Download History of East Asia

LESSON 2
History of East Asia
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS : What makes a culture unique? • How do cultures spread?
East Asia has a long, rich, and fascinating history. Learning about the events, innovations, and ideas that shaped the
region will give you a better understanding and appreciation of its countries,cultures, and peoples.
Early East Asia
What important inventions from East Asia spread across the rest of the world?
China’s civilization is more than 4,000 years old. Throughout its history, Chinese civilization influenced the
development of other East Asian countries.
Early China
For many centuries until the early 1900s, rulers known as emperors or empresses governed China. A dynasty, or
line of rulers from a single family, would hold power until it was overthrown. Then a new leader would start a new
dynasty. Under the dynasties, China built a highly developed culture and conquered neighboring lands.
As their civilization developed, the Chinese tried to keep out foreign invaders. In many ways, this was easy. On most
of China’s borders, natural barriers such as seas, mountains, and deserts already provided protection. Still, invaders
threatened from the north. To defend this area, the Chinese began building the Great Wall of China about 2,200
years ago. Over the centuries, the wall was continually rebuilt and lengthened. In time, it snaked more than 4,000
miles (6,437 km) from the Yellow Sea in the east to the deserts of the west. It remains in place today.
China’s Dynasties
The Shang was the first dynasty to leave written records. From the writings, we learned that the Shang took power
about 1600 B.C. in the North China Plain. Like all succeeding dynasties, the Shang faced rebellions by local lords,
attacks by Central Asian nomads, and natural disasters such as floods. When the government was stable, it could
defend its people against some of these problems. Eventually, however, the dynasty weakened and fell.
After the Shang, the Zhou dynasty ruled for about 800 years, beginning around 1045 B.C. Under Zhou rule, Chinese
culture spread, trade grew, and the Chinese began making iron tools.
After the Zhou, powerful dynasties expanded China’s territory. In the 200s B.C., the Han united all of China and
started building the Great Wall that exists today. Under the Han and Tang dynasties, traders and missionaries spread
Chinese culture to all of East Asia.
In the early 1400s, under the Ming dynasty, the naval explorer Zheng He reached as far as the coast of East Africa.
The last dynasty of China, the Qing, ruled from the mid-1600s to the early 1900s.
Achievements and Ideas
China underwent many changes during the Zhou dynasty. During this period, laws were recorded for the first time,
the first coins were created, and farmers began to use plows pulled by oxen. It was also an age of great thinkers. One
of these thinkers was a man named Confucius. He thought people should be morally good and loyal to their families.
He also believed that a ruler should lead his people as though he were the head of a family.
Another of the thinkers was Laozi, who founded an important belief system called Daoism. Laozi thought that people
should live in harmony with nature.
Later, another important belief system called Buddhism was introduced to China from India. Confucianism, Daoism,
and Buddhism have been major influences on China and the rest of East Asia for many centuries.
The Han dynasty (202 B.C.– 220 A.D.) had such an impact that many of China’s people today call themselves the
People of Han. With Han rule came unity and stability. The arts and sciences flourished. Papermaking was invented,
and government officials began using paper for keeping records. Han rulers encouraged trade along the Silk Road.
This was a caravan route that stretched 4,000 miles (6,437 km) between China and Southwest Asia, and then
extended into Europe and South Asia. The Chinese sent goods such as silk, tea, spices, paper, and fine porcelain
(POHR•suh•luhn) as far west as ports along the Mediterranean Sea in exchange for wool, gold, and silver.
The Han dynasty was followed by several centuries of decline and disunity as individual states fought to gain power.
When China was eventually reunified, the stage was set for a long period of stability and cultural advancement under
the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618–907) and Song dynasty (A.D. 960–1279).
During the Tang dynasty, probably in the A.D. 800s, a new type of printing emerged. The Chinese developed a way
to use blocks of wood and clay to print characters on paper. This invention, known as woodblock printing, made it
possible to print large numbers of books quickly, which allowed ideas to spread more rapidly. Another important
invention was gunpowder, which was used in explosives and fireworks. The Chinese also invented the magnetic
compass, which helped sailors find their direction at sea.
