The Rise & Fall of China's Han Dynasty Empire…and it’s Rise & Fall Again

[Music] the Han Empire was the longest-lasting imperial dynasty to rule over a unified China Han Dynasty rule was briefly interrupted by the red eyebrow rebellion before being reestablished by a different branch of the same family the periods before and after this rebellion are most commonly called the former and later or eastern and western han referring to the two different locations of the imperial capital city during each of these periods the name China is derived from the Qin Dynasty which briefly United many warring States to form the first Chinese Empire directly preceding the rise of the Han today 90 percent of China's population and almost 20% of the human beings on planet Earth identify as ethnic hub this people groups name is derived from the Han Dynasty named for the Han River in central China intrinsically associated with China's identity the Han Dynasty was founded by Leo ba who born into an impoverished family of peasant farmers Lubang had many careers during his extremely eventful life including but not limited to local sheriff fugitive bandit rebel common soldier general Qing and finally emperor of the Earth's most populous state the first major turning point in his life occurred while he was a local sheriff tasked with transporting a group of convicts which were used for forced labor after one escaped he set the rest of the prisoners free because he knew the penalty for failure in his duty was death grateful for their newly acquired liberty many of the former prisoners pledged their loyalty to Liu bang they formed a small group of marauding bandits which likely spent much of his time avoiding capture by Qin imperial troops Liu bang may have spent the rest of his life as a common bandit had it not been for the civil war that plunged the country into chaos the Civil War was set in motion by the unexpected death of China's first emperor Qin sure Huang who may have died from drinking one too many toxic and mortality potions he was succeeded by his young son or she who was decadent weak willed and refused to listen to any bad news consequently this allowed the Emperor's boyhood tutor Zhou Gao who was promoted to Imperial Chancellor to seize power Zhao Gao raised taxes across the Empire to fund an extravagant Court and went on an unrestricted spree of executing real and imagined rivals purging the court of his most competent ministers Prince's military officers and their families all of this led to widespread revolts of the provincial nobility and peasant uprisings Liu bangs bandits joined the most formidable of the rebel armies commanded by Zhang Yu a nobleman from the resurgent state of Chu there he quickly rose through the ranks becoming Cheung he is most effective general Xiang Yu decisively defeated the Qin army at the Battle of julu while Leoben took the capital city and accepted the last Qin Emperor surrender young you granted him the title king of Han while Liu bang had been merciful to surrendering Qin troops and the young Emperor young you was not he ordered many thousands of Qin soldiers to be buried alive as punishment for their disloyalty he later sacked the capital city and slaughtered the Qin royal family that had previously surrendered to Liu bang Xian you attempted to re-establish 18 of the kingdom's that had existed before the Qin unification with himself at the head first by controlling a puppet Emperor from his own State who he had assassinated and then by granting himself the title bow Wong meaning overlord or hegemon King despite his efforts this loose confederation was at war with itself even before it had formed many feared being purged by the merciless young you while many more believed the land should remain United viewing Zhang's regime as a return to the centuries-long feudal chaos of the warring States Period those disaffected found a champion in Li Wang who had gained a reputation for being merciful to the defeated and a generous patron to his followers the two leaders had a falling-out and after four more years of conflict Leoben was victorious uniting the Middle Kingdom by 202 BC declaring himself the Emperor Goudy of the Han Dynasty during his 11-year reign the Emperor Gao Dee focused on bringing internal stability peace and prosperity to the Empire to accomplish this he drastically lowered taxes on the common people cutting them completely in some devastated regions for up to seven years he also freed many slaves and disbanded a large portion of the army Gowdy promoted common people to the highest ranks in government and instructed his officials to do the same hiring people for their ability rather than their birth and family connections this process was later formalized during the reigns of his successors when civil service exams were introduced where common people of exceptional skill could obtain government ministerial positions previously reserved only for the nobility in one later example a particularly intelligent pig farmer passed the civil service exams and rose through the ranks to become the Imperial grand councilor of the Han Empire a position second only to the Emperor himself gaudí divided the administration of the empire into the West was overseen by appointed Imperial governors while the East was overseen by his family members who were given the ancient noble titles of the region's they administered importantly Goudy made peace with the northern nomadic Xiong nu Confederation which had been successfully rating China during its time of strife he agreed to refer to them as equals and pay them an annual tribute of wine other luxury goods and noble women for Zhang knew were lords to marry although this tribute was humiliating it was a tiny fraction of the cost of previous wars with the Xiong nu the suing peace allowed the Han Empire's population and economy to recover and surpass any previous level of prosperity the land had enjoyed for 60 years so the peace with a Zhang knew was maintained gaudi's successors ruled over a powerful state that expanded to the north and south particularly during the reign of the Emperor Wu who conquered the southern kingdoms of nan Yu menu Kouta son on the Korean Peninsula and decisively defeated his young confederación but at a great cost the great Han Treasury was depleted hundreds of thousands