China was very different. It was isolated and liked it that way.

The Qing Dynasty which can be discerned in segmented lines of this map was the primary ruling family when The West would come to call.

China's history is not one of a conquering peoples. The nation was always self-serving. They didn't really engage in wars unless it was to defend themselves. China built walls.

Oh, there were a few Chinese considered to be conquers. There was Shih Huang, but, that was BC. The Qing Dynasty would not come to prominence until the 1100s.

SHIH HUANG  (click here)
259-210 BC
The boy known as Ch'eng inherited a minor throne in China at the age of just 13. As an adult, he was a superb organiser. His achievement was not just in conquering the different regions of China in just nine years, but unifying them as an empire. With two trusted ministers, he established a bureaucracy, taxation, standardised weights and measures and a system of ruthless punishments for lawbreaking. The first emperor of China is perhaps most famous for the terracotta army guarding his tomb. More than 8,000 life-sized warriors were created, as well as 600 horses and 130 chariots. In the centralised government he created, the emperor was almost a figurehead. The structure of government was so successful that when Shih Huang died at 49, his two most powerful ministers carried on without him for four years before they quarrelled and his death became public knowledge.

The Chinese leadership, even today, simply love their history. They love to embrace the past and encourage archeological digs to learn more and more of their past. They still maintain the "China" focus in their politics. They don't like negativity in regard to their nation.

There is also Genghis Khan, but, he was a Mongolian. He was known to carry out vicious campaign about the beginning of the 13th century. He was born in 1162 and died in 1227. So most of his mischief was in the late 12th and early 13th century. In all honesty, Khan was never really considered to be baseline Chinese.

Genghis Khan a Prolific Lover, DNA Data Implies (click here)

Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News

February 14, 2003

Genghis Khan, the fearsome Mongolian warrior of the 13th century, may have done more than rule the largest empire in the world; according to a recently published genetic study, he may have helped populate it too.

An international group of geneticists studying Y-chromosome data have found that nearly 8 percent of the men living in the region of the former Mongol empire carry y-chromosomes that are nearly identical. That translates to 0.5 percent of the male population in the world, or roughly 16 million descendants living today....

But, for the most part China was a closed society whereby the people considered China the center of the universe. They didn't identify a world outside of China. Their rituals and customs were all based in the understanding China was at the center of their lives. 

The Qing (Pronunciation:  ch ee ng) Dynasty lasted from 1644 - 1911 (click here). The Chinese primarily conquered within their territory. Before the Qing Dynasty was the Ming Dynasty. They simply changed leadership.

The late 1800s provided very challenging for the Qing Dynasty when The West came to frequent it's shores. The article below provides some insight.

Chinese Journal of International Politics, Vol. 1, 2007, 405–445 (click here)

It must be pointed out that Fairbank later corrected his views on Chinese history. He admitted that China’s modernization was primarily a result of internal Chinese dynamics and initiatives, with only limited Western influence. See John Fairbank, Meiguo yu Zhongguo

This is a footnote from the article. It validates my understanding of the Chinese culture. They are self contained. They don't fancy conquest so much as security.