Essay On The Shang Dynasty

A dynastic cycle is when a certain dynasty stays in power unless overthrown by the government. Most of this was decided by the Mandate of Heaven, which is when the current ruler gets permission from the Gods to continue his reign until death and then the next descendant would take over the throne. One of the biggest dynasties in China was the Zhou Dynasty. They defeated the Shang and gained control in 1027 B.C. The next dynasty that came along was the Qin Dynasty. They had ruled from 221 B.C. to 207 B.C. (Travel China Guide, Qin Dynasty) and had only two emperors in their dynasty to rule over China.
During the warring states period (about 476 B.C. to 221 B.C.), Emperor Qin Shi Huang, had defeated the 6 other territories, the Han, Zhao, Wei, Yan, Chu and Qi. Once Huang’s reign was over, (National Geographic, Terra Cotta Army Protects First Emperors
It was made to mark territories and protect the area from outside threats. In order to build it, he needed workers; this is when forced labor went into effect. Those workers were mostly peasants but some were demanded to work on the wall as a punishment, those were usually the criminals of the area. As Huang’s reign went on, he began to feel a sense of power and significance, he usually didn’t want to accept other’s beliefs unless they exactly like his and this led him to imprison/kill those that did.
Most of those people were Confucians, he started believing that killing/imprisoning those that were Confucian, and he would burn all of their historical and record books that held Confucian information. While doing that he was preparing his tomb for death, but also looking for ways to become immortal. When the emperor died in 210 B.C., the Han dynasty took over and the Qin Dynasties reign was over. They ended up staying in power for over 400 years. During that time the Mongolians, (led by Genghis Kahn) were on their way to conquering China as a