Replication data for: Chinese Warfare and Politics in the Ancient East Asian International System, ca. 2700 B.C. to 722 B.C.

West Asia (ancient Near East) is the oldest. In a previous study (Cioffi-Revilla and Lai 1995) using an earlier version of the data set presented in this paper with models of political uncertainty (Cioffi-Revilla 1998), we reported the first empirical 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 for the first time the complete data set, expanded by several additional variables, explaining our sources and measurement procedures (N = 104 cases, version 2.0).

These long-range data on the incidence of war ( ~ 103 years) should permit investigators to test numerous contending hypotheses, models and theories about warfare, including its distributions, different types of violent conflict (international wars, ethnic conflicts, civil wars, great power wars, protracted conflicts), time series, periodicity, system dynamics, and structural relationships (e.g., war-polarity theories).