Topic summary

Conquest dynasty

Conquest dynasty

Dynasties of China ruled by non-Han ethnicities In the history of China, a conquest dynasty (Chinese: 征服王朝; pinyin: Zhēngfú Wángcháo) is a dynasty established by non-Han ethnicities who ruled parts or all of China proper – the traditional heartlands of the Han people – via military invasion and conquest. The ruling sovereigns and aristocracy of such dynasties may or may not have assimilated into the dominant Han culture, and may or may not even acknowledged themselves as Chinese. The term was coined in 1949 by German-American sinologist Karl August Wittfogel (1896–1988), who described four major dynasties as what traditionally would have been considered "conquest dynasties": The Liao dynasty (916–1125), established by the Yelü Khitans, who ruled over Northeast China Plain and northern parts of the North China Plain after conquering the Later Jin dynasty; The Jin dynasty (1115–1234), established by the Wanyan Jurchens, who overthrew Liao and ended the Northern Song dynasty; The Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), established by the Borjigin Mongols, who rules over all of China after conquering Southern Song. It was originally a division of Mongol Empire (1206–1368),