China Timeline722 BC - 220 AD

Chinese Geography Review•China is about the

size of the US.

•Like the US, it is geographically diverse, and it has many different climates.

Yellow Sea

Korean Peninsula

Pacific Ocean

India

Mountains

Desert

Indo-China Peninsula

Huang He River

Chang River

Mongolia

Fertile River Valleys

South China Sea

•China has arid climates in the north, temperate in east and central, subtropical in the southeast and mountain climates in the south west.

Spring and Autumn Period

722 BC – 403 BC•Spring Period: China was carved up into many small kingdoms. Each of these kingdoms had an aristocracy, an army, and peasants to work the land.

People did not think of themselves as being Chinese, they thought of themselves as being a part of their kingdom. Throughout China, people spoke and wrote in different languages, had different calendars and used different currency. The infrastructure was different place to place.

These kingdoms all got along for the most part, yet there were not many advancements because China was so divided.

Spring and Autumn Period

722 BC – 403 BC

China was divided up like a

Spring Period (the simple version)

Though divided, there was

Spring and Autumn Period722 BC – 403 BC

Spring and Autumn Period722 BC – 403 BC

• Autumn Period: Eventually the larger kingdoms wanted more power and they began absorbing the smaller kingdoms either peacefully, or violently.

This would of course lead the larger kingdoms to fight over some of the smaller kingdoms and this would of course be the main cause of the Warring States Period.

Spring and Autumn Period722 BC – 403 BC

Autumn Period (the simple version)

The many kingdoms of China began to try to control more land.

The biggest kingdoms began to take over the little ones….

Spring and Autumn Period722 BC – 403 BC

The Warring States Period

403 BC - 221 BCAt the end of the Autumn period there were 7 major kingdoms in China. These 7 then began to fight each other for total control of China. These wars lasted nearly 200 years. Millions and millions of people were killed.

Military battles became much more deadly. Whereas before the Warring States Period, only the aristocracy and trained soldiers fought on chariots with weapons of bronze, NOW they fought with armies of hundreds of thousands with new easy to make iron weapons.

Because there were 7 different kingdoms, it was nearly impossible for armies to conquer all of China. Also, if one kingdom became more powerful than the others, the other kingdoms would band together to defeat the more powerful kingdom, and then resume fighting each other.

The Warring States Period

403 BC - 221 BC (The simple version)

7 large kingdoms began to fight to control all of China…

Iron weapons and larger armies led to much death and destruction for nearly 200 years of war.

The Warring States Period

403 BC - 221 BCHundred Schools of Thought

Throughout the Warring States Period, people were in such despair that many began to change the way they thought and searched for new ways to live, new governments, new religions and a new way to look at life.

Even though this time period was one of the worst and most violent in world history, strangely it is also known as the “Golden Age of Chinese Philosophy”, or more commonly as the “Hundred Schools of Thought”.

The three most popular schools of thought were Taoism, Confucianism and Legalism.