China Timeline
China is a large country in eastern Asia. It is the third largest country in the world and the has the biggest country population. Approximately a fifth of the world's population lives in China. The regions of the country range from some of the world's driest deserts and highest mountains to some of the richest farmlands. Because so much of the world's population lives in China it plays an important role in the history of the world.
10,000 BC Many stone age cultures developed. The Chinese civilization emerged from two of these cultures, Yangshao and Longshan.
3000 BC The Yangshao culture spread its habitation to the present day province of Gansu. The Longshan people eventually took over this development.
1766-1122 BC The Shang dynasty took place. The oldest written records were found inside bronze vessels and on turtle shells and animal bones.
1122-256 BC The Zhou people overthrew the Shang dynasty and set up the Zhou dynasty.
771 BC The Zhou dynasty was weakened through battles with invaders to China. The Zhou had to move their capital.
500 BC Confucius introduced new moral standards.
221 BC The Qin empire was established. Shi Huangdi became the first emperor. He taxed the people heavily to support his military campaigns.
210 BC Shi Huangdi died. Civil war broke out throughout the country.
202 BC The Han dynasty began its rule.
100 BC Sima Qian wrote the first history of China.
8 AD Wang Mang seized control of the government and set up the Xin dynasty.
25 AD The Han dynasty regained control of China. During the Han dynasty Buddhism was introduced to China. They also emphasized art, education, and science.
220 AD The Han dynasty fell. Three separate kingdoms emerged.
222-589 AD Some nomadic groups invaded China, and six different regimes set up their dynasties during this time. This time period is known as the "Six Dynasties."
581-618 The Sui dynasty took control and reunified China.
605 The Grand Canal linked northen China with the Yangtze Valley.
618 The Tang dynasty replaced the Sui. This was an age of great prosperity and cultural advancement.
755 An Lushan led a rebellion which led to the gradual decline of the Tang dynasty.
800s A revivalism of Confucianism began.
875-884 Another rebellion continued to weaken the Tang empire.
907 The Tang dynasty fell.
907-960 "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms" all struggled to gain control of China.
960 The Song dynasty reunified China.
1127 The Song dynasty lost northern China to invaders from Manchuria.
1200s Kublai Khan led Mongol warriors into China.
1279 The Yuan dynasty took control of China. The leaders of this dynasty were Mongol.
1275-1292 Marco Polo traveled through China. He took glowing accounts of the country back with him to Europe.
Mid 1300s The Chinese rebelled against the Mongol leadership and drove them out of the country.
1368 The Ming dynasty began its rule. They had a low opinion of all things foreign.
1500s European traders began coming to China. They were treated as inferiors.
1600s Roman Catholic missionaries went to China. They had little success.
1644 The Manchurians invaded China and set up the Qing dynasty. They were not as harsh as the Mongols, and they adopted many Chinese cultural elements.
1681-1796 The Qing dynasty enjoyed stability and prosperity.
1683 China gained control of Taiwan.
1796 Anti-Manchu secret societies led a rebellion against the Qing dynasty. It lasted until 1804.
1800s Europeans began smuggling opium into China.
March 1839 The Opium War broke out. The United Kingdom won the war.
1842 The Treaty of Nanjing officially ended the Opium War. The treaty gave Hong Kong to the United Kingdom and it opened five Chinese ports to the British.
1858-1860 China lost another war with the United Kingdom and France.
1850-1864 The Taiping Rebellion took place. The Taiping's were a religious group that challenged the beliefs of Confucianism and the Qing dynasty. The Taiping were defeated after fourteen years.
1894-1895 China fought with Japan over Korea. China lost and had to give Taiwan to Japan
30 June 1894 Korea declared independence from China and asked for Japanese aid.
1899 The United States persuaded other Western Powers to approve the Open-Door Policy. It allowed all the nations to have equal access to China.
1890s Many unhappy Chinese began forming secret societies. They opposed Western and Christian influences in China. One of the groups was called the Boxers.
1900 The Boxer Rebellion took place. The rebellion was squashed by eight different countries.
1905 Many revolutionary groups organized the United League. Sun Yat-sen became their leader.
1905-1911 The United league had many unsuccessful attacks against the Qing dynasty.
10 October 1911 A revolt occurred in Wuchang. By the end of the year independence was declared from the Manchu's.
14 October 1911 Revolution in China began with a bomb explosion and the discovery of revolutionary headquarters in Hankow. The revolutionary movement spread rapidly through west and southern China, forcing the abdication of the last Ch'ing emperor, six-year-old Henry Pu-Yi.
December 1911 The Republic of China was established. Sun Yat-sen was named a temporary president.
12 February 1912 Pu Yi, Manchu emperor, gave up the throne of China.
10 March 1912 Yuan Shikai became the president of China.
1912 The Nationalist Party was formed.
1913 The Nationalist Party staged a revolt against Yuan. The revolt failed and the Nationalist leaders fled to Japan. Yuan became a dictator and took steps to establish himself as emperor.
1916 Yuan died. Presidents continue to hold office in Beijing. The real power, however, belonged to the war lords in northern China.
