East Asia · Ming, Joseon, Ryukyu and the later steppe
Ming Dynasty
1368–1644
The Ming (1368–1644) was founded by the peasant rebel Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor) after expelling the Mongols, capitals Nanjing then Beijing (from 1421 under the Yongle Emperor). It restored Han Chinese rule and Confucian government, built the surviving Great Wall and the Forbidden City, launched Zheng He's great maritime voyages (1405–1433), and produced the Yongle Encyclopedia and vibrant vernacular literature.
- Existed
- 1368–1644
- Shown on the map
- 1375–1644
- Peak area
- 6.4M km²
- Region
- East Asia
Overview
The Ming (1368–1644) was founded by the peasant rebel Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor) after expelling the Mongols, capitals Nanjing then Beijing (from 1421 under the Yongle Emperor). It restored Han Chinese rule and Confucian government, built the surviving Great Wall and the Forbidden City, launched Zheng He's great maritime voyages (1405–1433), and produced the Yongle Encyclopedia and vibrant vernacular literature. Decline came through fiscal crisis, factional eunuch politics, famines, and peasant revolt; Beijing fell to Li Zicheng in 1644, and the Qing seized power.
Common questions
- What was the Ming Dynasty?
- The Ming (1368–1644) was founded by the peasant rebel Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor) after expelling the Mongols, capitals Nanjing then Beijing (from 1421 under the Yongle Emperor). It restored Han Chinese rule and Confucian government, built the surviving Great Wall and the Forbidden City, launched Zheng He's great maritime voyages (1405–1433), and produced the Yongle Encyclopedia and vibrant vernacular literature.
- When did the Ming Dynasty exist?
- The Ming Dynasty existed 1368–1644. On this map it is drawn 1375–1644.
- How large was the Ming Dynasty?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Ming Dynasty covered about 6.4 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Ming dynasty en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_dynasty
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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