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Visual History of the World
(CONTENTS)
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The Ancient World
ca. 2500 B.C. - 900 A.D.
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The epics of Homer, the wars
of Caesar, and temples and palaces characterize the image of classic
antiquity and the cultures of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.
They are the sources from which the Western world draws the
foundations of its philosophy, literature, and, not least of all,
its state organization. The Greek city-states, above all Athens,
were the birthplace of democracy. The regions surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea and great parts of Northwest Europe were forged
together into the Roman Empire, which survived until the time of the
Great Migration of Peoples. Mighty empires also existed beyond the
ancient Mediterranean world, however, such as those of the Mauryas
in India and the Han in China.
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Alexander the Great
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China's First Emperors of the
Qin
and Han Dynasties
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221 B.C.-220 A.D.
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In the "Period of the Warring States," China was split into seven
individual states that were eventually conquered by the Qin Empire. The
"first sovereign emperor" of China, Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, brought
about the political and cultural unification of the country. The
succeeding Han dynasty built upon this unification, expanded the area of
Chinese rule, and successfully defended itself against the nomadic
tribes in the north. In addition, Confucianism became the state ideology
during the Han period. Under these first two imperial dynasties,
developments that would characterize the history of China for more than
2,000 years were initiated.
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The Qin Dynasty 221-206 â.ñ.
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China's first emperor created a unified state within a few years and
began outwardly fortifying his empire. He ruled the land with an iron
fist and in accordance with the state philosophy of Legalism.
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3 Qin Shi Huangdi, former Zheng,
king of Qin, wood carving, ca. 1640
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The unification of China into a state in the third century
B.C. was accomplished by the western state of Qin, which gave
the country its name. Its frontier position opposite Tibet and
the territories of the mounted nomads required it to have a
powerful army and a tight administration. Its newly-conquered
territories were not given over to nobles as fiefs but were
directly administrated by the ruler, which impeded the
development of an aristocratic opposition.
From this power base, King 3
Zheng of Qin was able to conquer the other seven Chinese feudal
states by 221 â.ñ.
This ended the "Period of the Warring States" and a unified
state with a divine emperor (Shi Huang Di: first august emperor)
at its head was created.
The emperor then extended Qin's centralized administrative
system overall of China. Disregarding old boundaries, the empire
was reapportioned into provinces and districts that were run by
imperial administrators. The government was based on the
philosophy of the Legalists, who declared that the central laws
should supersede all
else and instituted the regulation of all areas of life by
strict laws and taxes. Within a few years, language,
measurements, weights, and coinage had been standardized in the
empire. Even the gauge and length of wagons were standardized to
accommodate uniform road networks.
The people were forced to extend the walls
against mounted nomads, which is the first section of the
5 Great Wall.
5 The Great Wall of China in the hills near Beijing
After his death in 210 B.C., China's
first emperor was laid to rest in an
enormous burial monument with
thousands of individually crafted 1,
2 terra-cotta figures.
Its 4 discovery in 1974 was an archaeological sensation.
The Qin
dynasty ended shortly thereafter in 206 B.C. with an uprising of the
people that brought the Hans to power.
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1 Armor protection,
shown in a third
century B.C.
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2 The grave of Qin Shi Huangdi,
with 6,000 life-size men and horses,
third
century â.ñ
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4 Archaeologists at the
excavation of Qin dynasty,
clay figures
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The Great Wall of China
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The Great Wall of China
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The Great Wall of China
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The Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huangdi
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The grave of Qin Shi Huangdi
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The grave of Qin Shi Huangdi
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The grave of Qin Shi Huangdi
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The grave of Qin Shi Huangdi
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The Han Dynasty 206 â.ñ-220 a.d.
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In the power struggle at the end of the Qin era, a peasant rebel leader,
Liu Bang, triumphed and took the emperor's throne in 206 B.C. as Emperor
Gaozu.
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The most important task of the first Han emperor, Kao Ti (206 B.C.),
was defending against the 6 mounted nomads, above all the Xiongnu.
6 Horses and riders, terra-cotta figures,
second-first century B.C.
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Bronze horse with lead saddle, Han Dynasty
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Emperor 9 Han Wu Ti, the most illustrious of the Han emperors, took the
offensive, and his search for allies led the Chinese to their first
contact with the West.
9 Burial mound of emperor Han Wu Ti first century B.C.
The Xiongnu were finally defeated and forced
westward, displacing Eurasian steppe peoples and ultimately triggering
the Great Migration of Peoples in Europe of the fourth and
fifth centuries.
China conquered eastern Turkistan to the borders of
today's Afghanistan, where a trade link to the west— the
10 Silk
Road—developed.
10 A Buddhist shrine on the Silk Road in western China
Domestically, Han Wu Ti carried out several reforms that were to have a long-lasting effect. He
tried to repair the educational vandalism of Shi-Hwang-ti. He divided
the central administration into departmental ministries for the first
time.
The system of training of 12 officials through schooling and
examinations was perfected and remained in effect until the 20th
century.
12 Court official, clay,
2nd ñ. â.ñ.
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Sculptures of maids and servants,
2nd century BC
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The basis
of this training was a synthesis of Legalism, Confucianism, which
stressed the relationship between father and 11 son, and the yin-yang
nature philosophy.
11 Depiction of model sons, varnish painting on a woven basket,
Han
period
The veneration of Confucius in a state cult began
under the Hans. In 174 â.c., Emperor Han Wu Ti made a sacrifice on the
philosopher's grave in 8 Chu Fu, which survives to this day.
8 Statue of Confucius in his commemoration
temple in Chu Fu
The Han
period was one of the greatest epochs of Chinese prosperity. Han Wu Di's
successor increasingly came under the influence of the tamilvoi the empress. In 9 a.d., the Hans were even temporarily deposed by the nephew
of an empress until in 25 a.d. a distant relative of the Hans, Liu Hsiu,
restored the dynasty as Emperor Guang Wu Di. He moved his capital from
Xi'an to Luoyang in the east, and his dynasty is therefore called the
"Eastern Han" in contrast to the former "Western Han." The empire was
stabilized—and even grew— into the first century. However the empress
clan began to regain its influence, while palace intrigues were
aggravated by the intervention of the eunuchs.
The 7 generals formed a
third power factor so that the epoch became known as that of the Three
Kingdoms.
7 Generals in their armor, clay figures,
Han period
In 184, the religiously motivated revolt of the Yellow Turbans
erupted. The generals involved in crushing the revolt gained a level of
autonomy, but then grew in their ambitions and ended up fighting each
other in a civil war. In 220, the last Han emperor was forced to
abdicate. From that time until the end of the sixth century, China
remained divided into many competing kingdoms.
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The Invention of Paper
One of the most important developments of mankind—the invention of
paper—was made in China during the Han period.
Plant fibers were worked
into a mash through soaking in water, boiling, and pulping. The mash was
spread into flat forms, and it settled as a thin, cohesive layer.
In the
13th century, paper came to Europe by way of Arabia.
Paper manufacture in China, ink drawing, 18th century
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