TimeMaps

East Asia
2500BC

In East Asia, the two farming traditions, the one based on millet, the other based on rice, continue to expand. In particular, wet-rice agriculture is spreading outwards from its core area in the Yangze Valley in all directions. From the southern China region will spring two major migrations down into South East Asia, one moving down from South West China, the other from the south China coast. The end point of these migrations will occur thousands of years hence, as far afield as Africa and Hawaii.

In both northern and southern China, material culture is advancing, and both have seen the rise of powerful chiefdoms who can support the services of skilled craftsmen. Trade routes cover the entire East Asia region, leading to cultural and technological exchanges between the widely dispersed areas; and East Asia has also received influences from further west: horse-riding nomads from the steppes of Central Asia arrive bringing with them skills in metallurgy.

To the north east, millet cultivation has spread across the Korean peninsula, whilst in Japan, the Jomon hunter-gatherer culture continues to thrive.

East Asia
1500BC

Networks of excahnge cover the area of present-day China, which results, amongst other developments, in the spread of metallurgy into the Yellow River and then the Yangze Valleys. This coincides with the emergence of urban civilization in these two regions. In particular, the rise of the Shang dynasty in northern China marks the beginnings of written history in China.

Meanwhile, rice farming is spreading into South East Asia from the present-day south China. Rice cultivation also appears in Korea. Japan, on the other hand, remains beyond the reach of agriculture, and the elaborate Jomon hunter-gatherer culture continues to thrive there.

East Asia
1000BC

The first dynasty in the history of ancient China, the Shang, has now given way to the Zhou. Under the Zhou, who have come from the fringes of the old Shang world, the various characteristics of Chinese civilization which developed under the Shang remain in place, though material and artistic culture may have declined somewhat for a time.

In southern Korea, wet-rice cultivation has established itself as the staple crop, though in the north millet and soybeans retained their dominance. Bronze technology reaches the Korean peninsula about now, from northern China. In Japan, the late Jomon people appear to be taking up farming as a minor part of their food culture, cultivating some local wild plants, such as yams and taro, as well as rice. Hunting and gathering remain the major preoccupations, however.

East Asia
500BC

By now, the Zhou kingdom of northern China has fragmented into a number of large, highly organized states. They are continually at war with one another. Despite this, civilization has made huge strides in all spheres. Iron farming tools have come into widespread use, greatly increasing food production; commerce and industry have expanded greatly. This is leading to widespread social change, and into this fluctuating environment comes one of the most important philosophers in world history, Confucius. His teachings will be hugely influential on the life and thought of the peoples of East Asia from ancient times right up to the present day.

Bronze age Korea is divided into numerous small but warlike chiefdoms, whose aristocracies have developed a fashion for large stone-built graves (dolmens), often furnished with bronze weapons, fine ceramics and jade objects as burial goods. Contacts between Korea and Japan are growing. At this time groups of Koreans are migrating to Japan, introducing their culture, based on rice cultivation, and their knowledge of bronze working, to the southern Japanese island of Kyushu.

East Asia
200BC

Civilization has continued to make remarkable advances within the Chinese world. A centuries-long phase of continuous warfare between large, well-organized states has led to the emergence of one super-state covering the whole of ancient China. This is ruled by the Han dynasty.

These developments within China have been matched by the union of nomadic tribes on the eastern steppes of central Asia under Hun leadership. This is the first of a series of warlike nomadic confederacies that will have a profound impact on east Asian history.

The use of iron has spread to both Korea and Japan by this date. In Korea, powerful chiefdoms centred on small walled towns have appeared, while in Japan, the Bronze-Age, rice-growing culture brought from Korea in about 500 BC - which in Japan is called the Yayoi culture - is gradually spreading north and east.

East Asia
30BC

The Han dynasty has now ruled a united China for 200 years. Externally, the Han emperors have presided over a huge expansion of the Chinese empire, and the internal peace they have maintained has led to an upsurge in prosperity and in material civilization. The Han government has adopted Confucianism as its official ideology, and in this as in many other ways it lays the foundation for much future history, of China as well as other East Asian nations.

With China now unified and able to exert great power beyond its borders, central Asia in the west, Korea in the north and Vietnam in the south have been drawn deeply into its orbit, with a large portion of each becoming integral parts of the Chinese empire. Japan, also, has come to some extent under China's influence. This country has seen the rise of powerful and warlike chiefdoms, some of whom pay tribute to the imperial Chinese court.  

