158 Chronology
907–960
Five Dynasties period of division and civil war
960–1279
Song dynasty; growing prosperity and trade; revival of Confucian thought (Neo-
Confucianism); increasingly threatened by neighboring nomadic peoples
960–1127
Northern Song dynasty; capital at Kaifeng falls to Jurchen invaders in 1127
1127–1279
Southern Song dynasty; capital moved to Hangzhou
1279–1368
Yuan dynasty; Mongols conquer all of China in 1279 and rule the south harshly
1368–1644
Ming ynasty; Zhu Yuanzhang defeats Mongols and establishes more authoritarian
monarchical rule; growing prosperity in sixteenth century; China again becomes center
of world trade (tea, silk, porcelain for New World silver)
1644–1911
Qing ynasty; Manchus from northeast of Beijing conquer all of China with
collaboration of many elite Chinese
ca. 1700–1799
Height of Qing infl uence over Tibet, Central Asia, and Inner Mongolia
1839–1842
Opium War demonstrates weakness of Qing dynasty in face of industrializing western
European states
1840s–1911
Qing weakness invites Western and Japanese encroachment on Chinese sovereignty
1912–1949
Republic of China; Yuan Shikai, fi rst president, asserts dictatorship but dies in 1916
1916–1927
Warlord period; no strong central government; warlords compete for power mainly
through training and equipping of armed troops
1925–1927
Nationalist Party and Communist Party cooperate to seize military control of southeast
and central coastal areas by 1927
1927–1937
Nanjing Decade; Chiang Kai-shek purges Communist Party allies in 1927 and wins
allegiance of northern warlords to “unify” north and south under Nationalist Party
control
1931
Japan seizes control of Manchuria
1937–1945
Sino-Japanese War; Japan occupies eastern third of China; Chinese Communist Party
occupies northwest, and Nationalist Party occupies southwest