Historic Background Of China: An Overview

When it comes to history, China has a long and eventful one. Prehistoric remains indicate that China was already pretty well inhabited by the time of the Stone Age. The first more or less documented Chinese dynasty was that of the Zhou, the third of the fabled Three Dynasties who ruled China around 2000 years ago. As centuries passed, dynasties came and went.  But China reached its peak only in the time of the Tang dynasty, in the 7th Century, when foreign trade enriched China considerably; Buddhism came to the land, the empire expanded and arts and crafts developed. The Tang dynasty eventually ended in military squabbles and political turmoil. China remained largely insignificant until the era of the Song dynasty (1126 onwards), during whose reign gunpowder, the magnetic compass and moveable type printing were developed, as were the arts. 

The Song dynasty was wiped out by Genghis Khan, whose grandson, Kublai Khan, founded the Yuan dynasty in 1278.  It was during this period   that the foundations of Beijing’s Forbidden City were laid, and Marco Polo visited China. The next important empire was that of the Ming dynasty, in whose era the Great Wall was built and exquisite porcelain was developed.
China was already a big name in maritime trade, and trade with Portugal finally led to the Portuguese occupation of Macao. By mid 17th century, the Ming dynasty was replaced by the invading Manchus, who set up house as the Qing dynasty, and brought to China probably the most powerful and wealthy period it has ever seen. However, colonial powers had started eyeing China; the British began smuggling in opium leading to the Opium Wars. Political turmoil hit China by the late 1800s, with rebellion, dissension (most notably, the Boxer Rebellion), colonial occupation and general blood-letting. The Chinese Empire, already on its last legs, fizzled out in 1911, and was replaced by Dr Sun Yat Sen’s republic. The new republic’s hopes for a stable state died a swift death- World War I and the Japanese occupation dashed all chances of peace and prosperity. By 1921, however, Mao Tse-tung had began to organise the peasants into a workers’ army, under the aegis of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that later came to be known as the Red Army. The Red Army eventually triumphed against the `imperialist’ forces of Chiang Kai-shek and the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed in October 1949. 

China has faced major troubles since then: population explosion, the Korean War, the trouble in Tibet, and rebellion against the communists. The intervening years were marked by an underlying tension between the forces in power and the people; the Cultural Revolution saw some gruesome purges in an effort to rid China of all that was old and `outdated’. 1978 and Deng Xiao-ping brought in a new economic policy, which helped the country open up in economic terms. The economic liberalisation did not extend to other areas - the government still  ruthlessly suppresses dissent, the 1989 Tian’anmen Square massacre is one such instance. Fortunately, Hong Kong’s return to the fold has not affected life on the island; the administration has surprisingly not suppressed public opinion in Hong Kong as vigorously as it does elsewhere.