Geographic Factors That Affect China's Early Development Research Paper

1. China is divided into two major geographical regions: the steppe, desert, and high plateau west and northwest; and the eastern zone, more suitable for settled agriculture.

b) Economic – China’s isolation led to them having a localized government. On the other hand, India was susceptible to outside forces and influences, causing it to have more diverse culture, and therefore to have local

Although classical China and India had good institutions, they both pursued that characteristic in different directions. For example, China had developed one united dialect within their society, as India had come up with a variety of different languages. China basically developed solitary, with no outside help or advice until later on. So they grew with the society that they had created, no outside

China is located in Eastern Asia. Some of these natural land barriers included India, The South China Sea, The Yellow Sea, The Huang He Desert, The East China Sea, and The Gobi Desert. Although these natural land barriers had positive impacts, they also had negative impacts. The positive impacts were it kept out enemies from trying to invade China. It stopped the enemies from trying to take over China.

Geography has the power to limit civilization connections from other cultures. For example, in the Physical Map of China (Doc 2), China is bordered by the vast Himalayas and the Taklimakan Desert. This geographical features prevented many ideas form other cultures to come into China from the west. Except for the narrow Silk Road, many Greek, Roman, Islamic, African, European, and Western ideas and inventions did not come into China in great numbers until the late 15th century enabling China to develop its own culture, free from other influences. In Mesopotamia and Egypt, many geographical features also prevented it from being reached by other cultures, such as China and India, as shown in Geography of the Ancient Middle East Map (Doc 5). The Zagros Mountains prevented many Chinese and Indian explorers from reaching Mesopotamia, with its elevation of 14,000 feet, while the Sahara Desert and the intense Nile River cataracts prevented many African explorers from reaching

Bringing money to the community to build better housing, military, etc. transporting of goods also gave jobs. This helped the economy, and overall wellth of the community. Using the river as transportation could not only transport goods, but also explorers so the country could gain more land. With these advantages there also came many disadvantages.

Mandate of Heaven is an ancient Chinese belief and philosophical that heaven granted emperors the right to rule based on their ability to govern well and fairly.

Tracing back the history of China, Xia Dynasty of the second millennium BCE was the earliest dynasty in China, which was centered along the Yellow River. Before China was unified, it was the time during which most of China's cultural tradition arose. Chinese civilization ascended and developed in a vast area, one-third larger than the United States if such dependencies as Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet are included. For centuries China was almost completely isolated from the other centers of civilization by mountains, deserts, and seas. This isolation helps explain the great originality of China's culture. China has many mountain ranges and three river systems that rise close together on the high Tibetan plateau and flow eastward to

“Floodwater dashed up against the skies... God issued a command allowing Yu to spread out the self-replacing soil so as to quell the foods in the Nine Provinces.” This myth from China’s remote past may reflect stories about the efforts of early rulers to control the flood waters of the Huang River- the mighty river that has been central to Chinese civilization since the earliest of times.” (Holt, World History textbook, 76). China is located in the far east side of Asia. They have very rugged mountains in the west, some of the tallest in the world. In the south there are many plateaus, moving north; there are semi-deserts. The heart of China, the China Proper, has been significant though it’s early years. China has three major rivers that they used for transportation, crops, and ect. they are

This can be seen when looking at the geography of where these civilizations originated. Just like the other three societies, Chinese civilization grew among the Huang He River, or the Yellow River. The river supplied water for the Chinese to be able to practice agriculture. The river also gave them a mode of transportation to move goods from place to place, just like the Harappans. Another characteristic of the Chinese that is similar to the Harappans was the fact that we do not know much about them because they did not leave any records behind. Life along the Yellow River was also similar to life along the Nile. The people of both civilizations built ditches and canals in the rivers in order to use them for transportation and irrigation. They both used water to feed their people, and cattle as they raised them along the river, and to use for their crops, as both rivers were fertile. Unlike the Nile, the Yellow River brought both positive and negative consequences. The Yellow River was also given another name by its people, the River of Sorrows. This was because the Yellow River did not flood regularly like the Nile, it was irregular. Some years the Yellow River would not flood at all, and in other cases it would flood and bring devastation to its people. The Egyptians luckily did not experience this with the Nile River, instead they celebrated it and called it their giver of

The history of the development of China and India are very different. India was broken up into many different settlements ran by different people, such as dynasties and empires. On the other hand, China was always more united and was also ran by a dynasty. A dynasty is a government ran by the same family, only to be thrown out of power by a new dynasty. The dynasties of China were successful, where as the dynasties of India were not as fortunate. There were a few factors that set the Chinese dynasties up for success compared to the Indian dynasties.

The geography of China has affected its people for thousands of years. Rivers such as the Huang He and the Yangtze have benefited its people because they were able to trade, get food and water and settle down in this area. These rivers were beneficial because they helped to facilitate trade. (“The Study Of History”). The Chinese traded goods such as silk, salt, teas, sugar, porcelain and other luxurious goods (“Ancient China”). While this was beneficial to the Chinese there were also many negatives effects that the geography had in China. The Himalayan mountains had some negative effects on the Chinese. The Himalayas kept them isolated for a long time. This then meant that there was a lack of cultural diffusion which was occurring (“Himalayan Mountains Documentary…”). The Chinese weren’t able to trade goods and ideas because it was hard for them and other civilizations

Ancient river valley civilizations economy were heavily relied on trade.In ancient China, people heavily relied on the silk road to trade.The silk road allowed China to communicate with other civilizations like India. The silk road were used to trade silk,

Early chinese civilization was very well in control of Asia and assumed the role of ‘big brother” to its neighboring Asian countries of Japan, Vietnam, and Korea. Japan, Korea, and Vietnam were absolutely affected by China, being affected by Chinese religion, government, and sky’s the limit from there. Even if you look at current day Asia, those countries still possess a lot of Chinese influence.

The Yellow River is located in Qinghai, China. In the present day it is not very dense in population. It is a very high-altitude called the Tibetan Plateau. It is place of strong Tibetan and Mongol cultural traditions in present day China. The Yellow River is known by all Chinese people as the “mother river” (Wu). It is also agreed upon by almost all Chinese people that it is the cradle of Chinese civilization and the spiritual home of the Chinese people (Zhou). The Yellow River is the symbol of the Chinese nation, the spirt of the Chinese people, but most importantly civilization itself.