Introduction
The history of civilizations covers many significant events and eras. Chinese history has dramatically impacted the course of the development of the world and Asian culture. China was one of the most extensive and powerful states in terms of its military strength and cultural traditions. However, the period of the Warring States marked the beginning of a new state, as an emperor appeared who, for the first time in a long time, was able to unite a fragmented country. To do this, he undertook bold and innovative decisions that later played a role.
The integral China that was created at that time became one of the world’s most developed and densely populated regions. Therefore, the period that brought him to prosperity is worthy of study. The war between the kingdoms led to the whole state’s long and productive existence.
The Period Before the Unification
At the beginning of the period, there were seven large kingdoms: Qin, Chu, Han, Zhao, Wei, Qi, and Yan. They were called “Seven Hegemons.” In addition to them, there was another large kingdom of Yue in the initial period of this era. The petty kingdoms included Zhou, Song, Wei, Zhongshan, Lu, Teng, Zou, Fei, and others. The seven hegemons subsequently absorbed all of them. Small peoples lived in the territories adjacent to the seven strongest kingdoms: in the north and northwest – linhu, loufan, tungus, xiongnu, yiqu; in the south – ba-shu, min, yue (Roetz, 2019). They joined the Chinese ethnos before the country’s unification under the rule of the Qin.
The great fragmentation of the territory of one people could not be permanently preserved. The period from the V to the III centuries BC entered the history of China under the name “Zhan Guo” – Warring States (Childs-Johnson, 2020). This traditional term, borrowed from the ancient Chinese historical work The Politics of the Warring States, turned out to be acceptable for the scientific classification of the era of violent military clashes and severe historical changes (Roetz, 2019).
Undoubtedly, the basis of the socio-economic changes of this period was the widespread mastery of iron processing techniques. The chronicle made the first mention of the iron-smelting business, which reports on casting an iron tripod in the Jin kingdom with a “record of criminal laws.” This date marks an important milestone in the development of ancient China’s social and state system: the introduction of written state legislation to replace customary oral law.
Changes in nature played an important role in the course of hostilities and the economic aspects of the development of the provinces. In the middle of the first millennium, the landscape of Northern China was transformed, and its natural conditions changed (Roetz, 2019). Important forest areas in the river basin.
Huang He was uprooted, vast wetlands drained, and large areas of land cultivated and partially irrigated. A decrease in humidity and a cooling of the climate in Northern China accompanied the expansion of arable land. Animals of the hot belt, such as the elephant and the rhinoceros, are disappearing from the Huang He basin in the seventh century BC. They were extremely rare in the II – the early I millennium BC and were found here in abundance.
Despite the bloody wars, the population in China has increased significantly; it was most densely populated by the third century BC. In addition to the ancient cultural region, in the northeast of Henan and south of Hebei, the basins of the rivers Fen, Wei, and Minjiang turned out to be (Childs-Johnson, 2020). The mass development of new lands would have been impossible without iron tools and extensive land reclamation.
In addition, it was beyond the power of either individual associations of communities or small city-states of the Great Chinese Plain (Galvany, 2020). Even the enlarged kingdoms of the new formation could not take on such tasks without implementing political and administrative reforms and the centralization of state administration. The economic necessity of creating even more extensive state formations in that historical situation could not be fulfilled peacefully and entailed further intensifying the wars of conquest between the kingdoms.
The fierce military rivalry between the kingdoms developed into a kind of total war aimed at destroying the enemy and seizing people and territory. The outcome of wars now depended on the power of the kingdoms, i.e., on their economic, political, and military potential. In the V-III centuries BC, separate lines of fortifications were created to protect the kingdoms from nomadic raids, as well as from each other (Roetz, 2019).
There was no trace of the latter – they were demolished at the behest of the Qin ruler Ying Zheng, who became in 221 BC the first emperor of ancient China (Roetz, 2019). Other fortifications did not reach us either. However, according to written sources of that time, the art of fortification construction reached a high level during the Zhan Guo period.
Until the 4th century BC, the kingdom of Qin did not participate in the struggle between the kingdoms, and it was occupied with wars against the highlanders and nomads (Roetz, 2019). From the invasion of the central kingdoms, it was well protected by the river’s bend. Huang He and the mountains. By this time, due to centuries of predatory use of forests in the river basin. Wei had already been reduced; previously fertile lands lost productivity and became swampy.
Their introduction into circulation was an urgent economic task for the Qin kingdom. The extremely labor-intensive work on land reclamation and the construction of irrigation canals was only possible for a powerful centralized state with significant human and other resources. Having carried out several necessary measures, the Qin kingdom created the Weibei irrigation system (in the Wei River basin) and significantly increased its agricultural production (Galvany, 2020).
By the end of the fourth century, it was the second most populous state after Chu, the main rival in the struggle for dominance. A powerful ethnic group, the Chu, like the Qin, was a separate ethnic group from the Han. However, the Qing rulers willingly attracted people from other countries (mainly Han) as settlers, colonizers, military advisers, and officials of the tsarist government.
During Xiao Gong’s reign, newcomers, high-ranking officials, and Yang Shar Pei introduced important reforms in land use, such as legalizing the purchase of land with a mortgage and lifting restrictions on the size of land plots. This in itself weakened the countryside, but Shang Yang went further. Taxes were doubled or tripled, depending on the number of brothers and sisters living together, on large family dwellings that were not divided after the death of the head of the family. Blood feud was forbidden.
By the end of the fourth century, the Qin had occupied the river’s headwaters. Han and Western Henan approached the kingdoms of Chu, Wei, and Han. The enemy coalition fell apart due to the fact that the Qin managed to build their network of spies and split the states with the help of intrigues, which made it possible to capture the capital of Chu in 278 BC (Roetz, 2019).
