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China Notes

Natrual Barriers: geography: Enviromental challenges: Agriculture:
 * To the east lies the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and Pacific Ocean.
 * To the West lies the Taklimakan Desert and the icy 15,000 - foot Plateau of Tibet.
 * Himalayas are to the southwest
 * North is the Gobi desert and Mongolian Plateau
 * 2 rivers Huang He (Yellow River) and Chang Jiang (Yangtee River)
 * Huge amounts of yellowish silt when the banks over flow
 * Fertile soil called loess which is blown by the winds from the west and north deserts into Yellow River.
 * Floods could be disastrous
 * Floods devoured whole cities earning the name "China's Sorrow"
 * Had to supply there own goods because they couldn't trade with other civilizations
 * Few invasions occured repetedly from the west and north
 * Not 100% protected by natrual barriers
 * 10% of China's land is sutable for farming
 * North China plane is China's heartland

Time Period:
 * 1.7 - 500,000 years ago (Around 2,000 B.C.

Government: Social Class: Culture: Technology: Religon:
 * Chinese cultures existed much befor people settled in Mesopotamia
 * China's first cities grew in around 2,000 B.C.
 * In Northern China power fell to invadiers of people called Shang
 * Palaces and tombs revealed much about Shang society
 * Anyang, one of the first cities, was made mostly of wood
 * Massive wall surrounded city for protection
 * Shang rulers had the ability to control large forces of workers
 * China was consistantly waging war
 * The Mandate of Heaven was how the gods chose the ruling families and when a new family should be put into power
 * The Dynasty Cycle shows the rise and decline of the ruling families in office and how they are happy when they get there power and get less and less happy untill they die and a new ruling familey is put into office
 * Higher class lived in timber - framed houses with walls of clay and straw
 * Peasants and crafts people lived in huts outside the city
 * Nobles and Peasents were the 2 classes
 * Noble families owned land from the king and got paid from the peasants on their land, but in return they served him in military service and they had to give protection to their peasants.
 * People who lived out of Chinese civilization were barbarians
 * There own name for China was Middle Kingdom
 * Group was more important that the individual
 * Woman were treated as inferiors with no rights
 * Children married between the age of 13 - 16
 * Roads and canals
 * Coins for money were created
 * Blast furnices to create cast iron
 * Early production of iron
 * Shang De was the main god
 * Oricles used bones to predict future
 * Worship their ansestors as gods