The Troubled Empire: China In The Yuan And Ming Dynasties (history Of Imperial China)
by Timothy Brook /
2010 / English / PDF
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The Mongol takeover in the 1270s changed the course of Chinese
history. The Confucian empire―a millennium and a half in the
making―was suddenly thrust under foreign occupation. What China had
been before its reunification as the Yuan dynasty in 1279 was no
longer what it would be in the future. Four centuries later,
another wave of steppe invaders would replace the Ming dynasty with
yet another foreign occupation.
The Mongol takeover in the 1270s changed the course of Chinese
history. The Confucian empire―a millennium and a half in the
making―was suddenly thrust under foreign occupation. What China had
been before its reunification as the Yuan dynasty in 1279 was no
longer what it would be in the future. Four centuries later,
another wave of steppe invaders would replace the Ming dynasty with
yet another foreign occupation.The Troubled Empire
The Troubled Empire explores
what happened to China between these two dramatic invasions. If
anything defined the complex dynamics of this period, it was
changes in the weather. Asia, like Europe, experienced a Little Ice
Age, and as temperatures fell in the thirteenth century, Kublai
Khan moved south into China. His Yuan dynasty collapsed in less
than a century, but Mongol values lived on in Ming institutions. A
second blast of cold in the 1630s, combined with drought, was more
than the dynasty could stand, and the Ming fell to Manchu invaders.
Against this background―the first coherent ecological history of
China in this period―
explores
what happened to China between these two dramatic invasions. If
anything defined the complex dynamics of this period, it was
changes in the weather. Asia, like Europe, experienced a Little Ice
Age, and as temperatures fell in the thirteenth century, Kublai
Khan moved south into China. His Yuan dynasty collapsed in less
than a century, but Mongol values lived on in Ming institutions. A
second blast of cold in the 1630s, combined with drought, was more
than the dynasty could stand, and the Ming fell to Manchu invaders.
Against this background―the first coherent ecological history of
China in this period―Timothy Brook
Timothy Brook explores the growth of
autocracy, social complexity, and commercialization, paying special
attention to China’s incorporation into the larger South China Sea
economy. These changes not only shaped what China would become but
contributed to the formation of the early modern world.
explores the growth of
autocracy, social complexity, and commercialization, paying special
attention to China’s incorporation into the larger South China Sea
economy. These changes not only shaped what China would become but
contributed to the formation of the early modern world.