Background
The area was inhabited by the Baiyue people prior to the Qin unification of China, and was considered by the ancient Chinese court to be a tropical, uncivilized barbarian land that had no contact with the Zhongyuan, which was the cultural cradle of Chinese culture.
During the Qin dynasty, the First Emperor launched a series of campaigns to conquer the Baiyue from 221 BCE to 214 BCE, which led to the construction of the Lingqu canal that linked up waterborne transportation between the Yangtze and Pearl River. After the Qin dynasty's collapse in 206 BCE, Zhao Tuo, a Qin general serving as the magistrate of the conquered Lingnan region, proclaimed himself the king of the autonomous kingdom of Nanyue with the estuarial city of Panyu (present-day Guangzhou) as the capital, and later submitted as a vassal to the newly established Han dynasty in 180 BCE.
The Nanyue kingdom lasted for nearly a century until 112 BCE, when chancellor Lü Jia committed an regicidal coup in attempt to desinicize the kingdom, killing the fourth king Zhao Xing and his pro-Han mother Queen Dowager Jiu. In response, the Han court under Emperor Wu dispatched the a punitive campaign in 111 BCE, conquering and permanently absorbing the Lingnan region into the Han Emperor as part of its southward expansion.
The development of the region was boosted once the Mei Pass was paved during the Tang dynasty. The region was also the base of the Kingdom of Southern Han (917–971) during the chaotic Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period between the fall of the Tang dynasty and the establishment of the Song dynasty.
