The flooded countryside was more or less abandoned and all the crops destroyed. The flood, which began in September 1887, killed at least 900,000 people. Upon the recession of the waters, much of the ground was uncultivable as much of the soil was covered in silt.

North China and South China are separated by a tall mountain range.





(b) Area around Kaifeng, showing the elevation of the Yellow River compared to Kaifeng.



The river's pre-1938 bed had become a productive swath of farmland populated by 400,000 people; there were disputes around relocating and compensating these people, and whether to complete downstream dykes before sealing the breach.Muscolino, Micah S. (2014).


In 1887 alone, 900,000 people died in the floods. There is no way of accurately assessing the casualties: much of the population, including officials, had already fled, leaving no government control and no one to count the dead. The flooded countryside was more or less abandoned and all the crops destroyed.





This river is prone to flooding due to the elevated nature of the river, running between dikes above the broad plains surrounding it. To stop further Japanese advances into western and southern China, The strategic value of the flood has been questioned.







It was one of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded.



Upon the recession of the waters, much of the ground was uncultivable as much of the soil was covered in Attempts to seal the breach and return the river to its former course were made in 1946, by the KMT with assistance from The repairs became a political issue between the KMT and CPC; the KMT controlled areas around the breach whereas the CPC controlled the areas around the original downstream course. Huang He floods, (1887, 1931, 1938), series of devastating floods in China caused by the overflowing of the Huang He (Yellow River), the country’s second longest river. History at your fingertips

The 1887 Yellow River flood was a devastating flood on the Yellow River (Huang He) in China.

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The Nationalist government, after initially claiming that the breach was caused by Japanese bombing, used the heavy casualties to demonstrate the scale of sacrifice required of the Chinese people; it claimed that 12 million people had been affected by the flood, and in 1948 it estimated the number of deaths including hundreds of thousands of Japanese who perished during the flooding at 800,000.

It did not end there as close to four million people died in the 1931 floods and almost one million died in 1938. Perhaps the single most environmentally damaging act of warfare in world history, the strategic interdiction threw long-established water control infrastructure into disarray, leading to floods that persisted until the Yellow River was finally returned to its previous course in 1947. On August 18, 1931, the Yangtze River in China peaks during a horrible flood that kills 3.7 million people directly and indirectly over the next several months.



Cambridge University Press.



Twenty-five hundred years ago, the Chinese began building a series of levees. The irrigation channels were also ruined, further adding to the toll on the farmlands. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.The Huang He, which has a length of 3,395 miles (5,464 km), is the main river of northern China, rising in the eastern Throughout most of its history, China has attempted to The highest estimated death toll is however 2,000,000.



(a) Topography of the North China Plain.