Prehistory of
Zhao Mo in Guangzhou's
Nanyue King Museum A settlement now known as Nanwucheng was present in the area by 1100 BC. Some traditional Chinese histories placed Nanwucheng's founding during the reign of
King Nan of Zhou,
emperor of
Zhou from 314 to 256 BC. It was said to have consisted of little more than a stockade of bamboo and mud. Panyu was the seat of
Qin Empire's
Nanhai Commandery, and served as a base for the
first invasion of the
Baiyue lands in southern China. Legendary accounts claimed that the soldiers at Panyu were so vigilant that they did not remove their armor for three years. Upon the
fall of the Qin, General
Zhao Tuo established the kingdom of
Nanyue and made Panyu its capital in 204 BC. It remained independent throughout the
Chu-Han Contention, although Zhao negotiated recognition of his independence in exchange for his nominal submission to the
Han in 196 BC. Archeological evidence shows that Panyu was an expansive commercial center: in addition to items from central China, archeologists have found remains originating from
Southeast Asia, India, and even Africa. Zhao Tuo was succeeded by
Zhao Mo and then Zhao Yingqi. Upon
Zhao Yingqi's death in 115 BC, his younger son
Zhao Xing was named as his successor in violation of Chinese
primogeniture. By 113 BC, his
Chinese mother, the Empress Dowager Jiu () had prevailed upon him to submit Nanyue as a formal part of the Han Empire. The native
prime minister Lü Jia launched a coup, killing Han ambassadors along with the king, his mother, and their supporters. A successful ambush then annihilated a Han force which had been sent to arrest him.
Emperor Wu of Han took offense and launched
a massive riverine and seaborne war: six armies under
Lu Bode and Yang Pu took Panyu and annexed Nanyue by the end of 111 BC.
Imperial China in 1810 Incorporated into the
Han dynasty, Panyu became a provincial capital. In AD 226, it became the seat of Guang
Prefecture, which gave it its modern name. The
Old Book of Tang described Guangzhou as an important port in southern China. Direct routes connected the Middle East and China, as shown in the records of a Chinese prisoner returning home from Iraq twelve years after his capture at
Talas. Relations were often strained: while China was undergoing the
An Lushan Rebellion, Arab and Persian pirates
sacked the city on 30 October 758 and in revenge thousands of Arabs and Persians were killed by Chinese rebels in the
Yangzhou massacre (760). In the
Guangzhou massacre about 200,000 Arab, Persian and other foreigners were killed by Chinese rebel
Huang Chao in 878, along with the city's
Jews,
Christians, and
Parsis. The port was closed for fifty years after its destruction. According to
Odoric of Pordenone, Guangzhou was as large as three Venices in terms of area, and rivaled all of Italy in the amount of crafts produced. He also noted the large amount of ginger available as well as large geese and snakes. Guangzhou was visited by the
Moroccan traveler
Ibn Battuta during his journey around the world in the 14th century. He detailed the process by which the Chinese constructed their large ships in the port's shipyards. Shortly after the
Hongwu Emperor's declaration of the
Ming dynasty, he reversed his earlier support of
foreign trade and imposed the first of a series of
sea bans. These banned private foreign trade upon penalty of death for the merchant and exile for his family and neighbors. Previous maritime intendancies of Guangzhou,
Quanzhou, and
Ningbo were closed in 1384 and legal trade became limited to the
tribute delegations sent to or by official representatives of foreign governments. Following the
Portuguese conquest of the
Melaka Sultanate,
Rafael Perestrello traveled to Guangzhou as a passenger on a native
junk in 1516. His report induced
Fernão Pires de Andrade to sail to the city with eight ships the next year, but De Andrade's exploration was understood as spying and his brother Simão and others began attempting to monopolize trade, enslaving Chinese women and children, engaging in piracy, and fortifying the island of
Tamão. Rumors even circulated that Portuguese were eating the children. The Guangzhou administration was charged with driving them off: they bested the Portuguese at the
Battle of Tunmen and in
Xicao Bay; held a
diplomatic mission hostage in a failed attempt to pressure the restoration of the
sultan of Malacca, who had been accounted
a Ming vassal; and, after placing them in
cangues and keeping them for most of a year, ultimately executed 23 by
lingchi. With the help of local pirates, 's imaginative 1665 map of "Kanton", made from secondhand accounts when Europeans were still forbidden from entering the walled city In October 1646, the
Longwu Emperor's brother,
Zhu Yuyue fled by sea to Guangzhou, the last stronghold of the
