China is an ancient civilization with a history of more than 5,000 years, and has left legendary deeds in various dynasties, among which the Ming Dynasty is even more brilliant than other countries in the torrent of history, and it is very backbone to refuse whether it is managing the country or facing foreign aggression. Unlike the dynasties, it did not have any policy of peace and affinity, nor did it ever do such a soft thing as the indemnity of the land, and it did not even pay tribute.
Speaking of the Chongzhen Emperor, he can be described as a very backbone person, in the face of foreign aggression, he did not give in to death, and finally ended his life by suicide. However, when we look at the map of the Ming Dynasty, we find that from the early days to the later, the land area of the Ming Dynasty has been decreasing. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the land area could reach 9.97 million square kilometers, but in the later period, even half of it was gone. The Ming Dynasty never paid compensation for the cession of land, so why has the land area been decreasing?
It turned out to be because of the policies implemented by the Ming Dynasty at that time. At that time, the Ming Dynasty was a country with many ethnic minorities, and when it came to administering these ethnic minorities, it implemented a special ethnic policy. The policy of managing the Han people is different, the management of the people and ethnic minorities in the frontier is relatively relaxed, and the Ming Dynasty used this way of "destroying the country to control the yi" to manage the ethnic minorities, which has a good effect and can fully maintain the rule of the dynasty and maintain the stability of the ethnic minorities. But one of the problems is that if these ethnic minorities do not succumb to the control of the Ming Dynasty, then they can rebel at any time.
At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it began to manage and rule the northeast, and many management mechanisms were set up in the northeast, and the official positions responsible for management were also held by members of ethnic minorities. However, due to the disobedience of the ethnic minorities at that time to be ruled by the Han Chinese, Nurhaci gathered his own army at that time, and together with the Jurchen soldiers, he continued to expand his sphere of influence in the northeast and waited for the opportunity to rebel. With the gradual decline of the Ming Dynasty, Nurhaci personally led an army to rebel against the ming rule, and finally ended with the Ming Dynasty losing most of its land.
At that time, the Ming Dynasty's rule over the Mongol region was similar to that of the northeast, and a corresponding management mechanism was also established. However, at that time, the Ming Dynasty did not have any prejudice against the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty, and also sealed many official positions, which were very friendly to them, so the Mongols at that time were still subordinate to the rule of the Ming Dynasty. But with the passage of time, there will always be some remnants of the force that will stir. At that time, the Ming Dynasty established the Great Wall from Liaodong to Jiaguguan, which although it could resist the remnants of the Mongol forces, also lost the territory north of the Great Wall.
During the Ming Dynasty, the rule was very strong, the power was also very strong, there were many small countries dependent on the Ming Dynasty, subject to the rule of the Ming Dynasty, so many of the princely states at that time were the territory of the Ming Dynasty. However, with the gradual weakening of the Ming Dynasty's national strength, these vassal states also rebelled against each other, resulting in the ming dynasty's land area has been reduced.