East Asia
200AD

The Han empire has now governed China for 400 years. It will not do so for much longer. Forces are at work which will tear it apart and divide China for several centuries.

China’s long-lasting influence upon the East Asian world continues to grow, however. In Korea, the Chinese occupation has led to the growth of the powerful kingdom of Koguryo; here and elsewhere in the Korean peninsula the tribal aristocracies are adopting many elements of Chinese material culture. Furthermore, links between the Korean peninsula and Japan remain very strong, and these act as a conduit for Chinese influences into these islands.

By this date, Buddhism has begun to infiltrate East Asia, with missionaries arriving from Central Asia.

East Asia
500AD

Four centuries of unity under the Han dynasty came to an end in AD 220, as government weakness and peasant revolts shattered the empire. China has since then experienced centuries of barbarian invasion and internal warfare.

Buddhism has now become a major influence within China, reaching all members of society, from top to bottom.

China's cultural influence upon neighbouring peoples has not waned, however. Kingdoms in Japan, Korea are modelled along Chinese lines, and the elites of these countries have adopted Chinese culture wholesale. Most importantly, both Confucianism and Buddhism have been imported into Korea and Japan from China, and have made great headway there.

East Asia
750AD

In China, centuries of disunity have given way to unity, under the Tang dynasty (618-907) - one of the greatest empires in world history. It is home to the wealthiest and most advanced civilization of the time. The Chinese have ever since regarded the Tang era as one of their most glorious in their history.

It is no surprise that this period sees the high watermark of Chinese cultural influence upon neighbouring countries. The Japanese and Korean states have all consciously modelled themselves upon the Tang empire, and Confucianism and Buddhism, both Chinese imports, will endure as key elements within their societies right up to modern times. Much of East Asia belongs to an international political and exchange system, with states in Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other regions paying tribute to the imperial Chinese court in Changan.

East Asia
979AD

In China, the great Tang dynasty has given way to the Song, a dynasty which does not experience the same degree of military success as the Tang but which presides over a period of great economic and technological advance.

Korea and Japan are both loosening their ties with China, politically and culturally. Their aristocracies now play a much more prominent role in their societies than has been case in China, where the civil service has been the key power broker, since at least Han times.

East Asia
1215AD

The Song dynasty has shrunk drastically in terms of its geographical reach, now ruling only southern China; however, it continues to rule a society experiencing unprecedented technological and economic advance. Both Korea and Japan experience political instability and civil war - though Korea in particular makes important contributions to the technological advances taking place in East Asia at this time. Chinese cultural and political models continue to make headway to the  south, in Vietnam - but for all the nations of East Asia, developments are taking place in central Asia which will leave none of them unaffected. This is the rise to power of the great Mongol leader, Genghis Khan.

East Asia
1453AD

The whole of East Asia felt the impact of the Mongols in the 13th century; their armies conquered all China, Korea and Tibet, and they mounted huge but unsuccessful invasions of Japan, Burma and even Java. In the mid-14th century, however, the Mongols' power declined, and they were pushed back to their homelands in central Asia. Native rulers were again in control of all the countries of East Asia, and most famously, the Ming dynasty of China brought peace and stability to that vast country, and with it new heights of prosperity and cultural achievement.

The Ming empire has imposed a tributary system upon the neighbouring rulers in Korea, Vietnam and Burma. All these rulers acknowledge the superiority of the Chinese emperor, and their countries are deeply influenced by Chinese political and cultural ways. Regular missions between these tributary countries and China stimulate much international trade.

Japan remains outside this system, and indeed Japanese pirates spread much fear along China's coasts at this time. In central Asian, the Mongols remain a real threat to China, and it is now that the Chinese are upgrading the Great Wall to become the magnificent structure it is today.

East Asia
1648AD

The Ming dynasty has, very recently, been replaced by the Qing, having shown the classic symptoms of dynastic decline. The Qing are Manchus who, having developed a Chinese-style state in Manchuria, have taken advantage of rising chaos in China to march on the capital and seize the throne. They are now in the process of pacifying the entire country, under their regent, Dorgon.

After more than 100 years of civil war, Japan was at last re-unified under a military dictatorship. This then embarked on two ferocious wars in Korea before being driven out by Chinese and Korean forces. These wars left Korea in ruins, and led to that country becoming a vassal state of China. Japan, meanwhile, has effectively isolated itself from the outside world to preserved its feudal society under its Tokugawa shogans.