China has a 5000 year history that makes the rest of the world look young. It was humbling to me to realize how little I knew of this rich history. Even a brief overview of this history is helpful in understanding China today.
For much of its history, China developed independently of the West. Writing, for example, developed independently in China and the West. Several major inventions were developed in China before the West, including: paper, printing, gunpowder, the compass and paper money.
Western civilization even today bears the influence of the Roman Empire (44 BC-476 AD). In China the Han Dynasty was roughly contemporaneous (206 BC-220 AD). By many measures of wealth and power, the Han Dynasty equaled or exceeded the Roman Empire, yet few in the West are familiar with it.
For over 1,500 years after the end of the Han Dynasty, China enjoyed several long periods of progress and prosperity, interspersed by short periods of instability. In contrast, there was little progress in the West for nearly 1,000 years after the fall of the Roman Empire. China was arguably the richest and most powerful country in the world for much of this time. There was little contact between China and the West during this period. The travels of Marco Polo to China in 1271-1295 was the most significant contact.
The West began to catch up to China with the Age of Exploration in the 1400s and 1500s. Western explorers sailed from Europe to Africa, south Asia, east Asia, and the Americas. Independently of the West, China also launched great sea voyages of exploration in the 1400s. But after seven successful voyages, reaching as far as east Africa, this initiative was halted. China reverted to an internal focus, while the West increasingly turned its focus outward.
The West overtook China with the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and early 1800s. Britain became the world's greatest industrial and sea power. Frictions developed over trade, eventually leading to war. Over a period of about 60 years, China suffered a series of defeats at the hands of various foreign powers: Britain (the Opium Wars, 1842 and 1860), France (1884), and Japan (1895). In the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, China was defeated by the Eight-Nation Alliance (Japan, Russia, Britain, France, U.S., Germany, Italy, Austria).
The last imperial dynasty collapsed in 1911. The Nationalist Party was established the next year and ruled weakly. The Communist Party of China was formed in 1921, inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. At times the Nationalists and the Communists worked together, and at times they fought each other. Following an uneasy collaboration in World War II (when Japan brutally occupied part of China), open civil war broke out. In 1949 the Nationalists withdrew to Taiwan, and the Communists proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China on the mainland.
Mao Zedong led the Communist Party of China for over 40 years, from 1934 until his death in 1976. People in China today mostly regard Mao as a great leader, albeit with minor flaws, who unified the country and set China on the path to again become a world power. Certainly Mao instituted major changes in Chinese society, including socialism, land reform and marriage reform. But many would argue that the Great Leap Forward (1958) and the Cultural Revolution (1966) were major disasters for China, the first causing millions of peacetime deaths and the second leading China to the brink of civil war.
The next post discusses developments in China after Mao.
