Map of the collapse of Han Dynasty and the life of the Three Kingdoms 190-280
"The Eastern Han emperors faced a variety of challenges, including natural disasters outside of their control, such as cattle plagues, locusts, droughts, floods, and earthquakes. The empire was strong enough to withstand the issues that it encountered for almost two hundred years, but over time the expenses became too great to bear. The end result is that by 220 CE the empire was torn apart into three kingdoms by warlords.
Tribal groups living along China's borders had a tense relationship with the Han, who thought that non-Han (Chinese) people were inherently inferior. The Han emperors saw themselves as "enlightened" bringers of peace and order to the tribes, even if it meant fighting them to do so. Problematic tribal groups would be resettled deeper in the empire. But because the Chinese despised these tribal groups, many officials had no problem mistreating and cheating them. Unfortunately for the Han, failing to integrate these tribal peoples meant that they were always a potential source of trouble for the empire.
One of the most important factors in the collapse of the Han Dynasty, in fact, may have been the Sino-Xiongnu Wars of 133 BCE to 89 CE. For more than two centuries, the Han Chinese and the Xiongnu fought throughout the western regions of China—a critical area that Silk Road trade goods needed to cross to reach the Han Chinese cities. In 89 CE, the Han crushed the Xiongnu state and drove them away from China (they would become the Huns), but this victory came at such a high price that it helped to fatally destabilize the Han government.
What the Han had failed to realize was that the Xiongnu had been serving as a buffer against other dangerous tribes. Removing the Xiongnu opened the flood gates to invasion. Fighting off these tribal threats was a serious drain on Han resources.
Frontier wars and two major rebellions required repeated military intervention between 50 and 150 CE. The Han military governor Duan Jiong adopted brutal tactics that led to the near-extinction of some of the tribes; but after he died in 179 CE, indigenous rebellions and mutinous soldiers ultimately led to the loss of Han control over the region, and foreshadowed the Han collapse as the unrest spread.
By 188, the provincial governments were far stronger than the government based at Luoyang. In 189 CE, Dong Zhuo, a frontier general from the northwest, seized the capital of Luoyang, kidnapped the boy emperor, and burned the city to the ground. Dong was killed in 192, and the emperor was passed from warlord to warlord. The Han was now broken into eight separate regions.
The last official chancellor of the Han dynasty was one of those warlords, Cao Cao, who took charge of the young emperor and held him virtual prisoner for 20 years. Cao Cao conquered the Yellow River, but was unable to take the Yangzi; when the last Han emperor abdicated to Cao Cao's son, the Han Empire had gone, split into Three Kingdoms."
-taken from thoughco & khanacademy
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