The Ming Dynasty, also known as the Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty in China throughout the years 1368-1644, it was considered one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history. The Ming dynasty came into power following the collapse of the previous dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty. The Ming dynasty is considered one of the best times for both economic growth and social movement for China. The Ming dynasty would go into history as the last dynasty in China to be ruled by authentic Hans.

The Ming dynasty was eventually overthrown by Beijing and the Manchu Qing dynasty.

While in power, the Ming dynasty had a lot of major accomplishments. Some of these accomplishments include the restoration of the Grand Canal and the Great Wall of China, as well as the establishment of the "Forbidden City" in Beijing during the beginning half of the 15th century. The "Forbidden City" was created to house the Emperor and his household, as well as other "high up" political officials. The "Forbidden City" is now a Palace Museum. The Ming dynasty is thought to have been made up of around 180 million people, and is one of the first dynasties where a system similar to capitalism was emerged.

The Ming Dynasty saw fewer technological and scientific advances compared to some of the other dynasties such as the Song dynasty, and compared to the Western World civilizations. Many of this population's scientific and technological advances didn't appear until after the rule of the Ming Dynasty, around 1644. Many things such as the telescope and the heliocentric model were discovered shortly after.

Religion in the Ming Dynasty was pretty much universal. Many people believed in what was called Chinese Folk Religion. Many others believed in Daoism (Taoism) and some forms for Chinese adapted Buddhism. Although Christianity had existed in this area at this time, it wasn't nearly as popular as it is today across the world.

The economy of the Ming Dynasty was very advanced for their time. It was also considered one of the largest economies of that time period. Many of the economics consisted of increased political influence of lower class citizens such as merchants, the slow weakening of imperial rule, and some technological advances.

The collapse of the Ming dynasty started as early as 1600, which was when the Manchu were prominent. The Ming dynasty was able to fight off the Manchu several times; two of the better known battles would be the ones in 1623 and 1628. Despite this, the Ming dynasty was unable to recapture the rule, and eventually fell to the Manchu's as mentioned in the beginning of this article.