Empire1368 – 1644 · 276 years
Ming Dynasty
The dynasty that rebuilt China after the Mongols, sailed to Africa, and then turned inward forever.
What it was
The Ming (1368–1644) restored ethnic Han rule, rebuilt the Great Wall in its iconic stone form, moved the capital to Beijing, and dispatched the massive treasure fleets of Zheng He to Southeast Asia and East Africa. After 1433 they abruptly halted overseas voyages and turned to defending the agrarian heartland.
Why it mattered
The Ming withdrawal from maritime exploration is a textbook example of how dominant powers can voluntarily surrender strategic positions — Europeans filled the Indian Ocean trade vacuum within a few generations.
From Wikipedia
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng, numerous rump regimes ruled by remnants of the Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, survived until 1662.
Wikipedia: Ming dynasty·CC BY-SA 4.0
Borders & accuracy
Solid borders are reconstructed from canonical historical-basemap data or hand-crafted from scholarly atlases.
- SOURCEaourednik / historical-basemaps
- DETAILhistorical-basemaps:1500:Ming Chinese Empire
- SNAPSHOT1500
- MATCHEDMing Chinese Empire
- POLITY TYPEstate
Wars of this empire48
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.
- Qing Conquest of Ming China1618–83World-changing · 5.0M dead
- Manchu Conquest of China1616–83World-changing · 3.0M dead
- Lam Sơn uprising1418–28World-changing
- Ming-Qing Transition1618–83Major conflict · 2.0M dead
- Major conflict · 1.0M dead
- Major conflict · 1.0M dead
- Major conflict · 500K dead
- Ming–Hồ War1406–07Major conflict
- Major conflict
- Ming Dynasty Conflicts1368–1435Significant · 500K dead
- Ming Invasion of Vietnam1407–27Significant · 500K dead
- Japanese Invasions of Korea1592–98Significant · 300K dead
- Imjin War Second Phase1597–98Significant · 200K dead
- Tumu Crisis1449Significant · 100K dead
- Ming–Mong Mao War1386–88Significant
- Significant
- Jiajing wokou raids1540–67Significant
- Regional · 500K dead
- Toktamish-Ming Conflicts1372–88Regional · 200K dead
- Jiajing Mongol Raids1550–66Regional · 200K dead
- Regional · 100K dead
- Ningxia Rebellion1592–95Regional · 100K dead
- Battle of Xiamen1633Regional · 20K dead
- Regional
+ 24 more in the atlas.
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 1368 and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/ming-dynasty-1400 · Sources & methodology