Ming empire. On December 11, he declared himself the Shaowu Emperor, borrowing his imperial regalia from local theater troupes. He led a successful offense against his cousin
Zhu Youlang but was deposed and executed on January 20, 1647, when the Ming turncoat Li Chengdong () sacked the city on behalf of the
Qing. The Qing became somewhat more receptive to foreign trade after gaining control of
Taiwan in 1683. The
Portuguese from
Macau and
Spaniards from
Manila returned, as did private Muslim,
Armenian, and
English traders. From 1699 to 1714, the
French and
British East India Companies sent a ship or two each year; the
Austrian Ostend General India Co. arrived in 1717, the
Dutch East India Co. in 1729, the
Danish Asiatic Co. in 1731, and the
Swedish East India Co. the next year. These were joined by the occasional
Prussian or
Trieste Company vessel. The first independent American ship arrived in 1784, and the first
colonial Australian one in 1788. By that time, Guangzhou was one of the world's greatest ports, organized under the
Canton System. The main exports were
tea and
porcelain. As a meeting place of merchants from all over the world, Guangzhou became a major contributor to the rise of the modern global economy. Guangzhou is the site of the
Thirteen Factories, which were the only legal place to conduct foreign trade with China from 1757 to 1842. In the 19th century, most of the city's buildings were still only one or two stories. However, there were notable exceptions such as the
Flower Pagoda of the
Temple of the Six Banyan Trees, and the guard tower known as the
Five-Story Pagoda. The subsequently urbanized northern hills were bare and covered with traditional graves. The brick city walls were about in circumference, high, and wide. Its eight main gates and two water gates all held guards during the day and were closed at night. The wall rose to incorporate a hill on its northern side and was surrounded on the other three by a moat which, along with the canals, functioned as the city's sewer, emptied daily by the river's tides. A partition wall with four gates divided the northern "old town" from the southern "new town" closer to the river; the suburb of
Xiguan (Saikwan; "West Gate") stretched beyond and the boats of fishers, traders, and
Tanka ("boat people") almost entirely concealed the riverbank for about . It was common for homes to have a storefront facing the street and to treat their
courtyards as a kind of warehouse. The city was part of a network of signal towers so effective that messages could be relayed to
Beijing—about away—in less than 24 hours. ,
Pazhou,
Changzhou, and
Xiaoguwei in 1841 The Canton System was maintained until the outbreak of the
First Opium War in 1839. Following a series of battles in the
Pearl River Delta, the British
captured Canton on March 18, 1841. The
Second Battle of Canton was fought two months later. Following the Qing's 1842
treaty with
Great Britain, Guangzhou lost its privileged trade status as more and more
treaty ports were opened to more and more countries, usually including extraterritorial enclaves. Amid the decline of Qing prestige and the chaos of the
Red Turban Rebellion (1854–1856), the
Punti and
Hakka waged
a series of clan wars from 1855 to 1867 in which one million people died. The foreign trade facilities were destroyed by local Chinese in the
Arrow War (1856–1858). The international community relocated to the outskirts and most international trade moved through
Shanghai. The concession for the
Guangzhou–Hankou railway was awarded to the
American China Development Company in 1898. It completed
its branch line west to
Foshan and
Sanshui before being engulfed in a diplomatic crisis after a Belgian consortium bought a controlling interest and the Qing subsequently canceled its concession.
J. P. Morgan was awarded millions in damages and the line to
Wuchang was not completed until 1936 and the completion of a unified
Beijing–Guangzhou railway waited until the completion of
Wuhan's
Yangtze River Bridge in 1957.
Modern China Revolutions During the late Qing dynasty, Guangzhou was the site of revolutionary attempts such as the
Uprisings of 1895 and
1911 that were the predecessors of the successful
1911 Revolution, which overthrew the Qing dynasty. The 72 revolutionaries whose bodies were found after the latter uprising are honored as the city's 72
Martyrs at the ().
Republic of China After the assassination of
Song Jiaoren and
Yuan Shikai's attempts to remove the
Nationalist Party of China from power, the leader of Guangdong
Hu Hanmin joined the 1913
Second Revolution against him but was forced to flee to
Japan with
Sun Yat-sen after its failure. The city came under national spotlight again in 1917, when Prime Minister
Duan Qirui's abrogation of the constitution triggered the
Constitutional Protection Movement.
