| 547-615 (206-138 BC) (L'Uniona Homanus) | 615-660 (138-93 BC) (L'Uniona Homanus) |
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There were three Dynasties in Sinica prior to the start of the Warring States Period, they were the Xia, 夏, Sheng, 商, and the Zhao, 周. These Dynasties covered a very small amount of land but expanded into the Far East parts of Asia. The Zhao Dynasty collapsed under the bureaucrats and private interests in the Empire. This resulted in the Warring States Period from 278-532 AUC(475-221 BC) where the seven states of China, those of
The First Warring States Period in Sinica
Yan,燕, Zhao, 赵, Qi, 齐, Wei, 魏, Han, 韩, Chu, 楚, and Qin,秦 competed for dominance in a series of endless wars. Any respite was quickly shattered by a resumption of conflicts. The Emperor Qin Shi Huang 秦始皇 united these states after expanding from his state of Qin to conquer the other six states. In OTL the First Emperor died in the year 532 (221 BC) and was succeeded by Qin Er Shi 秦二世 and his repression of the people, continued from the previous Emperor, was greatly disapproved. Qin Er Shi was able to crush the rebellions of the royal families of the former states of Yan, Zhao, Qi and Wei but they left his administration and the country in turmoil. The State of Chu was rebuilt under the reign of King Huai II and another general who had competed, and lost, the favor of King Huai II, who had later become Emperor Yi of Chu, 楚義帝, in a race to arrive in and be declared King of Guangzhao 广州, Canton. The name of the losing general was Liu Bang and he established the Han Dynasty in the areas that were not controlled by Chu. Liu Bang was named Emperor Gaozu 高祖 after Chu surrendered and he was able to rule a reunified China from the year 533-547 (220-206 BC). Emperor Gaozu made many innovations in the Empire and expanded it greatly into the areas around the formerly warring states. He also started much more trade with the people outside of China, such as the people of India and of Rome even further.
The Start of the Han Dynasty
Established by Emperor Gaozu, the Han dynasty lasted much longer than the precedent that came before it of the short lived Qin Dynasties and the even shorter lived Chu dynasty. Empress Dowager Lu survived after Gaozu's death from illness and had her second son made Emperor in the year 547 (206 BC). His reign, as Emperor Hui 惠, was rather uneventful with things progressing as normal within his administration. Outside of his court however these were revolutionary times in the Han Empire. The Printing press, porcelain, and the smelting of cast iron were all innovations from around of after the time of Emperor Hui. The ideas of Sun Tsu on the Art of War spread throughout the east asian world as well as did literacy, following the standardization of the Sinican Language by Qin Shi Huang earlier. The Han Dynasty also moved to make many innovations in the philosophies that had been destroyed during the purges of the Qin Dynasty. Not only were Confuscianism and Taoism expanded but the idea of Manifest Destiny, that Sinica ought to control the entirety of the world, made many gains in the politics of the Empire. {C}The Death of Emperor Hui was a natural and uneventful one, he was neither hated nor beloved. He was succeeded by his oldest son Liu Gong 劉恭 and was named Emperor Qianshao 前少 who was influenced gratly by these earlier developments in technology and politics. Hui never spent time much with his son and so he was left to Hui's ministers and his mother, a concubine. They were very well read and very influential in the Empire and influenced him in their many discussions with the curious and intellectual youth. The most influential of the new schools of thought under that rose to greatness durign the very tolerant Han Dynasty were Expansionism and Militarism. These were by far the favorite of Emperor Quianshao.
Emepror Gaozu 高祖, First Emperor of the Han Dynasty.
The Sinican Expansion[]
The Han Dynasty under the Imperial Reign of Quianshao expanded beyond the areas of that he had inherited from his father and his father before him. The First of these conquests was the wealthy Korean Peninsula which quickly fell to the hegemony of Sinica, being very similar in culture and governance. The Koreans were given access to the markets of Sinica and were overall very respected by the people of Sinica and integrated into the general population. Korea 韓帝 had a rich history of communication with the Chinese and were very open to the integration.
A much more difficult task was waiting for the conquest of the Southern parts of East Asia. The Area which was called Nanguo 南國, Southern Country, which was lost when the Chu surrendered. The Emperor Gaozu decided to allow them their freedom so he would not spread his army too thin. The campaign in Nanguo resulted in a long struggle that drained much of the treasury of Emperor Qianshao but the effort was worth it. The treasury of Chu had been taken into Nanguo and was not for the Han Emperor and his expansion campaigns. The disorganized tribes forming around the Hand Empire were quickly done away with until the Sinicans struck the Himalaya Mountains and the Maurya Empire in India on the other side. The new trade routes that were available to the People and Merchants of Sinica made it much more connected with its other neighbor to the West, Parthia.
Emperor Qianshao moved onto the borders of Parthia and personally moved hordes of people to establish cities and fortifications on these outskirts. Qianshao would die building his cities and his son,who had been preparing to be Emperor recently, his namewas Liu Zhang though his childhood was contested. The younger brother of Emperor Hui, named Liu Hong, wanted the Imperial throne for himself. Rather than allow himself to be moved from his birthright Liu Hong attacked Liu Zhang in the night in the capital shortly before the death of Qianshao. Liu Hong was met with great resistance not by the military but by the People of the surrounding palace. Liu Hong was known to be a tyrant, as his reputation in the city of Shanghai 上海 proved while he was placed as its Duke. The People, who had been warned of his possible arrival earlier in the year and increasingly as the threat became more apparent, rejected him and his army and decimated most of it with the recent invention of gunpowder placed into cannons rather than fireworks. The Emperor Zhangshao 张少 was proclaimed in this year in a large ceremony in the city of Qin which remained the largest in the Country. Zhangshao became Emperor in the year 593 (160 BC) and ruled for a total of twenty seven years but much of his reign was characterized by an event that took place almost exactly in the middle of his reign in 599 (154 BC).
