Timeline of Major Events during the Zhou Dyansty

1046 BCE - The Shang Dynasty ends. The last emperor to rule the civilization, Zhou, was atrocious to his people. The Zhou tribe knew they had to end him, while planning the tribe leader, Wenwang passed away. Soon after his son, Wuwang succeeded him and managed to take over and overthrow the emperor.

1050 BCE - The Zhou Dynasty begins, ruled by King Zhou. It is the start of two time periods of Zhou, called the Western Zhou. Since the Zhou people conquered the Shang Dynasty, they had gained imperial power over the central part of China.

771 BCE - The ending of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The empire was weakening, powerful Chinese stated and nomadic tribes teamed together to attack parts of the capital. Soon King You of Zhou was forced to move the capital which at the time was Xian to a more protected area, which now is known as present day Luoyang.

770 BCE - The beginning of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The new capital’s location helped prevent attacks. Now ruled by King Ping of Zhou, with him came less of such a dictating empire, more and more powerful states in China became almost fully independent. The kings also after that did not rule as much politically over the states.

221 BCE - The ending of the Zhou Dynasty. Once Qin conquered all eight major states, the last one being Qi. He was able to have done this from his total-war strategy. Though the Qin empire only lasted 15 years.