of soldiers died and famine spread through the land as peasant farmers or taxed heavily however the constant greatest threat to the Empire stability was arguably no foreign power but the in-law families of a Dowager Empress in that of a current Empress throughout the Western Han period the Magnificent imperial palace complex at the capital Chang'an was frequently kept bathed in a fresh coat of the defeated blood in a never-ending game of palace intrigue this inviting eventually spilled out of the palace into open Civil War when a powerful Dowager Empress placed her nephew on the imperial throne Wang mang short-lived Qin Dynasty ambitiously sought to reform the Empire the number of state-run monopolies were increased from two to six all land became property of the Emperor and was redistributed to the landless poor this and many other of his policies were implemented and then reversed after being met with great resistance especially from the merchants class and nobility a series of severe natural disasters and famine convinced many that Wang mang and his policies lacked the Mandate of Heaven throughout the empire many starving peasants turn to banditry and rebellion the most formidable faction were called the red eyebrows because they painted their foreheads red to distinguish between themselves and those loyal to the government the entire Empire eventually rose in rebellion against Wang mang with several warlords from the Han royal family all claiming to be the legitimate Emperor after being decisively defeated in battle by the red eyebrows and retreating to his capital Wang mang died in bow the red eyebrows deposed one Han Emperor and installed a younger weaker one that they could control the red eyebrows were initially seen as champions of the common people who time and again defied the odds beating larger better-equipped imperial armies as they gained more power this image changed to that of a disorganized mob whose decentralized leadership couldn't control it and had little plan how to do so after losing popular support the number of red eyebrows dwindled from desertion disease and defeat exhausted and demoralized they surrendered to Li Shu who is one of eleven self-proclaimed Han Emperor's like his distantly related ancestor Leo bong Li Shu was also merciful he pardoned the red eyebrows including their leaders and the young puppet Emperor he spent the next decade defeating all the other self stylized emperors until he was the only one left during his thirty-two year long reign Guang Wu D enacted modest but significant land reforms improving the quality of life of the rural peasants he also reinforced eyes to the importance of standardized civil service exams and promoted education establishing over 100 state institutes for training candidates of ability at government expense for the majority of the first and second centuries the Han Empire experienced a second golden age where the Empire was militarily successful and the economy boomed the Trung sisters of Vietnam who established a short-lived state were defeated as well as the nomadic Xiong nu and the Korean kingdom of koko do the eastern half of the Silk Road trade route linking Rome to China via the Kushan and Parthian empires was patrolled regularly which protected and promoted trade which was also facilitated by the Han invention of paper cheap mass-produced paper also facilitated the power and growth of the bureaucracy slowly over time the civil servant class exerted increased power over the Emperor and nobility by the latter half of the second century embers were installed and removed at will with the youngest and most manipulatable being favored for the job in earlier times the periodic plagues floods droughts and famines that afflicted the peasant farming class were dealt with effectively by eastern Han Dynasty Emperor's they granted tax amnesty grain relief and the right to fish and hunt on royal lands to peasants during times of crisis which ultimately prevented Civil War during the 180s this was not the case when famine struck peasants had their taxes raised land seized and wages cut consequently this led to the mass rebellion of the poor many of them military veterans to defeat the Yellow Turban rebels as they were called the bloated inefficient bureaucracy turned to the nobility and granted them unprecedented levels of autonomy these Nobles became independent warlords ruling over their own sovereign domains most subservient to the emperor only in name it took more than 20 years for these warlords to defeat the Yellow Turban rebels the warlord Tatsu granted many of the land reforms requested by the remaining rebels who then joined his cause these warlords continued to wage war on each other vying for supremacy long after the Yellow Turban rebellion had ended their small warring states coalesced into three larger kingdoms and into 20 the last Han puppet Emperor was dethroned and granted the title Duke of Shang yang where he was sent and lived out the rest of his life in comfort so why did the Han Empire rise and fall twice while there are many elements to each meritocracy and corruption are two dominant factors let me know what you think down in the comments of what were the main reasons that the Han Empire rose and fell this has been Epimetheus big things to my awesome patrons and be sure to LIKE subscribe and all that other great stuff also if you enjoyed this video which I'm assuming you did because you made it to the end of the video I believe you will also like the video I did on China's earliest free Imperial dynasties which takes place directly before this video and the video I did on China's Three Kingdoms period which takes place directly after this video

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Keywords: Han, Han dynasty, Han empire, han china, ancient china, chinese dynasties, han dynasty documentary, history, china, chinese history, Rise and Fall of the Han Dynasty, han dynasty crash course, han dynasty china, han dynasty history, han empire documentary, han dynasy explained, liu bang, han dynasty every year, wu, gaozu, chinese history documentary, epimetheus, xiang yu, xiongnu, chinese empire, qin dynasty, 3 kingdoms period, cao cao, chu, western han, eastern han

Id: KWUOGgqCeN0

Length: 12min 40sec (760 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 22 2019