The mighty Han Dynasty was built on the solid foundations of the Qin dynasty. After the demise of the Qin emperor, Shi Huangdi, a peasant warrior named Liu Bang united the warring kingdoms and formed the new Han kingdom. It was the fastest dynastic change in Chinese history. This was mostly due to the fact that Shi Huangdi left an excellent governmental infrastructure such as the coinage system, roads, canals, laws etc. The change happened so rapid and seamlessly was also because of Liu Bang. He was a people person. He gathered the support of the people who were angry at the Qin rule. He broke up the fiefs, restricted inheritance of land to keep local families from growing in power. Therefore, with the political skill and the Qin infrastructure,
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Its fall had various causes which were both internal and external such as invasions, warfare, revolts, corruption, environmental disasters and cultural changes. They dynasty also had a lasting impact on China even after its fall such as cultural diffusion to surrounding regions, inventions, laws and folk customs.
As the kingdom became richer, the emperors became wasteful and extravagant. They spent a lot of the tax money on women, art, and alcohol. They did not use this money to better the infrastructure for example build new roads, canals, schools, hospitals etc. Emperors used to have many wives. In addition to that, they started having concubines, who were basically homestay prostitutes with no marital status to the king. This led to a conflicts between the wives and the concubines wrestling for political power, usually for making their respective sons the next emperor. Many times they would kill the other woman’s son or the woman in order to move up the …show more content…
The fear of these people weakened the trust of the people in their emperor. The people believed the emperor had lost The Mandate of Heaven.
Towards the turn of the 1st century CE, Han emperors died young only to be replaced by someone young or no heir apparent. This meant a cousin or a relative had to become emperor. Cunning schemes by Eunuchs led to them taking power through political battles. During this period in time, various natural calamities took place such as floods, tremors, and grasshopper plagues. These natural phenomenon were seen as a sign that the “Mandate of Heaven” was lost. This led to feudal fragmentation of the kingdom. Local Scholar-Gentry became warlords.
One such warlord named Dong Zhou took control of the capital and killed all the eunuchs. He placed a child from the Han family named Liu Xie on the throne but controlled the kingdom from behind. Liu was finally abdicated in 220 CE which marked the end of the Han Dynasty. China then fell back into the warring kingdoms era for the next 350 years till it was
Its fall had various causes which were both internal and external such as invasions, warfare, revolts, corruption, environmental disasters and cultural changes. They dynasty also had a lasting impact on China even after its fall such as cultural diffusion to surrounding regions, inventions, laws and folk customs.
As the kingdom became richer, the emperors became wasteful and extravagant. They spent a lot of the tax money on women, art, and alcohol. They did not use this money to better the infrastructure for example build new roads, canals, schools, hospitals etc. Emperors used to have many wives. In addition to that, they started having concubines, who were basically homestay prostitutes with no marital status to the king. This led to a conflicts between the wives and the concubines wrestling for political power, usually for making their respective sons the next emperor. Many times they would kill the other woman’s son or the woman in order to move up the …show more content…
The fear of these people weakened the trust of the people in their emperor. The people believed the emperor had lost The Mandate of Heaven.
Towards the turn of the 1st century CE, Han emperors died young only to be replaced by someone young or no heir apparent. This meant a cousin or a relative had to become emperor. Cunning schemes by Eunuchs led to them taking power through political battles. During this period in time, various natural calamities took place such as floods, tremors, and grasshopper plagues. These natural phenomenon were seen as a sign that the “Mandate of Heaven” was lost. This led to feudal fragmentation of the kingdom. Local Scholar-Gentry became warlords.
One such warlord named Dong Zhou took control of the capital and killed all the eunuchs. He placed a child from the Han family named Liu Xie on the throne but controlled the kingdom from behind. Liu was finally abdicated in 220 CE which marked the end of the Han Dynasty. China then fell back into the warring kingdoms era for the next 350 years till it was