Chinese warfare and politics in the ancient East Asian international system, ca, 2700 BC to 722 BC

Ancient East Asia is the second oldest "protobellic area" and pristine slate system of international relations within the global international system, after West Asia (ancient Near East). In a previous study Cioffi-Revilla and Lai (1995) reported the first findings on the origins and evolution of war and politics in ancient China (Legendary, Xia [Hsia], Shang, and Western Zhou [Chou] periods), ca. 2700 B.C. to 722 B.C. In this paper we make public an expanded data set (N = 104 cases, 12 variables; version 2.0), explaining our sources, measurements, and data quality control procedures. The new data set will permit investigators to test hypotheses about warfare distributions, ethnic and protracted conflicts, time series, periodicity, system dynamics, and structural relationships (e.g., war-polarity theories). This new long-range data set should also promote a new stage in comparative analyses of the universal and particular properties of warfare and international systems, both cross-polity and longitudinally.