Empress Xiaozhuang In 1644 AD, the Jurchen or Manchu people of Central Asia invaded China and got rid of the Ming Dynasty. The Manchu leaders took over ruling China. They called [...]
Opium Wars: Men smoking opium in China (late 1800s) Walpole and the Opium Wars In the late 1700s AD, the British prime minister Robert Walpole wanted to try to get [...]
Brush rest showing five great mountains of Taoism, but with Arabic writing (Ming Dynasty) The Ming Dynasty in the 1500s AD In 1505 AD, the Ming Dynasty emperor Zhengde succeeded his [...]
Ming Dynasty porcelain pitcher (before Manchu China) What was the Ming Dynasty? Early modern Chinese history starts with the Ming Dynasty, about 1500 AD. The Ming Dynasty was very powerful, [...]
Empress Cixi (the Empress Dowager) Cixi takes power as regent When the Xianfeng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in China died in 1861 AD, his only son was only five [...]
The first lifeguards were in China The Qing Dynasty rulers of China came from Central Asia; they weren't swimmers. Under their rule, very few people in northern China could swim. In 1708, [...]
Uighur princesses (Bezelik Cave) Who were the Uighurs? When the Turkic Gokturk Empire in Central Asia collapsed in 742 AD, the Uighurs got their independence. Who were the Gokturks? More [...]
Medieval Tibet: Changzhug Monastery, Tibet (600s AD) Where is Tibet? Tibet lies between India and China, just north of the Himalaya Mountains. People have been living in Tibet since about [...]
Sogdian traders in China about 550 AD (Musee Guimet) Sogdians and the Silk Road Even after the fall of the Han Dynasty, the Sogdians still controlled Silk Road trade between West [...]
Gold coin from Sogdiana in the Hellenistic period The Sogdians meet Alexander Then in 328 or 327 BC the Macedonian conqueror Alexander conquered the Sogdians. Earlier Sogdian history Alexander the Great [...]
