Songtsan Gampo founded the Tibetan Empire after uniting parts of the Yarlung River Valley, ruling from 604 to 650 CE. The large central asian empire was infiltrated during the mid-eighth century as the Uyghur Khaganate repressed the Tibetan Empire and as Chinese influence dominated the area. With the defeat of the Chinese by the Arabs and Qarluqs, Tibetan influence regained importance and presence throughout the area. The picture above represents the Tibetan Empire, shaded in olive green, around 820 CE along with other empires during the time period.
The Tibetan Empire dissolved in the mid ninth century due to civil war and was ruled by warlords during the Era of Fragmentation that lead into the thirteenth century. The Mongolian Yuan Dynasty took hold of power throughout the Tibetan region beginning in 1279 when Kublai Khan conquered China and parts of Central Asia. The image to the right establishes the reign of the Yuan Dynasty in 1294, including the Tibetan region located in the southwest corner of the shaded area. During the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols managed administrative and structural affairs and formed the capitol of Sakya Pandita for Tibet while allowing religious and regional political affairs to be managed by Tibetans.
Before the Ming Dynasty overthrew the Yuan Dynasty in 1368, Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen toppled Sakya and founded the Phagmodrupa Dynasty between 1346 and 1354. During this Dynasty, the Dalai Lama ruled over the Tibetan landscape throughout the next couple of centuries. The dynasty was the first to meet and welcome Portuguese missionaries in 1624. Beginning in 1724 throughout the eighteenth century, the Manchus of the Chinese Qing Dynasty militarily and administratively influenced Tibet but never made plans to incorporate it as a Chinese province.
In 1834 the Sikh Empire invaded and annexed Ladakh, a Tibetan cultural kingdom at the time. Seven years later the Sikh army invaded western Tibet but was quelled by Manchu-Tibetan forces, ending with the Treaty of Chushul. The image to the left shows the Tibetan region during the Qing Dynasty in the northwestern-most territory as of 1864. During the mid-to-late eighteenth century, the Qing Dynasty's influence diminished as Manchu power weakened, having more of a symbolic presence in Tibet rather than an administrative and military presence. During the late eighteenth century, the British Empire was rapidly expanding towards Tibet from India and the Russian Empire was rapidly expanding towards Tibet through Central Asia.
The threat of Tibetan domination by imperial powers began in 1904 when Britain invaded Tibet and gained control over the area. In 1910 the Qing Dynasty imposed direct Manchu-Chinese rule over the territory, overthrowing the Dalai Lama who fled to British India. In 1911 the Xinhai Revolution toppled the Qing Dynasty and allowed the thirteenth Dalai Lama to return and take independent control of Tibet. The 1914 signing of the Simla Accord with British India allowed the southern Tibetan portion to be ceded to India which deeply angered the Chinese government. Negligence portrayed throughout the upcoming decades led the Kuomintang Government of the Republic of China to expand their reach into Tibet in 1950.
The Seventeen Point Agreement was forced upon the fourteenth Dalai Lama's government in Tibet by China, exiling him to India during the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion. As continuous reforms poured in by China's General Secretary in 1980, protests began sprawling across the Tibetan region in the late 1980's in accordance with the Tiananmen Square Protests in 1989. The autonomous Tibet region also experienced heightened riots, protests, and demonstrations in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa during the 2008 Tibetan unrest.
The numbered image above corresponds with the numbered prefectures of Tibet to the left in the chart. The Tibet region still remains a politically autonomous province of China to this present day. Tibet is divided into 7 prefectures that are further divided up into a total of 73 counties made of up of a total of 692 townships that manage Tibetan local and regional political administrations.