Armies of The World~China

With a history of war dating back nearly 2,000 years ago, China has been at the forefront of some of the biggest wars the world has ever seen, and almost all of them had massive casualties. This page will try to cover some of these huge wars China has fought in.

## Qin Shi Huang

During the BC era, China didn't have a unified army, instead each army was owned by their domain which their respective emperor had owned. But by 230 BC, an emperor named Qin Shi Huang would begin a war that would unify the warring domains in China. It wouldn't be until 221 BC where Qin would unify all of the warring domains and proclaim himself the emperor of China (or the Qin Dynasty, China's first unified dynasty).

## War of the 3 Kingdoms

After the fall of the Han Dynasty in 190 AD, its domains that it once occupied are once again at war with each other, by 220 AD the war for the nation of China was down to 3 as these kingdoms would fight to see who gets to rule China, those kingdoms were Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan. This war would last for another 60 years, until the kingdom of Cao Cao (or Cao Wei) would evolve into the Jin Dynasty and conquer the other 2 kingdoms, thus establishing the Jin Dynasty as one unified state.

## War of the 5 Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms

For the next few centuries, a series of Dynasties would rule China, by 907 AD the Tang Dynasty would fall and fragment into a series of small domains. This was one of the more turbulent times in the history of China and a series of wars would ensue with the Dynasties in the north and the kingdoms in the south. These series of wars would continue until 979 AD when the Song Dynasty would unite these warring kingdoms. Several centuries later, the north would break away from the Song Dynasty and create the Jurchen Jin Dynasty.

## Mongol Invasion of China

The peace and serenity in China wouldn't last as the Mongol Horde (led by Genghis Kahn) would invade China by 1211 first they would invade the Jurchen Jin Dynasty in the north, and then the Song Dynasty in the south, within several decades, the whole of China would be conquered by the Mongols, but as the Mongol Empire fragments, the part that rules China would become the Yuan Dynasty.

## Red Turbans rebellion

After nearly a century of Mongol Rule, the Chinese now seek to take their own country back. One peasant leader named Zhu Yuanzhong is determined to drive out the Mongols, by 1351 he begins his rebellion against the Mongol Controlled Yuan Dynasty. It is these series of wars against the Mongols where we see the mass use of one of the earliest guns, with these new weapons of war, Yuanzhong was able to drive out the Mongols and he would establish his own Ming Dynasty.

## Qing Invasion

In 1618, the Qing (led by Nurhachi) would come from the late Jin Dynasty and form the Qing Dynasty and then invade the Ming Dynasty (which was in decline by this point). Though, the Qing Dynasty would defeat the Ming Dynasty in a series of battles, it wouldn't be until 1644 when the Qing would pronounce themselves as rulers of China, though the Ming would still resist the Qing for the next few decades until they were defeated in 1683.

## Opium Wars

During the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty would trade with the west, namely with Great Britain who traded Opium with the Dynasty, soon the Opium addiction would become a problem where the Qing government would begin to crack down on the drug which does not go down well with the British traders, after an accident in the bay of the town of Canton a war over the controversial drug began, it would only take a few months for the British to get into the Yellow River and to the Qing capital of Nanking. The Qing would be forced to negotiate with the British several treaties which would benefit the British traders in the Dynasty as it's port towns would be open for trade, as well as other things, but the use of Opium would still be illegal.

The Second Opium War would be about the treaties made earlier rather than the drug itself, and the Qing Dynasty would refuse to renegotiate, causing another war, another months worth of fighting took place, but eventually Britain and France would invade Beijing and forcing the Qing to renegotiate treaties it made with Britain as well as making more treaties for France, Russia, and the United States. This would humiliate the Qing Dynasty as well as its military as it didn't have the firepower to defeat the western powers.

## Sino-French War

France's interest in Vietnam grew as the 19th century wore on, this would get the French into another war against the Qing Dynasty. This would lead to a naval battle which France had the advantage over the Dynasty, despite this and after around 7 months of fighting, the French got very little out of the fighting, and so to did the Qing Dynasty.

## First Sino-Japanese War

The declining Qing Dynasty would now have to contend the new and rising empire in Japan. On July 25, 1894, the war between China and Japan would begin despite rebellions going on in the Korean Peninsula. The Japanese would defeat the Chinese in several battles, forcing the Chinese to sue for Peace in February of 1895. This would be another humiliating defeat for the Qing Dynasty as they would lose control of Taiwan and Penghu Island.

## Boxer Rebellion

With foreign influence spreading through the Qing Dynasty, a group of rebels came together and aim to drive the foreigners out of China, this is when an 8 nation alliance moved into China to silence the rebellion, the Qing Army was also in this to back up the rebels, after nearly 2 years of fighting the 8 nation alliance won and further humiliated the Qing Dynasty which at this time was on its last legs. By 1912, another rebellion, this time to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and succeeded, thus China became a republic.

## Chinese Civil War, part 1

Even after China became a republic, it was a struggle to keep that republic in power, after an imperial comeback in 1914, and re-establishing the republic in 1915 the warlords are once again at war, it wouldn't be until 1927 where the fight for control of China would be down to 2; the Nationalists (led by Chiang Kai-Shek) and the Communists (led by Mao Tse-Tung) though in this phase of the civil war, there was sporadic fighting, by 1934, the communists would be able to escape capture by the Nationalists by taking what is called the Long March. But while this is going on, the Japanese would invade Manchuria and the Soviets would invade and occupy parts of western China. It wasn't until 1937 where the Japanese would invade the rest of China and the capturing of Chiang Kai-Shek where the civil war would pause, escalating into the next war coming up.

## Second Sino-Japanese War

As the Japanese invaded the rest of China, the Nationalists and the Communists would have no choice but to put differences aside and join forces against the Japanese. The Japanese would occupy more of China's cities like Shanghai. Fighting was sporadic inside China and the war would go on for another 4 years until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, absorbing the war into World War 2, though the Japanese and the Chinese would continue to fight sporadically, but it wouldn't be until 1945 when Japan was hit by the Atomic Bombs and the Japanese surrendered. But the civil war would resume.

## Chinese Civil War, part 2

After the devastation of World War 2, and the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War would resume in 1946, and for the next few years it would be a stalemate as the Nationalists have the communists in the town of Harbin and going against the advice of American generals, the Nationalists decide to not attack the city, because of this the communists were able to recuperate and go on the offensive by 1948 where the communists would push the Nationalists to the western parts of the country, even after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the war would continue to 1950 where the Nationalists and Chiang Kai-Shek would evacuate to Taiwan.

## Sino-Vietnamese War

In 1979, China invaded parts of Vietnam after some land disputes with the country and for Vietnam invading Cambodia during the Khmer Rogue which China supported. This led to a 3 week conflict between the 2 nations, in the end however, neither side gained the advantage, though relations between the 2 countries would remain sour until 1991.

That'll do it for this page. don't forget to check out my Games and Movies wikis too. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS singing out.