Early Korea and Japan
Korea was first populated thousands of years ago by people who migrated from northern Asia. By the first
century A.D., the peninsula was divided among three rival kingdoms. Six centuries later, one of these kingdoms—the
Silla—conquered the other two and unified the peninsula. After enduring for three centuries, the Silla kingdom was
succeeded in A.D. 935 by the Koryo.
In the 1200s, the Mongols, a people from the steppes of Central Asia, had conquered North China, parts of Asia, and
the northern half of the Korean peninsula. The vast territory became part of the Mongol’s Yuan dynasty. At the end of
the 1300s, the Mongols were driven out of Korea and a new Korean dynasty called the Choson came to power. It
would stay in power until modern times.
Korea went through religious changes during this period. Buddhism had spread from India to China to Korea in
the A.D. 300s and became popular during the Koryo dynasty. Later, during the Chosun dynasty, Confucianism
became Korea’s dominant religion. Chinese characters came to be used for Korean writing. Korean artists and writers
were inspired by the art and literature of China. Korean rulers also adopted Confucianism as a basis for government.
In some periods, China provided Korea with military protection. In other periods, Koreans lived in fear of Chinese
invasion.
The history of Japan is intertwined with that of its neighbors to the west. The Japanese islands were settled by
people from Korea and China. ByA.D. 500, the clans and tribal kingdoms of Japan had close ties to Korea.
Eventually, the ties extended to China, beginning a flow of ideas and culture that transformed Japan. Japanese
people began using the Chinese calendar and the Chinese system of writing.
In addition, the Japanese adopted Chinese technology and Buddhism spread to the islands from Korea and mixed
with Shinto, a Japanese religion. Shinto, or “Sacred Way,” stressed that all parts of nature—humans, animals, plants,
and rivers—have spirits.
Japan was ruled by emperors, but over time, they lost power. Eventually landowning families set up a feudal system.
Under the system, high nobles gave land to lesser nobles in return for their loyalty and military service. At the bottom
of the social ladder, peasants farmed nobles’ estates in exchange for protection. By the 1100s, armies of local nobles
had begun fighting for control of Japan. Minamoto Yoritomo (mee•nah•moh•toh yho•ree•toh•moh) became Japan’s
first shogun, or military leader. Landowning warriors, who were called samurai,(SA•muh•ry) supported the shogun.
Although the emperor kept his title, the shoguns held the real power.
Describing What are some ways in which China influenced Japan?
Change in East Asia
How did increased contact with the West influence the region?
Throughout much of its history, East Asia was mostly isolated from the rest of the world. High mountains, harsh
deserts, and vast distances limited the flow of ideas and goods between the region and other parts of Eurasia. From
the 1500s onward, however, increasing trade brought East Asian countries into greater contact with other cultures,
especially Europe.
Spheres of Influence
By the early 1800s, internal problems had weakened China. Meanwhile, European countries were growing more
powerful and making stronger claims. By the 1890s, European governments and Japan had claimed large areas of
China as spheres of influence. A sphere of influence is an area of a country where a single foreign power has been
granted exclusive trading rights.
The foreign intrusion in their country made many Chinese people angry. Their anger fueled a revolution in 1911, and
the new government could not control the country. By 1927, a military leader named Chiang Kai-shek had formed the
Nationalist government.
Two Chinas
Meanwhile, Chiang’s rival, Mao Zedong (MOW dzuh•DUNG), gained support from Chinese farmers. Mao believed
in communism, a system in which the government controls all economic goods and services. After years of civil war,
the Communists won power in 1949. They set up the People’s Republic of China on the Chinese mainland. The
Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan. There, they set up a government called the Republic of China.
Rise of Japan
Around 1542, a Portuguese ship heading to China was blown off its course and landed in Japan. The traders on the
ship became the first Europeans to visit Japan. Soon, more traders began arriving, along with Christian missionaries.
By the early 1600s, Japan’s rulers had begun to fear that European powers were planning a military conquest of the
islands. They decided to isolate Japan by forcing all foreigners to leave, banning European books, and blocking
nearly all relations with the outside world.
