Ancient China and Ancient Europe

The first dynasty in ancient China was the Xia Dynasty, it was founded around 2200 B.C.. There is not much known about this dynasty since it is so ancient but we do know that the Shang Dynasty came after it and 31 kings ruled the Shang Dynasty. During the Shang Dynasty the capital city’s location was changed 6 times and the last place that it was moved to was Yin in 1350 B.C. and that led to the golden age of the Shang Dynasty.

 The longest lasting dynasty in Chinas history was the Zhou Dynasty that occurred from 1046 B.C to approximately 256 B.C.. The Zhou Dynasty overlapped the Shang Dynasty, as many Chinese dynasty’s existed at the same time. These dynasty’s were followed by the Qin dynasty, and the first emperor Shi Huang lasted 12 years. During the Qin Dynasty the first Great Wall of China was built but it was not considered a great landmark at the time. To the people it represented control and they hated it for a long time. China had many Dynasty’s and today is a major country but it all started with the Xia Dynasty around 2200 B.C..

In contrast to the Dynasties in China ancient Europe had many peoples and tribes. The most populous groups in ancient Europe were the Celts. We do not know much about the Celts and we get most of our information from Roman writings. The Celtic tribes did many fascinating things like marking their graves with large megaliths which are very large stones. They are also responsible for inventing soap, which has served us to this day and is very useful for cleaning and sanitizing. The Celts mined salt and traded it with each other. The Celts conquered more and more of Europe and they even took over Scotland which has developed very much over the course of time.

Chinese and European culture differed in many ways but one thing they shared with cultures everywhere was their inventiveness. One invention during the Han Dynasty witch was the imperial dynasty of China from 206 BC to 220 AD that I found interesting was the use of magnetic stones for building compasses. The invention of the compass helped many other civilizations in navigation and exploration.

 Other comparisons would be how ancient Chinese people lived family style and the Celts lived in clans where many families combined to live in one group. There were also large differences in the religions of the Celts and the people of China. The people of ancient China worshiped their emperor but the Celts thought that all the gods were in nature and they would leave offerings in the forest while they did their every day tasks.

These two remarkable civilizations are fascinating to study and it is interesting to see how they have developed over the years into the nations that they are today, and to watch their future progress.

Information gathered from: Wikipedia Ancient China, Ancient Celts