How did Ancient Asian Empires successfully evolve from isolation into globally influential cultures?

The complex and powerful states, dynasties, and civilizations that emerged in East Asia were strongly influenced by the environments in which they prospered.

Explanation:

What were the geologic and geographic advantages favoring certain locations that facilitated the establishment of villages and towns — some of which grew into cities — in various regions of East Asia? What role did climate play in enabling powerful states, and eventually agrarian civilizations, to appear in some areas while other locations remained better suited for foraging? Let’s begin to answer these questions with a story about floods in China.

China’s two great rivers — the Yangtze and the Yellow — have been susceptible to regular flooding for as long as we can measure in the historical and geological record; nothing, however, can compare to the catastrophic floods of August 19, 1931. In just one day the Yangtze River rose an astonishing 53 feet above its normal level, unleashing some of the most destructive floodwaters ever seen. These floods were a product of a “perfect storm” of conditions — monsoons, heavy snowmelt, and tremendous and unexpected rains that pounded huge areas of southern China. As all this water poured into the Yangtze’s tributaries, the river rose until it burst its banks for hundreds of miles. The results were devastating — 40 million people impacted, 24 million forced to relocate, and more than 140,000 people drowned. An area the size of Oklahoma was underwater, and the southern capital city of Nanjing was flooded for six weeks.