armies Follow

The recorded military history of China extends from about 1500 BC to the present day. China has the longest period of continuous development of military culture of any civilization in world history and had some of the world's most advanced military until the 16th century. Like the history of China, it is conventionally divided into three periods: ancient China (c. 1500-221 BCE), imperial China (221 BCE-1912 CE), and modern China (1912-present). Throughout most of the first two periods, the Chinese military was shaped by the military threats from the nomadic societies of Mongolia, Manchuria and central Asia, and was also influenced by legalism and later, the persistence of Confucian values. The third period relates to the efforts of the Chinese military to respond technologically and structurally to the military aggressions of the colonial powers, and the establishment of the modern Chinese force.