The Three Kingdoms period followed the fall of the Han dynasty, when China split into three rival states: Wei in the north, Shu Han in the southwest, and Wu in the southeast. In 220 Cao Pi forced the last Han emperor to abdicate and founded Wei, and Liu Bei and Sun Quan established Shu and Wu in the following years. The states fought a long series of wars, and figures such as Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu became famous. Shu fell to Wei in 263, and in 266 the general Sima Yan overthrew the Wei ruler to found the Jin dynasty, which conquered Wu in 280 and reunified the country. The period was later romanticised in the fourteenth-century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Before and after
- c. 200sTeotihuacan becomes the largest city in the Americas
- 203 CEOrigins of Arch of Septimius Severus (Roman Forum)
- 212 CEConstitutio Antoniniana
- 216 CEConstruction of Baths of Caracalla
- from 220 CE to 280 CEThree Kingdoms
- from 220 CE to 638 CEGhassanids
- from 220 CE to 589 CEWei, Jin, Southern and Northern dynasties
- from 224 CE to 651 CESasanian Empire
- from 229 CE to 233 CEFirst Mesopotamian campaign of Ardashir I
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The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 3rd century.