The Qin Dynasty was followed Warring States.After the emperor conquered the Warring States that the Zhou Dynasty has in essence created, China was one nation once more. The unified China was larger than it ever was. This was the first time outside forces acknowledged the existance of another race of people, and aptly named the nation China after the then current dynasty, the Qin.

The first emperor, Qin Shihuang, not only unified China, but went about standardizing writing, weights, and measures throughout his kingdom. This was used to promote internal trade among the newly aquired states. The states each had their own standards of measuring and weighing, and the Qin emperor wanted his kingdom to be as one to strengthen it. This standardization was good for the weights and measurements but was not good for philisophical ideas.

During this time, many schools of thought were outlawed; only legalism was given official sanction. In 213 BCE, all the books of the opposing schools of thought were burned except for the copies held in the Qin imperial library. The only way for emperor to keep his nation together was to have all his subjects think the same way. Any deviation would throw China back to the hundreds of years of warring.

The Qin empire was vast. The first emperor pushed China's borders South to current day Vietnam, and current day Korea. But the central kingdom was still in the Yellow River Valley. Regardless, of all the accomplishments of the Qin, the best known is the Great Wall of China.

The construction of the Great Wall of China did not come without a price. It came with massive financial burden as well as human life. This led to resentment of the Qin emperor by his people. Not only that, the intellectuals were not happy with the emperor either; the books they coveted were burned at his hands.

When the emperor died, China went into a rage, and a rebellion against the Qin dynasty ensued, leading to the next dynasty, the Han.