Map shows region of Zhou Rule.

Image Courtesy of: (http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/ancient1.html#dawn)

The Zhou Dynasty came into power after conquering the last Shang Dynasty in about 1028 B.C. One unique fact about this dynasty was that they called their king the Son of Heaven, this name was given because the Zhou believed that the Shang lost their power by ruling poorly. The Eastern Zhou period was known as the "Shaping Period." This period was very unique because this is when the religions of Confucianism and Daoism took place and came into effect. The Zhou had a system of peasants and lords. The lords which are usually a relative of the Zhou king, would each own a vast section of land and have a certain number of slaves or peasants to work the land for them. Although the lords were not very powerful in the beginning, they grew to be more powerful and some eventually tried to overthrow the king. The consequence that ended the Zhou era was in 771 B.C. After a defeat from their enemies, the political power fell, and the nobles took over. This lasted a while but soon the nobles would engage in small city wars, and in 200 B.C. the whole Zhou era came to an end. Though the Zhou times weren't all bad, they did give many contributions to the next dynasty. The Zhou had many technological advances. They built magnificient roads, and expanded foreign trade. The army of the Zhou was a cavalry, formed when they obtained horses from the nomads. The Zhou army also had a deadly weapon known as the crossbow, which helped in hunting and in fighting. (Three Great Dynasties, 220-221)

References: Farah, Mounir A and Karls, Berens Andrea. World History. Columbus, OH Glencoe/McGraw, 2001. Dolan, Ronald E & Worden, Robert L. China-A Country Study, Library of Congress, 1987. Franke, Herbert & Twitchett, Denis. The Cambridge History of China. vol.6 Cambridge University Press, New York, 1994.