Rome Fell. Egypt Fell. China Didn't. Here's Why.

Rome fell. Egypt fell. Persia fell. China is still here. Every great empire of the ancient world is now a museum, but China remains one country. It still writes in characters a scribe from 2,000 years ago could mostly read. It has been conquered by nomads, split apart, starved by its own leaders and humiliated by foreign gunboats, and each time it came back. This documentary covers more than 3,000 years of Chinese history in 15 minutes. It starts with the Shang kings, who carved their questions to the gods on oracle bones, and ends with the superpower of today. Along the way, you'll see why one decision by China's First Emperor in 221 BC nearly destroyed the country before it held it together for 22 centuries. In this video: • The Mandate of Heaven and the dynastic cycle • The Warring States, Confucius, Laozi and Sun Tzu • Qin Shi Huang, the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army • The Han dynasty and the Silk Road • The Three Kingdoms and four centuries of division • The Tang golden age and Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor • Song inventions: printing, gunpowder, the compass and paper money • Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan and the Mongol Yuan dynasty • The Ming, the Forbidden City and Zheng He's treasure fleet • The Qing, the Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion • The fall of the last emperor, the Japanese invasion and Mao's revolution • Deng Xiaoping's reforms and China's rise to superpower CHAPTERS 0:00 Why China Never Died 0:49 Oracle Bones & the Mandate of Heaven 1:42 The Warring States 2:36 The First Emperor Unites China 3:26 Rule by Fear: Qin Shi Huang 4:17 The Han Dynasty & the Silk Road 5:09 The Three Kingdoms 6:03 The Sui & the Grand Canal 6:51 The Tang Golden Age 7:39 The Song: Gunpowder, Printing & Paper Money 8:30 The Mongol Conquest 9:19 The Ming & Zheng He's Treasure Fleet 10:12 The Manchu Qing Dynasty 10:59 The Opium Wars & the Taiping Rebellion 11:52 The Last Emperor & War with Japan 12:45 The Mao Years 13:35 Deng Xiaoping & China's Rise 14:31 Why China Keeps Coming Back Which ancient civilization should we cover next? Tell us in the comments. If you enjoy long-form history, subscribe for more documentaries. Visuals: historical maps and illustrations are reconstructions made for this video. Dates and figures follow mainstream scholarship; where estimates vary, ranges are shown on screen. #History #China #Documentary