East Asia
Events · 37
- from c. 14,000 BCEHistory of Japan
The Jōmon Period: The First Japanese
The earliest inhabitants of the Japanese islands developed one of the world's oldest known pottery cultures, named Jōmon ('cord-marked') for the patterns pressed into their vessels. These hunter-gatherers and fishers lived in settled villages, made elaborate clay figurines, and sustained their way of life for more than ten thousand years.
Reputable source - c. 1250 BCEHistory of China
The Shang Oracle Bones
Under the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BCE), diviners inscribed questions to the gods and ancestors onto ox shoulder-blades and turtle shells, then applied heat until the bones cracked and read the answers in the fractures. The characters carved on these 'oracle bones' are the earliest known Chinese writing.
Reputable source - 1046 BCEHistory of China
The Zhou and the Mandate of Heaven
In 1046 BCE the Zhou overthrew the Shang at the Battle of Muye. To justify their conquest, the Zhou proclaimed the Mandate of Heaven: the idea that Heaven grants the right to rule to a just sovereign and withdraws it from a corrupt one, so a dynasty could rightfully be replaced if it lost virtue.
Reputable source - c. 500 BCEHistory of China
Confucius and the Hundred Schools of Thought
During the turmoil of the late Zhou, the philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE) taught that social harmony rested on personal virtue, ritual, and a ruler's moral responsibility to his people. His was one of the 'Hundred Schools of Thought' — alongside Daoism and Legalism — that debated how to order society in an age of warring states.
Reputable source - c. 300 BCE – 300 CEHistory of Japan
The Yayoi Period: Rice and Metal
Migrants and ideas from the Asian mainland brought wet-rice agriculture, bronze, and iron to Japan. Intensive rice farming supported larger populations and gave rise to organized communities, social hierarchy, and the first small kingdoms across the islands.
Reputable source - 221 BCEHistory of China
Qin Shi Huang Unifies China
In 221 BCE the king of Qin completed the conquest of the rival Warring States and declared himself Qin Shi Huang, 'First Emperor.' He standardized writing, coinage, and measurements, linked earlier defensive walls into an early Great Wall, and was buried with an army of over 7,000 life-size terracotta soldiers, discovered in 1974.
Reputable source - 130 BCEHistory of China
The Silk Road Opens
Around 130 BCE the Han emperor Wu, seeking allies against the nomadic Xiongnu, sent the envoy Zhang Qian west into Central Asia. His reports of distant lands opened the network of trade routes later called the Silk Road, along which Chinese silk travelled toward Rome and goods, religions, and ideas flowed back east.
Reputable source - 105 CEHistory of China
Cai Lun and the Invention of Paper
Around 105 CE Cai Lun, an official at the Han imperial workshops, presented a method for making paper from macerated tree bark, hemp, rags, and old fishing nets, pressed and dried into sheets. Cheap and light, it replaced bamboo strips and silk as a writing surface.
Reputable source - c. 250–538 CE (Kofun period)History of Japan
The Rise of the Yamato State
During the Kofun period — named for the giant keyhole-shaped burial mounds built for its rulers — the Yamato clan of central Japan extended its authority over rival chieftains. Its leaders claimed descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu, founding the imperial line that continues to this day.
Reputable source - 552–622 CEHistory of Japan
The Arrival of Buddhism and Prince Shōtoku
Buddhism reached Japan from the Korean kingdom of Baekje in the mid-6th century. As regent, Prince Shōtoku embraced the new faith, promoted Chinese-style government, and is credited with the Seventeen-Article Constitution, a set of moral principles for officials. Chinese writing, art, and statecraft flowed in alongside the religion.
Reputable source - 581–618 CEHistory of China
Reunification and the Grand Canal
The short-lived Sui dynasty (581–618) reunified China after nearly four centuries of division. Using vast conscript labour, it built the Grand Canal, joining the Yellow and Yangtze river systems so that grain and troops could move between the agricultural south and the northern capitals.
Reputable source - 618–907 CEHistory of China
The Tang Golden Age
Under the Tang dynasty (618–907), China became the wealthiest, most populous, and most cosmopolitan civilization on earth. Its capital Chang'an drew merchants and pilgrims from across Asia, Buddhism flourished, and the era is traditionally regarded as the greatest age of Chinese poetry.
