professor at the university of Paris VIII
Popular republic of China of 1949 to our days, even author
a chronology of the history of China

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