4. Han Dynasty 206 B.C. – 220 A.D.
The Han Dynasty is considered to be the golden age of Chinese history and even today China’s majority ethnic group calls itself the “Han people.” The Western Han existed from 206 B.C. until 9 A.D. and started with Liu Bang who united fractured China and later became known as Emperor Gaozu.
The empire was heavily divided with 13 commanderies in the Western third of the empire and 10 kingdoms in the other two-thirds. Liu Bang tried to appease some of his generals by making them Kings. Throughout the Han dynasty, the Hans were rivals with the Xiongnu who were nomadic tribes to the north. The empire expanded throughout much of Xiongnu territory to the north and down south to modern-day Vietnam and Korea.
In order to pay for the military campaigns, the empire created several government monopolies to extract money from the populace. Liquor, salt, coinage and iron were all monopolies under the government for a period. Education and Confucianism were important to the Han and many important philosophical works came out of this period. Dictionaries, biographies, histories were written and defined how Chinese history would be written for ever after. The Silk Road was also created during this dynasty and changed the future of China. A system of law and order even allowed women to seek redress against men for crimes and less brutal forms of punishment were adopted.
Thanks to the oldest surviving census in history it is known that the population of the Han dynasty was 57,641,400 at the height of its power. It controlled 2.3 million square miles or just over 4% of the total land area in the world. It remains as an era of Chinese innovation and one where Chinese power was unmatched in the world.