Reputable source - 710–794 CEHistory of Japan
The Nara Period
Japan built its first grand permanent capital at Nara, modeled on the Tang Chinese city of Chang'an. Buddhism flourished under state sponsorship — crowned by the colossal bronze Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji — and the imperial court compiled Japan's first written histories, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki.
Reputable source - 794–1185 CEHistory of Japan
The Heian Court and The Tale of Genji
With the capital moved to Heian-kyō (Kyoto), the imperial court presided over a golden age of aristocratic culture. Refined poetry, calligraphy, and courtly romance flourished, and around the year 1008 the noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu wrote The Tale of Genji — often called the world's first novel.
Reputable source - 960–1279 CEHistory of China
The Song Dynasty: An Age of Invention
The Song dynasty (960–1279) presided over a burst of innovation and commerce. Bi Sheng devised movable-type printing, the magnetic compass was adapted for navigation, gunpowder was turned into weapons of war, and the government issued the world's first paper money.
Reputable source - 1185–1333History of Japan
The Kamakura Shogunate and the Rise of the Samurai
After the Genpei War, the victorious warrior Minamoto no Yoritomo established a military government — the shogunate — at Kamakura, ruling in the emperor's name. Real power passed from the court to the samurai, the warrior class whose code of loyalty and martial honor would dominate Japan for nearly 700 years.
Reputable source - 1271–1368 CEHistory of China
The Mongol Yuan Dynasty
Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, proclaimed the Yuan dynasty in 1271 and by 1279 had conquered the Southern Song, becoming the first non-Han ruler of all China. The Mongol peace reopened overland trade and travel, drawing visitors such as the Venetian Marco Polo.
Reputable source - 1274 & 1281History of Japan
The Mongol Invasions and the Kamikaze
The Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, having conquered China, twice launched vast invasion fleets against Japan. Both times the samurai defense held long enough for massive typhoons to shatter the Mongol ships. The Japanese called these storms kamikaze — 'divine winds' — believed to be sent by the gods to protect Japan.
Reputable source - 1405–1433History of China
Zheng He's Treasure Voyages
Between 1405 and 1433 the Ming admiral Zheng He led seven great voyages with fleets of hundreds of ships — the largest wooden vessels of their age — reaching Southeast Asia, India, the Persian Gulf, and the coast of East Africa. The expeditions carried trade goods and gifts to project Ming power and secure tribute.
Reputable source - 1406–1420History of China
The Forbidden City
Between 1406 and 1420 the Ming Yongle Emperor built the Forbidden City in Beijing, a vast walled palace complex of nearly a thousand buildings raised by hundreds of thousands of labourers and artisans. It became the ceremonial and political heart of the empire.
Reputable source - 1467–1568History of Japan
The Sengoku Period and the Arrival of the Europeans
The shogunate's collapse plunged Japan into the Sengoku Jidai, the 'age of warring states,' as rival warlords (daimyō) fought for supremacy across a century of near-constant war. In 1543 shipwrecked Portuguese traders introduced the matchlock firearm, which quickly transformed Japanese warfare and battlefield tactics.
Reputable source - 1568–1603History of Japan
The Unification of Japan
Three successive warlords reunited the fractured country. Oda Nobunaga, wielding firearms to devastating effect, broke the power of his rivals; his general Toyotomi Hideyoshi completed the conquest and even invaded Korea; and finally Tokugawa Ieyasu emerged victorious at the decisive Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.
Reputable source - 1603–1868 (Edo period)History of Japan
The Tokugawa Shogunate and the Closed Country
Tokugawa Ieyasu founded a shogunate at Edo (Tokyo) that would rule Japan for over 250 years of internal peace. To preserve stability and block European influence, the government expelled missionaries, banned Christianity, and closed the country (sakoku) from the 1630s — cutting off nearly all foreign contact for two centuries.
Reputable source - 1644–1912History of China
The Qing: China's Last Empire
In 1644 the Manchus, a people from beyond the northeastern frontier, seized Beijing and founded the Qing dynasty, China's last imperial house. At its height under the emperors Kangxi and Qianlong, the Qing more than doubled China's territory and ruled the most populous empire on earth.
