East Asia · Confederacies, Han and the steppe
Cao Cao
155–220 CE
Cao Cao (155–220 CE) was the dominant warlord of the late Eastern Han who unified northern China. As Chancellor he controlled Emperor Xian, winning the pivotal Battle of Guandu (200) against Yuan Shao but losing at Red Cliffs (208) to the Sun–Liu alliance, which cemented the tripartite division.
- Existed
- 155–220 CE
- Shown on the map
- AD 197–223
- Peak area
- 1.4M km²
- Region
- East Asia
Overview
Cao Cao (155–220 CE) was the dominant warlord of the late Eastern Han who unified northern China. As Chancellor he controlled Emperor Xian, winning the pivotal Battle of Guandu (200) against Yuan Shao but losing at Red Cliffs (208) to the Sun–Liu alliance, which cemented the tripartite division. Named King of Wei in 216, he never took the imperial title; his son Cao Pi founded Cao Wei in 220. Cao Cao is renowned as a general, administrator (the tuntian agricultural colonies), and poet.
Common questions
- What was Cao Cao?
- Cao Cao (155–220 CE) was the dominant warlord of the late Eastern Han who unified northern China. As Chancellor he controlled Emperor Xian, winning the pivotal Battle of Guandu (200) against Yuan Shao but losing at Red Cliffs (208) to the Sun–Liu alliance, which cemented the tripartite division.
- When did Cao Cao exist?
- Cao Cao existed 155–220 CE. On this map it is drawn AD 197–223.
- How large was Cao Cao?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Cao Cao covered about 1.4 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Cao Cao en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cao_Cao
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
See Cao Cao in its world
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