China holds legitimate claim to being one of the oldest continuous civilizations. In fact, the Chinese take great pride in the belief that their civilization can be traced back to antiquity, and the Chinese commonly state that their history goes back 5,000 years. Written records dating back at least 3,500 years have been found. Chinese history is divided into periods known as “dynasties”, with each dynasty named after the family who came to rule the country. Each dynasty was headed by an emperor who had the divine right to rule by heaven’s mandate. A dynasty ended when power was taken from the ruling family, in which case the victorious leader would become emperor.

To the ancient Chinese, China stood at the center of the world. The name they called their country was “Zhongguo” (Middle Kingdom) to reflect this. Indeed, it’s still named this today.

China has pursued a policy of isolationism for much of its history, and began to have direct contact with the West in the 17th and 18th centuries. This lead to the expansion of existing trade routes further west and into Europe. At that time, China wasn’t in need of Western goods, but Europe and America had great demand for Chinese goods such as tea, silk, and porcelain, resulting in an imbalance of trade. The West, through unfair treaties, carved out concessions for themselves on Chinese territory to gain access to the vast China market.

The 20th Century was a very tumultuous time for China. The dynastic system came to an end in 1911, when the Qing Dynasty Emperor was forced to abdicate. In 1912, a republic eventually formed with Dr. Sun Yat-sen as president. Still, warlords in China vied for ultimate power. The Japanese invaded in 1919. By WWII, three groups, the Nationalists, the Japanese and the Communists were all warring. China was in the midst of chaos. By the end of WWII, civil war broke out between the Nationalists and the Communists. Following the defeat of the Nationalists, the Communists established the People’s Republic of China with Mao Zedong at their leader on October 1, 1949.

Below is a time line of important historical events in China’s history since the overthrow of the last ruling Dynasty:

1911-1912 Overthrow of the Qing dynasty and establishment of a nationalist government
1920s-1949 Warlords, civil war and anti-Japanese war
1949 The founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
1950s Land Reform, Strong Economic Development
1956-57 Great Leap Forward
1958 The Hundred Flowers Movement
1965-76 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
1976 Death of Mao, overthrow of the Gang of Four
1978 Deng's ascendancy, 1st economic reform
1979 Democracy wall
1980s Economic & political reforms
1989 Tian'anmen incident
1989-91 Post June 89
1992 Deng's trip to the south
1993 New Economic Policies, domestic and foreign investment
1997 Economic Tightening: SOEs downsizing / closing
1999 Falun Gong, Taiwan, US bombing of Chinese Embassy
2001 US spy plane incident, Beijing wins 2008 Olympics bid
2002 Entry into the WTO, 16th Party Congress
2003 New leadership takes office, SARS, North Korea
2004-05 Economic issues, unemployment, poverty
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