History of Beijing

The first traces of an urban life are from -1045 BC. At that time, the name of the city was Ji. From 476 to 221 BC, it became the capital of the kingdom of Yan. Invaded by the First Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, it becomes in 226 BC one of the 36 prefectures of the new empire. From 916 to 1125, Beijing became the capital of the Liao. In 1153, it is the Jin Dynasty who established his capital under the name Zhongdu (the center capital). In 1215 the Mongol army, under the command of Genghis Khan, invaded Beijing and reduced it to ashes. He rebuilt it and called it Khanbaliq. The rebuilding, he renamed Khanbaliq. In 1272, his grandson, the Emperor Kublai Khan, made ​​it the capital of the new Yuan Dynasty and given it the name of Dadu (Great Capital).

The capital was sacked in 1368 by the mercenary Zhu Yanhang who founded the Ming Dynasty. The capital is then moved to the south, at Nanjing (the capital of the south), and this until 1421 when the Ming returns to Beijing. It is in this time that the city was restructured with the construction of large building as the Forbidden City.

In 1644, the Manchus, a people of northern China, invaded China, moved to Beijing and founded the last dynasty of China: Qing.

In 1860, at the end of the Opium Wars, the Franco-British forces invaded the capital and sacked the former Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan). In 1900, yet these are the French and the English who put fire to the new Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) to avenge the Boxer Rebellion against foreigners in China.

In 1912, the last Emperor Puyi abdicated. Chinese Republic is inaugurated by Sun Yat-sen in Nanjing. It cedes power to Yuan Shikai who transferred the republican government in Beijing.

In 1916, Yuan Shikai died. This is the beginning of the period of warlords.

The Japanese army invaded Beijing in 1937 and capitulated Aug. 14, 1945.

In 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic. Beijing becomes the capital of the reunified China until now..