Qin and Han Dynasty

• Qin Dynasty


  Unified China
• Shi Huang Di


  • China's first emperor
  • Had books on other philosophies burned
• Achievements of Qin Dynasty


  • Great Wall of China
  • Terracotta Army
• People were unhappy with the legalist government


  After Shi Huang Di died in 210 BCE, people rebelled against Qin rulers
• Overthrow of Qin Dynasty


  1. Liu Bang, a rebel, gained control

  2. Conquered

  3. Established his own dynasty (Han Dynasty)
• Han Dynasty


  Began to incorporate Confucian ideas
• Han Dynasty


  • Expanded all the way to present-day Vietnam and Korea
  • Established trade with the west
  • Led to the golden age (a long period of stability and wealth)
  • Built the Silk Road
• Silk Road

  • Network of trade routes
  • Connects China and the far east with the middle east and Europe
• Han opened trade with the West

  130 BC
• Silk


  • Fiber used to make cloth
  • Valuable good for trade
• Silk production


  1. Fibers taken from the cocoon of a silkworm

  2. Chinese kept production process a secret

  3. Merchants revealing process would be killed
• Goods traded on Silk Road


  • Rome traded gold and glassware for silk
• Silk Road spread new technologies and ideas westward


  130 BC until the end of the Yuan Empire in 1368
• Religions traveled along the Silk Road
• Buddhism had a significant impact on China owing to the introduction of Central Asian style Buddhism