In the 2nd millennium B.C. a second culture began to emerge in the Huanghe valley, overrunning the Shang, and the existence of the [Shou dynasty]?, instituted in the 11th century B.C., is the first for which there is a reliable historical tradition. It was based on a feudal system in which local dukes had a lot of independence, and that proved to be its ruin. Beginning with the [Spring and Autumn Period]?, the local potentates began to act more and more like kings in their own right. Finally, they even went to war with each other and the ensuing political turmoil is known as the [Period of the Warring States]?. Though there still was a Shou emperor until 256 B.C., he held no power whatsoever. This time of political decline, however, became the hotbed of classical Chinese culture: The Chinese characters, first used for divination purposes in the 3rd millennium B.C., were refined and categorized for the first time, philosophers founded schools etc.
It was the first dynasty to embrace Confucianism, which became the ideological underpinning of all dynasties until the end of the Qing dynasty. Under the Han dynasty, historiography and arts flourished, inventions made life easier and emperors like Wu Di consolidated and extended the Chinese empire by pushing back the Xiongnu (sometimes identified with the Huns) and subjugating areas in the west. The Silk Road was established and for the first time there were trading connections between China and the occident.
But in the 1st century B.C., the Han rulers' power declined and in A.D. 9 the usurper Wang Mang founded the short-lived [Xin Dynasty]?. In A.D. 25, however, the Han dynasty was restored and lasted until the 3rd century A.D.. Then, there was again a period of turmoil, in which three states tried to gain predominance (the [Period of the Three States]?), followed by a bunch of local dynasties (like the [Jin dynasty]? and the Southern? and [Northern Dynasties]?), until the [Sui Dynasty]? managed to reunite the country.
In 618? A.D., the [Tang Dynasty]? was established and a new age of flourishing began. Buddhism, which had slowly seeped into China in the first centuries A.D., spread over all of China and was finally adopted even by the royal family. Chang'an (modern Xi'an), the then capital, was supposedly the world's biggest city. Finally, however, the Tang dynasty declined as well and another time of political chaos followed, the [Period of the Five Dynasties]?.
In 960? A.D., the [Song Dynasty]? gained power over most of China and a time of cultural, especially scientific, blossom ensued. In the 12th century, the Song lost power over Northern China, which was first devastated by the Mongol hordes and later integrated into their giant empire. After the Mongols had defeated the Southern Song in a long and bloody war, which was the first war ever in which firearms played an important role, a period of peace began for nearly all of Asia. This so-called [Pax Mongolica]? made it possible for adventurous Westerners, like Marco Polo, to travel the Silk Road all the way to China and to bring the first reports of its wonders to their unbelieving compatriots. In China, the Mongolian emperors after [Kubilai Khan]? were counted as the [Yuan Dynasty]?, the first dynasty to make Beijing its capital. When the Mongolian Empire broke asunder, the Yuan emperors soon became assimilated.
Among the common people, however, there were strong feelings against the rule of "the foreigners", which finally led to a peasant revolt that overthrew the Yuan dynasty and established the [Ming Dynasty]?. This dynasty started out as a time of renewed cultural blossom: Arts, especially the porcelain industry, reached an unprecedent height, Chinese merchants explored all of the Indic ocean and even reached and circumnavigated South Africa. But soon afterwards, renovation turned into stagnation. Science and philosophy were caught in a tight net of traditions smothering any attempt to venture something new, the explorations came to a sudden end and China began to seclude itself from the rest of the world. This was no longer possible, however, since in the 16th century Europeans started to appear on the eastern shores and founded Macao, the first European colony in China.
In 1644, a peasant revolt brought an end to the Ming dynasty, but a Manchu general seized the opportunity and made himself the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Like the Ming dynasty, the Qing period began promisingly enough: Military power rose to an all-time high, vast regions in central Asia were subdued and the Chinese Empire reached its greatest extent. Culturally, however, the stagnation continued. The Qian Long emperor commanded the compilation of a catalogue of all important works of Chinese philosophy and literature, under emperor [Kang Xi]?, the most complete dictionary of Chinese characters ever was put together, but all these were mere works of conservation. No cultural renovation was ventured.
This decline finally took hold of other sectors as well, causing abundant bureaucracy and military weakness, and when the Europeans began to try and colonize China in earnest in the 19th century, they found little resistance. The Chinese army was defeated in the [Opium Wars]? and the emperor had to arrange himself with the Europeans. In the following decades, great parts of China were ceded to them and the emperor became ever more powerless. This roused anger in the population, resulting in riots and finally a revolution against the foreigners, the [Taiping Insurrection]?. Since the emperor didn't support these movements but instead let the European armies quench them, the people turned against him and his corrupt court, and in 1911, the [Guomindang Party]? under Dr. [Sun Yatsen]? forced the last Qing emperor to abdicate the throne.
With the proclamation of the People's Republic of China on October, 1st, 1949, China was divided again, into the PRC and the ROC, with two governments that each regarded themselves as the one true Chinese government and denounced the other one as a regime of traitors, and this situation has changed little till today.
For their respective histories after 1949, see the entries on the history of the PRC and the history of Taiwan.
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