The Ming dynasty was founded amidst the chaos that arose at the end of the Yuan dynasty, when drought and famine compounded the unrest growing among the Chinese citizenry of the Mongol empire. Initially the Mongols ruled China with efficiency, making progressive changes in the management of the economy and implementing a number of important public works projects. Ultimately, however, the Mongol/Chinese dualism that dominated the period in Chinese history could not be overcome. Though Yuan law placed its Chinese citizenry in the lowest of social statuses, the Mongols simultaneously desired to lay claim to impressive and rich China's Imperial heritage. Towards the end of their reign, Yuan courtly life was an odd amalgamation of cultures, partly nomadic Mongol and partly Imperial Chinese, yet not entirely either.

This conflict of cultures led to a conflict of attitudes towards policy, and when Chinese peasant unrest threatened to grow to full-scale rebellion, no intelligent strategy was devised to deal with the crisis. In the mid-fourteenth century, when natural disasters in the form of drought led to wide-spread famine, the Mongols learned that to embrace Imperial Chinese culture had its hazards as well as benefits. These disasters were interpreted as signs that the Mongols had lost the Mandate of Heaven (if indeed they had ever received it), and rebellions occurred throughout the country. Various military leaders rose from the midst of these rebellions, among them a general from Nanjing named Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang succeeded in unifying an army that was able to drive the despised foreigners out of China and back to Inner Mongolia.

In 1368 he declared himself emperor of the new Ming dynasty, and came to be known in the histories as Hongwu (r. 1368-99). The capital remained in Nanjing until 1421, when the third emperor, Yongle (1403-1424), chose to move the court to Beijing. Comparatively speaking, the Ming era was one of the more stable and long-lived periods of Chinese dynastic history. In particular, the reign of Xuande (1426-35) is regarded in later histories as a particularly glorious period, both for Xuande's wise and compassionate rule and for nurturing of the arts. It was during this decade that porcelain production in the Jingdezhen kilns reached its height of production.

To generalize, it may be said that the Ming dynasty was one dominated by nationalism, compounded by a desire to rediscover China's own rich cultural heritage, which had suffered so long under the foreign rule imposed by the Mongols, the Jurchen and the Khitan. Archaism became all the rage among the scholarly class, and the collection of ancient Chinese archeological objects, such as Han-era jades and bronzes, as well as a revisiting of Tang-era painting styles grew in popularity. Pre-Song-era histories and treatises were re-examined, commented on, and annotated.

This interest in redeveloping China's own ancient culture coincided with a growing distrust of foreign powers. Trade along the Silk Route with China became more difficult in the later fourteenth century, when the early Ming emperors erected fortresses and placed garrisons of troops in the west in attempts to counter the perceived threat of invasion. Meanwhile, the secrets of silk production were known as far away as Europe by this time, and by the early fifteenth century, Lyons was producing much of the silk for European consumption. This led to a steep drop in the amount of revenue generated by Silk Road trade. Finally, border disputes with the Uighurs of Central Asia led to threat of military reprisals, which convinced the Ming rulers to attempt to shut down trade along the Silk Road altogether.

Yet while overland trade with China was at the lowest point it had been in millennia, sea trade along the so-called Spice Route became highly developed. Shipping offered more efficient and safer trade options than did caravans attempting to cross the increasingly treacherous Taklamakan Basin. As trade along the sea routes became more developed, diplomatic relations with the various nations of East and Southeast Asia, India, the Arab coast and even as far as the east coast of Africa were more actively engaged.

As the Chinese and other nations engaged more and more in naval trade, the economies of the various cities and oasis settlements along the Silk Road in Central Asia and modern northwest China that depended so heavily on international trade suffered greatly. Except the very largest cities with the most dependible water supplies, communities were slowly abandoned, to be swallowed by sand. In this way, the millenia-old Silk Road came to an inauspicious end under the isolationist policies of the Ming dynasty during the mid-fifteenth century.