The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

Rebellion broke out among the hundreds of thousands of peasants conscripted to repair the levees of the Yellow River. The rebels, known as Red Turbans and affiliated with the Buddhist White Lotus society, rose against the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. Their grievances included institutionalized ethnic discrimination against Han people, overtaxation amid inflation, and the economic ruin caused by massive flooding.

Zhu Yuanzhang, a penniless peasant and former Buddhist monk, joined the Red Turban rebels. He quickly gained a reputation after marrying the foster daughter of a rebel commander. In 1356, Zhu's rebel force captured Nanjing, which he would later establish as the capital of the Ming dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his archrival Chen Youliang, leader of the rebel Han faction, in the Battle of Lake Poyang, described by some historians as the largest naval battle in history. Using fire ships, Zhu's force of 200,000 sailors defeated a rebel force claimed to be more than triple their size. The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction, cementing Zhu's control over the Yangtze valley.

Zhu Yuanzhang declared the founding of the Ming dynasty, taking the era name Hongwu ("Vastly Martial"). His armies captured the Yuan capital of Dadu, and the last Yuan emperor fled north. Zhu became the Hongwu Emperor, the first of sixteen Ming emperors, ruling until 1398. The dynasty's standing army exceeded one million troops, and its navy dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world.

The Hongwu Emperor executed his Chancellor Hu Weiyong upon suspicion of a conspiracy to overthrow him. He then abolished the Chancellery and assumed the role of chief executive and emperor himself, a precedent followed throughout the Ming period. He also established the Embroidered Uniform Guard, a network of secret police, amid growing suspicion of his ministers and subjects. His Great Ming Code, a new Confucian law code, was completed by 1397.

After the Hongwu Emperor's death in 1398, his teenage successor, the Jianwen Emperor, attempted to curtail the power of his uncles. This prompted the Jingnan campaign, an uprising by the Prince of Yan that placed him on the throne as the Yongle Emperor in 1402. The Yongle Emperor established Beijing as a secondary capital, constructed the Forbidden City, and restored the Grand Canal and the primacy of imperial examinations in official appointments.

Between 1405 and 1433, the eunuch admiral Zheng He led seven enormous treasure voyages into the Indian Ocean, reaching Arabia and the eastern coasts of Africa. The fleets comprised hundreds of ships, including the largest wooden vessels of the era, and carried trade goods and diplomatic missions across Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. The voyages were discontinued after Zheng He's death, and the imperial navy was later allowed to fall into disrepair.

The Yongle Emperor completed construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing, a palace complex of approximately 980 buildings covering 72 hectares. Beijing was formally designated the primary capital. The Forbidden City served as the imperial residence and political center of China for nearly 500 years, through the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Ming Emperor Yingzong was captured by Oirat Mongol forces at the Battle of Tumu after being persuaded to lead a personal campaign north. The defeat ended the era of imperial extravagance, and the imperial navy was allowed to fall into disrepair. The dynasty turned inward, fortifying the Great Wall into its modern form, while the capture of an emperor dealt a lasting blow to imperial prestige.

Portuguese traders, who first reached the South China coast around 1513, were permitted to establish a permanent settlement at Macau in 1557. European trade, though restricted to islands near Guangzhou, spread the Columbian exchange into China, introducing chili peppers, maize, and potatoes. The influx of South American silver from Spanish and Portuguese trade re-monetized the Ming economy, whose paper money had suffered repeated hyperinflation.

Rebel forces led by Li Zicheng, whose uprising was fueled by crop failures, floods, epidemics, and a silver shortage caused by disrupted imports during the Little Ice Age, entered Beijing. The Chongzhen Emperor died in the fall of the capital, and Li established the short-lived Shun dynasty. The Manchu-led Eight Banner armies of the Qing dynasty then defeated Li with the help of the defecting Ming general Wu Sangui.

Rump regimes ruled by remnants of the Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, continued to resist the Qing dynasty in southern China for nearly two decades. The last major holdout, the Kingdom of Tungning on Taiwan led by the Zheng family, was defeated in 1683. The fall of the Southern Ming marked the final end of the Ming dynasty.