1917 Sun Yat-sen set up a rival government in Guamgzhou.
16 December 1920 In China an 8.6 earthquake killed some 100,000 people in the northwestern province of Gansu.
1922 The republic failed. Civil war was rampant throughout the country.
4 May 1919 Students demonstrated in Beijing.
1919 Sun began to reorganize the Nationalist Party
1923 The Soviet Union sent advisors to China to help the Nationalists.
1925 Sun Yat-sen died. Chiang Kai-shek became the new leader of the nationalists.
1926 The Nationalists won some victories against the northern war lords.
1927 Chiang turned against the communists and destroyed the communist-backed labor unions in Shanghai.
12 December 1927 Communists forces seized Canton, China.
1928 The nationalists captured Beijing. They united China.
1931 The communists established fifteen rural bases and set up a rival government.
1931 The Japanese occupied Manchuria.
1934 Chiang forced the communists to evacuate their bases. The "Long March" began.
1935 Mao Zedong became the leader of the Chinese Communist party.
1936 Chiang was kidnaped by Manchurian forces.
13 December 1937 Japan attacked China.
25 October 1938 Japan controlled most of eastern China.
8 December 1941 China joined the Allies in World War II.
August 1945 War ended with Japan. The Communists held an area in northern China.
1946 The United States sent General George C. Marshall to China. He was supposed to try and get the Nationalists and the Communists to come to a political settlement. Neither side would agree to the terms.
1946 Fighting broke out between the Nationalist and the Communists.
January 1949 Mao Zedong pushed the nationalists to southern China.
1 October 1949 Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China.
December 1949 Chiang and his followers fled to Taiwan.
26 November 1950 China entered the Korean conflict, launching a counter-offensive across the Yalu River against soldiers from the United Nations, the United States and South Korea. North Korean and Chinese troops halted the UN offensive.
3 December 1950 The Chinese closed in on Pyongyang, Korea and UN forces withdrew southward.
1949-1952 The Communists established firm control in China.
1953 China began its first Five-Year Plan. It was a plan of economic development.
1953-1957 Chinese industry grew at a rate of %15 per year.
1956 China criticized the Soviet government. The Soviets claimed to want a peaceful coexistence with the west. China believed that war with the West was inevitable.
1957 All important industries were under the government.
1958 China introduced its second Five-Year Plan. It was given the name, The Great Leap Forward.
1959-1961 China's economy was ruined by the Great Leap Forward. They suffered a depression.
1960 The Soviet Unions stopped giving technical assistance to China.
1962 The economy began to recover.
1962 The Soviets refused to help China with its border problems with India.
1963 China broke off relations with the Soviet Union, after the Soviets signed a nuclear test ban treaty with the United States and the United Kingdom.
1966 The Cultural Revolution began.
1966-1970 Universities were closed in China
1967 Mao had to call out the army to restore order, because there was so much civil unrest throughout the country.
1970 The Communists began to regain control of the country.
1971 Canada established diplomatic relations with China.
23 November 1971 The People's Republic of China was seated in the U.N. Security Council.
1972 President Richard Nixon traveled to China and met with Premier Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong. They signed the Shanghai Communique, which established relations between the two countries.
1976 Mao and Zhou Enlai died.
1977 Deng Xiaoping became the vice premier and vice chairman of the Communist Party.
23 October 1978 China and Japan exchanged treaty ratification documents in Tokyo, formally ending four decades of hostility.
1981 Zhao Ziyang became premier
1982 A new constitution was adopted.
19 September 1984 The United Kingdom and China signed an agreement that would return Hong Kong to China on July 1, 1997.
December 1986 Chinese students began demanding more freedom of speech and a greater choice, when selecting government officials.
January 1987 Zhao Ziyang became the acting general secretary of the Communist party.
April 1988 Li Peng became premier.
1989 China and the Soviet Union announced that they had improved relations.
March 1989 Protests broke out in Tibet.
18 May 1989 In China a million protestors filled Tiananmen Square.
2 June 1989 More than 100 students and other civilians were killed when Chinese soldiers opened fire on a non-violent protest in Tiananmen Square, in Peking.
1993 Jiang Zemin was made China's president.
1994 China began construction on the world's largest damn. It is scheduled to be completed in 2009.
3 February 1996 A 7.0 earthquake hit Lijiang region of Yunnan province in China. Some 231 people were killed and 14,000 injured.
10 November 1996 China announced a ban on selected US goods in response to a US cut in import quotas of textiles.
21 January 1997 In China 2 earthquakes struck within a minute in Xinjiang province and killed at least 12 people.
1 July 1997 Hong Kong became a part of China.
8 November 1997 Chinese engineers diverted the Yangtze River to make way for the Three Gorges Dam, the most ambitious construction project in modern China's history.
1998 Zhu Rongji became premier
18 August 1998 In China the Songhua River rose to 397 ½ feet and threatened the provincial capital of Harbin.
5 October 1998 China signed the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights bringing the number of signatories to 140.
11 November 1998 China and the UN planned to sign an agreement to turn the Lop Nur nuclear test site into a sanctuary for Bactrian camels. The barren area is about the size of Germany.
14 December 1998 In China the armed forces completed the hand over of their commercial holdings to civilian control.
1999 China regained control of Macao from Portugal.
8 May 1999 In China protestors attacked US diplomatic mission in demonstrations against the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Many of the demonstrations were organized by the government-controlled Beijing Students Assoc. NATO expressed regret for a mistaken attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, but pledged to pursue the bombing campaign.
5 July 1999 In China a landslide caused a cave dormitory at a cement factory to collapse in Dengfeng and 17 people were killed.
14 July 1999 China announced that it had developed the design technology to make neutron bombs 11 years ago and could make miniaturized nuclear weapons.
11 November 1999 In China a 5.6 earthquake shook Shanxi and Hebei provinces and some 20,000 people were left homeless.
13 July 2000 In China a mudslide following heavy rains killed at least 119 villagers in Ziyang county in Shaanxi province. The death toll was later raised to 213 with another 23 killed in the Liangshan area of Sichuan province.
2001 China became a member of the World Trade Organization.
Works Cited
Ratnikas, Algis. Today in History. Online. http://timelines.ws/TODAY.HTML.
Wakeman, Frederic. "China." Worldbookonline.com.