Japan’s isolation lasted for roughly two centuries. In 1854 U.S. naval officer Matthew C. Perry sailed to Japan with
four warships. He pressured the Japanese to end their isolation and open their country to foreign trade. Not long
afterward, rebel samurai forced the shoguns to return full power to the emperor.
Recognizing that European countries were far more advanced and powerful, Japan set out to transform itself by
learning everything it could about the West. The country soon became an industrial and military power, and it began
developing an empire.
By 1940, Japanese forces had gained control of Taiwan, Korea, parts of mainland Asia, and some Pacific islands.
This expansion was one factor that led Japan to fight the United States and its allies in World War II.
Analyzing How was Korea affected by Japanese expansion?
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LESSON 2
History of East Asia
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS : What makes a culture unique? • How do cultures spread?
Modern East Asia
What conflicts divided East Asian countries?
After World War II, East Asia saw substantial changes in its governments and economies. Some of the region’s countries developed into
Modern China
After 1949, China became “two Chinas”—one was mainland China ruled by the Communists, and the other was the Nationalist governm
1950s, the Communist mainland government took control of businesses and industry. It also took land and created state-owned farms.
In the late 1950s, Mao Zedong introduced the Great Leap Forward. This program’s goal was to increase China’s industrial output. Many
working in factories. Cities grew rapidly. The program failed, however. Poor planning, natural disasters, and a drop in food production led
During China’s Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, intellectuals such as doctors and teachers were ordered to work on farms. Students
to the countryside to work. In this way, Mao hoped to get rid of any cultural elements that did not support his idea of communism.
Taiwan, on the other hand, pursued a goal of “one China”—two parts of one nation moving toward reunification. Taiwan wanted the main
negotiate with Taiwan as an equal, but Communist leaders said no.
At first, the Taiwanese government limited the freedom of its people. By 1970, however, Taiwan’s leaders had instituted democratic refor
capitalism. Prosperity transformed the island into an economic powerhouse.
By comparison, China’s Communist government was stagnant. After Mao’s death in 1976, though, Chinese
leaders started to open China to the West. Economic reforms helped China become a rising global power. Chinese
leaders gradually allowed a market economy to develop alongside the communist economy by letting people own
businesses and sell products and services freely.
A Divided Korea
After World War II ended, Korea was divided into two countries: South Korea and North Korea. South Korea was
supported by the United States, and Communist North Korea had strong ties to China and to the Soviet Union, a
powerful communist country that stretched across northern Europe and Asia.
Both Koreas claimed the entire peninsula. In 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea. United Nations forces and the
United States rushed to support South Korea, and China helped North Korea. The Korean War ended in 1953 without
a peace treaty or a victory for either side. A buffer zone, called the demilitarized zone, was established to separate
the two countries.
Stark differences developed between the two Koreas after the war. Over several decades, South Korea followed the
path of capitalism and the country’s economy began to grow rapidly. In contrast, North Korea’s economy, which is
strictly controlled by its Communist government, has struggled. North Koreans face many hardships because most
resources go to the military.
Modern Japan
After being defeated by the United States and its allies in World War II, Japan was stripped of its overseas territories
and military might. The country adopted a democratic constitution, and women and workers gained more rights.
During the Korean War, the United States needed Japanese factories to provide supplies for its war effort. Japanese
shipbuilders, manufacturers, and electronics industries benefited from giving this assistance.
The Japanese government worked closely with businesses to plan the country’s economic growth. Both invested in
research and development of electronics products for the home. A highly skilled workforce and the latest technology
helped Japan develop its industries. Within a few decades, the Japanese were leading producers of ships, cars,
cameras, and computers. By the 1990s, world demand for Japanese-made goods had turned it into a global
economic power. Despite some economic ups and downs in the 2000s, Japan’s economy remains one of the world’s
strongest. Based on gross national product, Japan ranks third in the world, trailing only the United States and China.
Determining Central Ideas What led to the growth of China’s economy beginning in the 1970s?