Has Geography Helped or Hurt China?

1. Has Geography Helped or Hurt China?

2. Chinese Civilization Begins • Chinese Civilization Begins Along the Yellow River • Cradle of Chinese Civilization. • Fertile land, fresh water, mud, transportation

3. China’s Sorrow • Hwang-he River Flooding is unpredictable and very dangerous. • Yellow River Floods have killed many Chinese and destroyed many crops.

4. Answer • Unlike the Hwang-he River, the Nile River Flooding was predictable. What did the Egyptians create because of this?

5. Yangtze River • The Yangtze River is China’s other great river. • It too provided many benefits but also has deadly unpredictable flooding. • 3 Gorges Dam currently being built.

6. Grand Canal • Man made waterway connecting north and south China. • Longest Man Made River • Allowed Chinese cities to trade and grow economically.

7. China’s Eastern 1/3 • China’s Major Rivers are in the Eastern 1/3 of the Country. • This is the most fertile part of China. • How do you think this affects China’s population distribution?

8. Eastern 1/3 • Because this is the most fertile part of China, this is the most overcrowded part of China. • The majority of China’s population lives on only 1/3 of the land. • Overcrowded, High Population density.

9. Answer? • What does it mean to be isolated? • Whose invasion of India ended Indian isolation? • How do we know their was contact between Egypt, Mesopotamia, and South Asia?

10. Chinese Isolation • China was isolated from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Europe. • China was not isolated from South, Central, and Eastern Asia. • Geography has much to do with Chinese Isolation.

11. Chinese Isolation • Deserts • Mountains • Seas • Isolate China from much of the World, BUT NOT THE REST OF ASIA.

12. Chinese Deserts • Gobi Desert • Taklamakan Desert.

13. Important Chinese Mountains • Tian Shan • Himalayas • Kunlun • Pamir

14. Ethnocentrism • Belief that your culture is superior to all other cultures. • Your way/culture is better than other cultures.

15. Chinese Ethnocentrism • Chinese isolation led to attitude of ethnocentrism in China. • China views non-Chinese as barbarians. • China views itself as the “Middle Kingdom” or center of the world.

16. Silk Road Exception • Series of Trade Routes between China, India, Central Asia, and the Eastern Roman Empire. • Buddhism comes to China this way. • China has contact and trade with India and Central Asia. • China was not as isolated as many used to think.

17. Korean “Bridge” • The Korean Peninsula served as a cultural bridge connecting China and Japan. • Early Japan was influenced by China. • Ex. Nara and Xian

18. Help??? • How might the mountains, seas, and deserts helped ancient China?

19. Northern Weakness • China had no natural barriers in the north. • Threats from Manchus and Mongols. • What do you think they built to make up for weakness?

20. The Great Wall • Built to protect China from the North. • Stop Manchus and Mongols. • Fails to stop either as both invade and take over China.

21. The Great Wall • First Built by Qin Shi Huangdi around 200 BC. • Rebuilt by Ming Dynasty around 1300. • 4,000 Miles Long • 2.5 Million Chinese Die building it.

22. Answer: • Was China helped or hurt by its geography? • Why do some say China was isolated? • What is some evidence that China was not isolated?