Reputable source - 1839–1842History of China
The Opium Wars
When the Qing tried to stamp out the British trade in opium, seizing and destroying stocks at Canton, Britain went to war. In the First Opium War (1839–1842) the Royal Navy's superior ships and guns defeated China, and the Treaty of Nanking forced open Chinese ports, imposed an indemnity, and ceded Hong Kong to Britain.
Reputable source - 1850–1864History of China
The Taiping Rebellion
Led by Hong Xiuquan, who believed himself a younger brother of Jesus Christ, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rose against the Qing in 1850, capturing Nanjing and much of southern China. It took the dynasty fourteen years and foreign help to crush the movement.
Reputable source - 1853–1854History of Japan
Perry and the Opening of Japan
In 1853 a squadron of American warships under Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Edo Bay and demanded that Japan open to trade. Overawed by the 'Black Ships,' the shogunate signed the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854, ending more than two centuries of isolation and opening Japanese ports to the United States.
Reputable source - 1868History of Japan
The Meiji Restoration
In 1868 samurai reformers overthrew the shogunate and restored the emperor to power in the name of the young Emperor Meiji. Determined to avoid colonization, the new government abolished the feudal order and launched a crash program of modernization — building railways, factories, a Western-style army and navy, a constitution, and universal education in a single generation.
Reputable source - 1904–1905History of Japan
The Russo-Japanese War
Rival ambitions in Manchuria and Korea led to war between Japan and the Russian Empire. Japan's modern army and navy won a string of victories, annihilating the Russian fleet at Tsushima. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt brokered the peace at the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905, winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Reputable source - 1911–1912History of China
The 1911 Revolution and the Fall of the Empire
A mutiny at Wuchang in October 1911 set off risings across China against the Qing. Revolutionaries proclaimed a Republic of China with Sun Yat-sen as provisional president, and in February 1912 the child emperor Puyi abdicated.
Reputable source - 1931–1945History of Japan
Imperial Japan and the Second World War
Pursuing an empire in Asia, Japan seized Manchuria in 1931 and invaded China in 1937. On 7 December 1941 it attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, opening the Pacific War. After years of brutal fighting, Japan surrendered in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Reputable source - October 1, 1949History of China
The Founding of the People's Republic
After decades of warlordism, Japanese invasion, and civil war, the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong defeated the Nationalists, who fled to Taiwan. On 1 October 1949 Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China from the gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Reputable source - 1945–1990History of Japan
Occupation and the Economic Miracle
Under U.S.-led occupation (1945–1952), Japan adopted a democratic, pacifist constitution and rebuilt from the ruins of war. In the decades that followed it staged one of history's great economic transformations — the 'economic miracle' — becoming a global leader in manufacturing, electronics, and automobiles and the world's second-largest economy.
Reputable source - 1958–1976History of China
Mao's China: The Great Leap and the Cultural Revolution
Mao's Great Leap Forward, launched in 1958 to industrialize China at breakneck speed, ended in disaster and a famine with deaths estimated in the tens of millions. Then, from 1966 until his death in 1976, Mao's Cultural Revolution convulsed the country, pitting Chinese against Chinese in violent purges of alleged enemies of the revolution.
Reputable source · 2 sources - 1978History of China
Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Opening
After Mao's death, Deng Xiaoping emerged as China's paramount leader and, from 1978, launched the 'reform and opening' policy: decollectivizing agriculture, allowing market forces and private enterprise, and opening China to foreign trade and investment. The same years brought the normalization of relations with the United States, announced in December 1978.
Reputable source · 2 sources - June 1989History of China
Tiananmen Square
In the spring of 1989, student-led protesters occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing, calling for political reform and against corruption; at their height the demonstrations drew about a million people. On the night of 3–4 June the government sent in the army, killing an uncertain number of protesters and bystanders.
Reputable source - 2001History of China
China Joins the World Trade Organization
On 11 December 2001, after fifteen years of negotiation, China formally joined the World Trade Organization, committing to open its markets and abide by global trading rules. The move locked in decades of economic reform and integrated China into the world economy.
Reputable source