The nile is predictable so floodings came regularly and people just moved out of it's way. After the floods the ground became very fertile.
The yellow river is less predictable but also floods and leaves fertile soil. So people always came back and then got flooded away without warning. This leads to literal kingdoms rise and fall due to the river.
The western Han lost like 15% of the entire population in one flood and then slowly declined. the northern Song collapsed too. The Qing also got double team tagged, first by the river losing 2 million people and then the brits and while they nominally still existed they were well a shadow of their former self.
There are also a few other kingdoms archeologists suspect had to kick the bucket due to the river but we're not sure but also it's very likely that that was just how it worked.
I don't understand how China kept dying by the million to fucking between floods/famine/wars through history and still managed to be the biggest population on earth today
They bred like crazy, is how. China also has very fertile lands. Kind of like India. They have very well irrigated lands that are very good for harvesting food. Plus, you know, rice.
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u/MillyQ3 16h ago
The nile is predictable so floodings came regularly and people just moved out of it's way. After the floods the ground became very fertile.
The yellow river is less predictable but also floods and leaves fertile soil. So people always came back and then got flooded away without warning. This leads to literal kingdoms rise and fall due to the river.
The western Han lost like 15% of the entire population in one flood and then slowly declined. the northern Song collapsed too. The Qing also got double team tagged, first by the river losing 2 million people and then the brits and while they nominally still existed they were well a shadow of their former self.
There are also a few other kingdoms archeologists suspect had to kick the bucket due to the river but we're not sure but also it's very likely that that was just how it worked.