Han Migrants and the Unification of Yunnan

In 109 BC (the second year of Yuanfeng of Hanwu Emperor) Yizhoushire was established in Yunnan and a great number of the Hans migrated to Yunnan for opening up wasteland and safeguarding the border area. These Han migrants, as a main social force, made their contribution to the unification of the Han Dynasty. After the Three Kingdoms and the Jin Dynasty, these Han migrants became alienated. After the army of the Tang Dynasty was defeated in the Tianbo War and withdrew from Yunnan, the Nanzhao-Dali Kingdom (a local regime) had its autonomy for 500 years. Yunnan Administrative Province was established in the Yuan Dynasty. The reclaiming of wasteland by the common people and the army provided grain to the army, paid tax to the state and helped stabilize the border area and maintain the unification of China. In the Ming Dynasty, with the moving of more garrison troops into Yunnan the former population composition with more minorities than the Hans changed a lot. The native minorities and the local Hans became Yunnanese. With the power-shift movement and the new military arrangement in the Qing Dynasty, more and more Han migrants entered many parts of Yunnan, including the border area of the plains and the mountains. Together with other policies like the imperial civil examination being carried out in Yunnan, Han culture enjoyed a more extensive dissemination in Yunnan. Thus, politically, economically and culturally, Yunnan combined itself with the Central Plains, forming an organic whole, and was universally accepted as an inseparable part of China as a unified multinational country.