The Battle for Honk Kong and Taiwan[]
Zhangshao prepared a large fleet to extend his Empire into the areas around the Seas of China among these were the islands of Hainan 海南, Taiwan 台灣, and other areas. The first step to move the necessary amounts of shipping close enough to these shores to cut the costs of a move through the treacherous waters of the South Sinica Sea would be the conquest of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong 香港 had never been fully integrated into any of the major ethnicities of East Asia. It was a nexus of trade from the people of South East Asia, Polynesia, and of course Sinica. It maintained its independence through complex agreements of peace and the hiring of mercenaries, sometimes from slaves in exchange for freedom after the war had been won. The army of Zhangshao began to move to Hong Kong as soon as he had established his reign in the Empire and arrived in the year 599 (154 BC). His campaign was anticipated, due to information from informants associated with the wealthy nobility in the city, and the military prepared themselves. From a few miles outside the city limits the mercenaries of Hong Kong organized themselves under a hierarchy of generals trained and experienced in war.
The troops of Zhangshao came in greater numbers than was anticipated but many of them were not experienced in war as much as the Hongkongese mercenary bands but there were many casualties on both sides. When the number of Hongkongese began to diminish so much that the lines could be easily broken through the messengers of the government of the city ran to warn of the invasion. The numbers on Zhangshao’s side were not as great as he had planned for a full scale invasion of the city if they would not unconditionally surrender. The governor of the city planned for this and the informant was very accurate in his description. The troops of SInica decided to rest for a night and in that night an ultimatum was drawn by the governor of HOng Kong. {C}It amounted to the city of Hong Kong will allow itself to be part of the Han Dynasty if the Emperor would give the son of the Governor a place in the line of succession after Zhangshao’s own son. The agreement stated that more troops were waiting to guard the city of Hong Kong if Zhangshao was to come so close. Zhangshao decided to take this deal and allow the infant son of the Governor, whose name has been lost to history, to be adopted as the second son of Emperor Zhangshao and younger brother of his already thirteen year old son Liu Hao. Zhangshao arrived in Hong Kong and was not angered by the fact that he had been lied to by the government of Hong Kong, this practice was not new for them, but by the fact that no more mercenaries remained to become part of the Sinican Army. Zhangshao in light of these things began to re group his army and was prepared to move into Hainan after his army had recovered its strength and Zhangshao had brought the naval ships down to the harbors of Hong Kong.
These preparations were completed at the end of the Summer in 611 (178 AD) whereupon Zhangshao would move to the island. The people of Hainan were not as resistant as those of Hong Kong. They in many ways invited the Sinicans and were greatly informed of not only the advancements being made in the Han Dynasty but also the death in the Battle of Hong Kong and other campaigns of Zhangshao and his father Qianshao. The only remaining island was taiwan which was fiercely independent.
The army of Taiwan was made up of people from all over South East Asia as well as many native people. The small island though it was, had a strategic position from the standpoint of not only Sinica but also the countries which were protected from Sinica by their lack of Taiwan. The battle began on all sides of the island but most of these troops burned alive in the oceans in the first wave of the conflict. Taiwanese military engineers managed to create a flamethrower type device that could reach the ships of the enemy and increased not only accuracy but the range on this weapon in recent years when they began to see the trend in Sinican expansionist policy. The battle came down to a defense of Taibei 臺北 the capital city after ground troops moved in to fight the invading army after the Sinicans pushed through the lines of defense. The stakes became much higher and the fighting became much more intense and the final capture of the city of Taibei and the death of the government there made it clear who was going to control that island.
The people of this land would never forget the death and destruction that their new masters had brought to them without provocation. The atrocities committed in the cities and in the streets of Taiwan became well known as well as the knowledge that the money in the treasury of that island was stolen and taken to finance more wars from Sinica. The island was in the hands of the Han Dynasty but they would not have a happy reception from its people. It took Eighteen months to take the island of Taiwan.
Emperor Kaika of Japan
Japan[]
The island of Japan had been heavily influenced by the Han Dynasty as well as the dynasties before it. The Japanese Emperors gained many academic and scholastic resources they might not have otherwise had as well as their language and system of government. The group of generals that lived around the Emperor and ran many of the operations of the State, which keep in mind did not extend even to the whole island of Honshu and was very divided by these generals.
The Emperor Korei 孝霊 moved to centralize the authority of the Emperor and succeeded in managing to unite the island of Honshu under his reign. His successor Emperor Kogen 孝元 came to power in 537 (215 BC) and moved to the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku to make the greatest extent of Japan until the annexation of Hokkaido whereupon the Ryukyu islands would be the focus of the next few Emperors as well as increasing the overall unity and development of the state.
Emperor Kaika 開化 who reigned from 596 (157 BC) is most often credited with the foundations of the Universities of Japan as well as the solidification of the Empire. The Japanese had extensive ties with mainland Sinica and were not surprised to see the conquest of Taiwan. The deal that had been struck with the Sinicans was that the Ryukyu islands 琉球諸島 will remain Japanese and the island of Taiwan will be respected as property of Sinica. Emperor Kaika followed this treaty but after his death in the year 615 (138 BC), his militaristic son, who became Emperor Sujin 崇神, made the first breach in this conflict while Sinica developed its military though the accusations would continue to be accusation.
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| 547-615 (206-138 BC) (L'Uniona Homanus) | 615-660 (138-93 BC) (L'Uniona Homanus) |