Empire · approximate221 BCE – 206 BCE · 15 years
Qin Dynasty
The 15-year dynasty that invented "China" as a single state.
What it was
Qin Shi Huang unified the warring Chinese kingdoms in 221 BCE, standardized the script, the road gauge, and the currency, and built the first version of the Great Wall and his own terracotta army before dying in 210 BCE. The dynasty collapsed within four years of his death.
Why it mattered
The political unit "China" — single state, single script, single bureaucracy — dates from this brief, brutal dynasty. Even the western name "China" derives from "Qin".
From Wikipedia
The Qin dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty. Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng engaged in a series of wars conquering each of the rival states that had previously pledged fealty to the Zhou. This culminated in 221 BC with the successful unification of China under Emperor Qin, which then assumed an imperial prerogative – with Ying Zheng declaring himself to be Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, and bringing an end to the Warring States period. This state of affairs lasted until 206 BC, when the dynasty collapsed in the years following Qin Shi Huang's death. The Qin dynasty's 14-year existence was the shortest of any major dynasty in Chinese history, with only two emperors. However, the succeeding Han dynasty largely continued the military and administrative practices instituted by the Qin; as a result, the Qin have been credited as the originators of the Chinese imperial system that would endure in some form until the Xinhai Revolution in 1911.
Wikipedia: Qin dynasty·CC BY-SA 4.0
Borders & accuracy
Dashed borders mark empires whose extent we can date but whose precise frontiers are contested or undocumented.
- SOURCEhand-crafted from scholarly atlases
- DETAILhand-traced-from:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_dynasty
- SNAPSHOT210 BCE
- POLITY TYPEstate
Qin Dynasty post-unification
Wars of this empire6
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.
- Warring States Period (China)475–221 BCEWorld-changing · 1.0M dead
- Qin Unification Wars230–221 BCEWorld-changing · 1.0M dead
- Qin Unification of China221–206 BCEWorld-changing · 500K dead
- Qin Conquest of Qi221 BCESignificant · 50K dead
- Rebellions against the Qin dynasty209–206 BCESignificant
- Battle of Xianyang207 BCERegional
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 221 BCE and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: Qin Dynasty (221 BCE – 206 BCE). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/qin-dynasty · Sources & methodology