By - Nakul Anand Prajakta Kadav Alithea Barretto Sharmeen Hamid Eshan Yagnik Shreya Arora Swapneel Chaterjee.

Chinese civilization, as described in mythology,

begins with Pangu , the creator of the universe, and a succession of legendary sage-emperors and culture heroes (among them are Huang Di , Yao, and Shun) who taught the ancient Chinese to communicate and to find sustenance, clothing, and shelter.

 Xia

Yuan

Shang
Zhou

Ming
Qing

Qin
Han Song

Jin
Tang

 The last Shang ruler, a despot according to standard

Chinese accounts, was overthrown by a chieftain of a frontier tribe called Zhou, which had settled in the Wei Valley in modern Shaanxi Province. The Zhou dynasty had its capital at Hao, near the city of Xi'an, or Chang'an, as it was known in its heyday in the imperial period. Sharing the language and culture of the Shang, the early Zhou rulers, through conquest and colonization, gradually sinicized, that is, extended Shang culture through much of China Proper north of the Chang Jiang ( or Yangtze River).

 Much of what came to constitute China Proper was

unified for the first time in 221 B.C. In that year the western frontier state of Qin, the most aggressive of the Warring States, subjugated the last of its rival states. Once the king of Qin consolidated his power, he took the title Shi Huangdi ( First Emperor), a formulation previously reserved for deities and the mythological sage-emperors, and imposed Qin's centralized, nonhereditary bureaucratic system on his new empire.

 After a short civil war, a new dynasty, called Han (206

B.C.-A.D. 220), emerged with its capital at Chang'an The new empire retained much of the Qin administrative structure but retreated a bit from centralized rule by establishing vassal principalities in some areas for the sake of political convenience. he Han rulers modified some of the harsher aspects of the previous dynasty; Confucian ideals of government, out of favor during the Qin period, were adopted as the creed of the Han empire, and Confucian scholars gained prominent status as the core of the civil service.

 Rivalry among the Mongol imperial heirs, natural

disasters, and numerous peasant uprisings led to the collapse of the Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty (13681644) was founded by a Han Chinese peasant and former Buddhist monk turned rebel army leader. Having its capital first at Nanjing ( which means Southern Capital) and later at Beijing ( or Northern Capital), the Ming reached the zenith of power during the first quarter of the fifteenth century.

 Although the Manchus were not Han Chinese and were

strongly resisted, especially in the south, they had assimilated a great deal of Chinese culture before conquering China Proper. Realizing that to dominate the empire they would have to do things the Chinese way, the Manchus retained many institutions of Ming and earlier Chinese derivation. They continued the Confucian court practices and temple rituals, over which the emperors had traditionally presided.

 Since the mid 17th century, Chinese rulers had refused

to adopt western ways. As a result the ,Chinese technology began to fall compared to Europeans who will begin to invade the middle kingdom.

 The taiping rebellion- from 1850-1864, angry

impoverished peasants revolted against qing officials. Millions were killed and china suffered.

 British merchants began to trade opium to china in the

late 18th century. China tried to halt trade of the highly addictive drug. In 1839,to keep trade open britishers fought the chinese in a conflict which is known as the opium war. Britains superior military and industrial strength led to a quick victory.

 The politics of the Republic of China (ROC) ,takes

place in a framework of a semipresidential representative democratic republic , whereby the President is head of state and the premier (President of the Executive Yuan) is head of government , and of a dominant party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament.

 The original founding of the

Republic centered on the Three Principles of the People (san min zhuyi): nationalism, democracy, and people's livelihood.

Nationalism meant the Han

Chinese race standing up against Manchu rule and Japanese and Western interference, democracy meant elected rule modeled after Japan's parliament, and people's livelihood or socialism, meant government regulation of the means of production.

 Another lesser known principle that the Republic was

founded upon was five races under one union which emphasized the harmony of the five major ethnic groups in China as represented by the colored stripes of the original Five-Colored Flag of the Republic. However, this five races under one union principle and the corresponding flag were abandoned in 1927.

 At first, the nationalists and communists had worked

together to unite China Over time however they would become enemies, and a CIVIL WAR will develop that will last for 22 years. Nationalists VS Communists.

 The first national government of the Chinese Republic was

established on 1 January 1912, in Nanjing, with Sun Yat-sen as the provisional president. Provincial delegates were sent to confirm the authority of the national government, and they later also formed the first parliament. The power of this national government was both limited and short-lived, with generals controlling all of central and northern China The limited acts passed by this government included the formal abdication of the Qing dynasty and some economic initiatives.

 After the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975, Vice President Yen Chia-

kan briefly took over from 1975 to 1978, according to the Constitution, but the actual power was in the hands of the Premier of the Executive Yuan , Chiang Ching, who was KMT chairman and a son of Chang Kaishek. During the presidency of Chiang Ching-kuo from 1978 to 1988, Taiwan's political system began to undergo gradual liberalization. After the lifting of martial law, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party was formed and allowed to participate overtly in politics.

 One key issue has been the political status of

Taiwan itself.[6] With the diplomatic isolation brought about in the 1970s and 1980s, the notion of "recovering the mainland" by force has been dropped and the Taiwanese localization movement strengthened. The relationship with the People's Republic of China and the related issues of Taiwan independence and Chinese reunification continue to dominate Taiwanese politics.

 The political scene in the ROC is divided into two

camps, with the pro-unification KMT, People First Party (PFP), and New Party forming the Pan-Blue Coalition; and the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and strongly proindependence Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) forming the Pan-Green Coalition. Because of the dominance of the reunification-independence issue in Taiwan's political scene, it is difficult to categorise either camp as "right" or "left" on the conventional basis of economic or social policies.

 The dominant political issue today in the Taiwan

Area in the Republic of China (ROC) is its relationship with the Government of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) that has jurisdiction over Mainland China. Specifically, many people in Taiwan desire the opening of direct transportation links with mainland China, including direct flights, which would aid many Taiwanese businesses that have opened factories or branches in mainland China.

 The National Assembly of the Republic of China was

elected in mainland China in 1947 to officially carry out the duties of choosing the president, to amend the constitution, and to exercise the sovereignty of the citizens, but in actuality, the Assembly's role in Taipei seemed to reconfirm the executive powers of President Chang Kaishek. The National Assembly was re-established on Taiwan when the government moved. Because it was impossible to hold subsequent elections to represent constituencies in mainland China, representatives elected in 1947-48 held these seats "indefinitely." In June 1990, however, the Council of Grand Justices mandated the retirement, effective December 1991, of all remaining "indefinitely" elected members of the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan, and other bodies.