However, even after the loss of the ancient capital, the kingdom remained Qin’s strongest rival. A bloody war ensued between Qin and Zhao, resulting in thousands of victims. This war was the beginning of aggressive actions that unfolded in the territories of all countries. This was the main idea of Emperor Qin – to unite them through conquest. Thus, starting with the first one, he would not stop at one until he had received everything.
Qin managed to replenish their territories significantly by absorbing other kingdoms, but they could not be completely defeated. Later, the situation was complicated by the fact that in 241 BC, the kingdoms of Wei, Zhou, Han, and Chu formed an alliance that united their armies (Childs-Johnson, 2020). Yang and Qi could also join this alliance, but they began to act against Qin separately.
In 238 BC, the energetic King Ying Zheng ascended the throne of Qin and defeated his opponents one by one. As a result, 17 years of wars ended when, in 221 BC, the last independent kingdom was conquered – Qi on the sub-island of Shandong (Childs-Johnson, 2020). The victorious Ying Zheng rejected the Zhou Wang title “Son of Heaven”; for the first time, he adopted the completely new but also deified title of Huangdi, which is traditionally translated as “emperor”; he went down in history as Qin Shi Huangdi – The First Emperor of Qin.
Unification
Civil wars during the Warring States period became even more frequent and fierce than during the Spring and Autumn era, and their scale also increased. Each kingdom had a considerable military force. During the Warring States period, short campaigns took several months, and long ones dragged on for several years. To defeat the enemy, the kingdoms competed with each other in the improvement of weapons.
The most significant innovation in this industry was the appearance of iron weapons. Combat weapons were very diverse. For a long time, battles involving chariots were the priority method of waging war, and in conditions of not very favorable terrain, foot combat was. In the north, under the influence of local peoples, a new type of troop began to spread – the cavalry. In order to strengthen its defense, each kingdom devoted significant human resources to the construction of border walls.
After Shang Yang’s reforms, Qin’s forces began to grow steadily stronger. The kingdom waged continuous wars with the Han and Wei in order to capture new territories. In 325 BC, Qin Huiwen-wang proclaimed himself a wang (Fu et al., 2019). After its strengthening, Qin began to win victories over the kingdoms of the “three Jin.” Later, between the armies of Qin and Chu, a significant battle took place at Danyang, in which the Chu troops suffered a severe defeat.
Chu Huai-wang sent an army to the Lantian district of the Qin kingdom, where it was defeated. After that, the Qin kingdom began to occupy the territory between Chu and Han, having acquired the Hanzhong district, and Chu lost a critical strategic point in the northwest (Fu et al., 2019). In addition, Qin constantly expanded its possessions in the west. During the reign of Zhao-wang, the foundation was laid for the conquest of the six kingdoms. Zhao-wang appointed the wise Wei Ran as the first minister, and then Fan Ju, who contributed to the even more significant rise of Qin (Kakinuma, 2021).
In the last years of Zhao-wang’s reign, Qin captured Shangjun, Hedong, Shangdan, Henei, Nanyang, and other districts of the “three Jin” kingdoms. In the south, the Qin kingdom subjugated Ba-shu, creating the districts of Wujun, Qianzhong, and Hanzhong. The kingdom’s territory expanded, and it became the largest among all states.
The kingdoms of Han and Wei, which were located in the center of the Celestial Empire, were the most economically and culturally developed regions. But Qin captured many of their territories, and the rulers of both kingdoms came to an audience with the Qin ruler, who left them as governors in his possession (Zhaoyang, 2021). Qin began to play a vital role in the Central Plain.
The unification of China was of great importance to the country’s history. The emperor created an effective system of centralized government, which had a positive impact on the development of the country. This was necessary since the new kingdom consisted of many previously conquered territories with different rules and laws. Thus, unification and centralization have an important role, which has made it possible to manage a single country.
The entire territory was divided into 48 regions, regardless of how they were divided before (Roman, 2021). In turn, these territories were divided into smaller “xian” headed by “xianlings,” and counties (“xian”) into volosts (“xian”) and smaller units – “tins.” At the same time, all peasants could receive their land plots for agriculture (Roman, 2021). Large-scale construction work began throughout the country, such as laying roads, strengthening defensive structures, and building irrigation systems.
In economic terms, Qin Shihuang introduced the development of agriculture and centralized trade, and supported the development of feudal land ownership. In 216 BC, he ordered the recognition and protection of land ownership rights for all farmers and peasant owners, imposing taxes on them, thereby establishing a system of private ownership of land (Ma & Von Glahn, 2022). The system of weights and measures and the monetary system were unified, and a single network of state roads was established.
After prolonged fighting and the process of uniting all the lands of the Celestial Empire in 221, the emperor introduced a series of reforms that helped the country to unite (Ma & Von Glahn, 2022). To do this, all parameters in the country were standardized, and variations were not allowed. These aspects concerned important economic elements such as currency and weights.
Conclusion
Qin Shi Huang first became the ruler of his realm and, over the next quarter of a century, waged a series of successful wars that united the disparate state formations and put an end to the era of the Warring States. During the years of ruling the unified country, Qin Shi Huang carried out a series of reforms concerning both the administration of the country and the daily life of people and also implemented a number of large-scale projects, such as the construction of the Great Wall of China, the Lingqu Canal and the creation of the Terracotta Army.
An important role in this process was played by the need to protect the country’s borders from external enemies – nomadic tribes. When Qin Shi Huang established his power over the country’s entire territory, he carried out a series of activities that forced unrelated cities to unite. This marked the beginning of the long existence of China as a power that has existed in the same form until now.
References
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