Free The Three Major Wars In Chinese History Before 1600 Essay Example

History of China

What is today’s China has been shaped by a number of wars in its history that aligned it to the position it is today. Its position in Asia has also been defined by various conflicts and wars with other countries and most recently its participation in the World Wars. In this essay, we shall look at the wars that happened in China before 1600 AD and the effect they had in the position and the direction that the country took after thereafter. China is a communist country situated in East Asia. It is currently the most populous country with Chinese being the language spoken by most people in the world. Its capital city is Beijing. The history of China shows the presence of a number of dynasties with the first being the Xia dynasty. This dynasty emerged around 2100 BCE. This was succeeded by the Shang dynasty. Later, the Shang dynasty were conquered by the Zhou dynasty.
The Zhou dynasty ruled between 11th and 5th century BCE. However, the dynasty broke up and a number of states were formed. At around 221 BCE, one of the significant concepts in history is the conquering of other states by the State of Kin. The first unified Chinese state was incepted with Qin Shi Huang serving as the first emperor. However, after the death of the emperor that occurred fifteen years after the inception of the state, it collapsed since his way of ruling made many people to rebel against his rule. What followed was the Han dynasty. The Sui dynasty brought a short period of unity in the prehistoric China before it was conquered in the Goguryeo-Sui War. The effects and the shaping of China after the Goguryeo-Sui War will be discussed in the next section.

The Goguryeo-Sui War

Between AD 598 and AD 614, there were many uprisings in China against Goguryeo. These uprisings were planned or were executed by the Sui Dynasty. The Sui Dynasty had been a strong dynasty as has been explained in the earlier section trying to unify the people in China. However, in this war, they were defeated and this was one of the major reasons that led to the collapse of the Sui dynasty. In Ad 618, the Sui dynasty were defeated and the Tang dynasty took control of the region that is today’s China. There are various factors that led to the uprising and the consequential fall of the Sui dynasty at the war of Goguryeo-Sui. First, Sui dynasty tried to unite China a few years earlier. In 589 AD, they defeated the Chen dynasty and took control of the region. Goguryeo was one of the strong Kingdom’s of Korea.
There had been looming conflicts with the Sui which after its defeat of the Chen dynasty and asserting itself as the new leaders in the region intensified the conflict. The leader of the Goguryeo wanted to maintain a healthy relationship with the Sui dynasty to avoid the elapsing of a war that would likely alter the healthy co-existing of the two dynasties and the others in the region. However, since the Goguryeo were proposing or demanding for equal relationship with the Sui who termed themselves as superior, Wendi, the leader of the Sui felt that he was not inclined to submit or lower his dynasty to such threats or calls for equal relationship. The Goguryeo dynasty often attacked and raided some parts of the Sui dynasty. This really angered the Sui leader and he started contemplating a fight with them. It was alleged the Goguryeo was soliciting for military support from the Turks. The Sui demanded that Goguryeo should abandon any move to form a military alliance with the Turks as well as stopping its raids on the regions that were in Sui. However, exactly and year after this ultimatum was declared, he attacked the Sui in the Hebei Province. The first war was in 598 where Wendi’s son Liang, and Zhou tried to conquer Goguryeo. However this was not achieved. It was a rainy season therefore the transport of war materials was greatly hindered. They withdrew their army and retracted so that they could plan and address the drawbacks that had been identified in this expedition. The second and third expeditions were better planned. However, Sui suffered a great loss with most of its service men being killed. The dynasty suffered in terms of resources. To complete the transition from Sui to tang, Yangdi was killed by Huaji. This was the birth of a new dynasty.

The Invasion of Korea

Between 1592 and 1598, the Japanese invaded Korea in a series of attacks that will be discussed in this section. The major invasions involved two separate operations. The invasions were done in a timeline of six years with the effects being serious. In 1592, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had the idea of conquering China as well as Korea. It is important to note that at that time Japan was already a force to reckon in the region and the existing conflict made the neighboring regions vulnerable. At that time, Korea was being ruled by the Joseon dynasty. China was being ruled by the Ming dynasty.
The attacks in the first operation effectively led to the acquiring of vast regions by Hideyoshi in Korea. However, the Ming dynasty got involved in the war supporting Korea against the Japanese. Hideyoshi realizing that he could lose withdrew his military from Korea and embarked on arranging for a new attack. Hideyoshi did not succeed in the subsequent attacks and he died in 1598. After his death, the Japanese withdrew their remaining soldiers from Korea. The effects of this war in East Asia was as follows. Korea lost part of its land to Japan. China which stepped in to help Korea incurred huge financial deficits due to the assistance it offered to Korea. The Ming dynasty later collapsed with the heavy burden that it had to carry during the Japanese invasion on Korea being a leading reason.

The Ming-Ho War

The history of the Ming Empire is well documented in history books. One of the war’s that shaped the Ming Empire is the war against the Ho Empire (The British Museum). During this war, the Chinese invaded the Ho Empire. This invasion was done on Dai Ngu. Dai Ngu is what today stands as Vietnam. At the end of the war, Dai Ngu was incorporated into China after it lost the battle (Macrohistory and World Timeline). The Jiaozhi province was the result of the region that was acquired after the battle. Ho Quy Ly the leader of the Ho dynasty was a violent leader who had used force earlier on to acquire the dynasty. The Ming Court being the Supreme Court at the time had to intervene. Ho realizing that he would lose attacked a Ming convoy eliciting the fight that led to the end of his dynasty years later. The Ming-Ho war started in AD 1406 and ended a year later. After the war, the Ming Court charged the attackers with treason. The Ming Empire continued being strong but later after its part in the Japanese invasion of Korea it started declining and later was subdued. Though there were other dynasties in China, the Ming Dynasty is considered one of the most successful. The rise of the United States in the current world has been compared with the rise and fall of the Ming dynasty especially due to its involvement in wars just like the Ming dynasty.

Conclusion

Before AD 1600, evidence has shown that China was ruled by various dynasties. Wars were normal with each dynasty trying to subdue the other. The neighboring countries which included Japan, Vietnam and Korea were part of the constant conflicts with countries such as Vietnam once being part of China after it was acquired during the Ming-Ho War. The reasons behind the fall of the dynasties which always came after a war were varying. For instance, the fall of the Ming Empire as discussed in the essay was after the economic burden it had to bear during the Japanese invasion on Korea. Ming was the greatest empire in Asia at the time (MET Museum; Smith, n.d.). Since it decided to support Korea, it had to cater for the finances used in the military expedition leaving it totally vulnerable to any attack in the future. Since it did not recover immediately it was subdued and it had to obey.
Therefore, as was the aim of this work, the wars that occurred in China or that involved China before AD 1600 helped greatly to shape the country it is today. Some of the boundaries formed today were the same that defined the dynasties at that time. A good example is Vietnam which was a province during the Ming dynasty having been acquired through guerilla warfare. After the collapse of the major dynasties and after most of the regions sought independence, China was still left to be the largest country in the World both by land mass and population. Currently, it has a population of more than one million citizens which also forms the language spoken by most people in the world.

Bibliography

Macrohistory and World Timeline. China from Ming to King. Available at.
<http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h24china.html>
MET Museum. Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Available at.
<http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ming/hd_ming.htm>
The British Museum. China: Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644). Available at. <http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/c/china_ming_dynasty_ad_1368-1.aspx>
Smith, N. What the Collapse of the Ming Dynasty can tell us about American Decline. The Week. Available at.
<http://theweek.com/articles/450002/what-collapse-ming-dynasty-tell-about-american-decline>