East Asia · Classical Era
Han Dynasty
The dynasty that named a civilization
206 BCE – 220 CE · 426 years
A four-centuries-long dynasty so foundational that 'Han' became the ethnonym for the majority Chinese population.
Where it sits on the calendar
Government
Centralized empire
Writing system
Han-era Chinese script
Estimated peak population
60,000,000
How it ended
Internal political collapse
Traits
How Han Dynasty ended
Court factionalism and regional warlordism fragmented the empire into the Three Kingdoms period.
See other civilizations that fell the same way →Notable for
- Opening of the Silk Road's eastern routes
- Invention of paper
- Civil service exams based on merit
Who else was alive at the same time
8 other civilizations in this dataset overlap with Han Dynasty's 426-year span.
See every overlap involving Han Dynasty →