Sun Yat-sen came to head the
Guangzhou Military Government supported by the members of the dissolved parliament and the Southwestern warlords. The Guangzhou government fell apart as the warlords withdrew their support. Sun fled to
Shanghai in November 1918 until the Guangdong warlord
Chen Jiongming restored him in October 1920 during the
Yuegui Wars. On June 16, 1922, Sun was ousted in a coup and fled on the warship
Yongfeng after Chen sided with the
Zhili clique's
Beijing government. In the following months Sun mounted a counterattack into Guangdong by rallying supporters from Yunnan and Guangxi, and in January established
a government in the city for the third time. From 1923 to 1926, Sun Yat-sen and the
Kuomintang (KMT)
used the city as a base to prosecute a renewed revolution in China by conquering the warlords in the north. Although Sun was previously dependent on opportunistic warlords who hosted him in the city, with the leadership of
Chiang Kai-shek, the KMT developed its own military power to serve its ambition. The Canton years saw the evolution of the KMT into a revolutionary movement with a strong military focus and ideological commitment, setting the tone of the KMT rule of China beyond 1927. In 1924, the KMT made the momentous decision to ally with the Communist Party and the USSR. With Soviet help, KMT reorganized itself along the Leninist line and adopted a pro-labor and pro-peasant stance. The
KMT–CCP cooperation was confirmed in the
1st National Congress of the KMT and the communists were instructed to join the KMT. The allied government set up the
Peasant Movement Training Institute in the city, of which
Mao Zedong was a director for one term. Sun and his military commander Chiang used
Soviet funds and weapons to build an armed force staffed by communist commissars, training its cadres in the
Whampoa Military Academy. In August, the fledgling army suppressed the
Canton Merchants' Corps Uprising. The next year the anti-imperialist
May Thirtieth Movement swept the country, and the KMT government called for strikes in Canton and Hong Kong. The tensions of the massive strikes and protests led to the
Shakee Massacre. After the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925 the mood was changing in the party toward the communists. In August the left-wing KMT leader
Liao Zhongkai was assassinated and the right-wing leader
Hu Hanmin, the suspected mastermind, was exiled to the Soviet Union, leaving the pro-communist
Wang Jingwei in charge. Opposing communist encroachment, the right-wing
Western Hills Group vowed to expel the communists from the KMT. The
Canton Coup on March 20, 1926, saw Chiang solidify his control over the
Nationalists and
their army against
Wang Jingwei, the party's left wing, its
Communist allies, and its
Soviet advisors. By May, he had ended civilian control of the military The opposition to Chiang included KMT leaders like
Wang Jingwei,
Sun Fo and others from diverse factions. The peace negotiations amid the armed standoff led to the
4th National Congress of Kuomintang being held separately by three factions in Nanjing, Shanghai, and Canton. Resigning all his posts, Chiang pulled off a political compromise that reunited all factions. While the intraparty division was resolved, Chen kept his power until he was defeated by Chiang in 1936. During
World War II, the
Canton Operation subjected the city to
Japanese occupation by the end of December 1938.
People's Republic of China Amid the closing months before total Communist victory, Guangzhou briefly served as the capital of the Republican government. Guangzhou was captured on October 14, 1949. Amid a massive exodus to
Hong Kong and
Macau, defeated Nationalist forces blew up the
Haizhu Bridge across the Pearl River in retreat. The Cultural Revolution had a large effect on the city, with many of its temples, churches and other monuments destroyed during this chaotic period. The
People's Republic of China initiated building projects including new housing on the banks of the Pearl River to adjust the city's
boat people to life on land. Since the 1980s, the city's close proximity to
Hong Kong and its ties to
overseas Chinese made it one of the first beneficiaries of China's
opening up under
Deng Xiaoping. Beneficial tax reforms in the 1990s also helped the city's industrialization and economic development. The municipality was expanded in the year 2000, with
Huadu and
Panyu joining the city as
urban districts and
Conghua and
Zengcheng as more rural
counties. The former districts of
Dongshan and
Fangcun were abolished in 2005, merged into
Yuexiu and
Liwan respectively. The city acquired
Nansha and
Luogang. The former was carved out of
Panyu, the latter from parts of
Baiyun,
Tianhe,
Zengcheng, and an exclave within
Huangpu. The
National People's Congress approved a development plan for the
Pearl River Delta in January 2009; on March 19 of the same year, the Guangzhou and
Foshan municipal governments agreed to establish a framework to merge the two cities. In 2014,
Luogang merged into
Huangpu and both
Conghua and
Zengcheng counties were upgraded to districts. On 16 June 2022, an
EF2 tornado struck the city, causing major power outages and knocking out power to the city's subway lines. == Geography==