The Zhou expand their land through conquests.
Zhou leaders take power and declare they have the Mandate of Heaven.
Zhou leaders place family members in charge of farwaway states.
Over time, ties between Zhou kings and faraway nobles weaken.
Fights break out between warlords, and Zhou kings cannot stop them. Zhou have lost the Mandate of Heaven.
Group of nobles join with nomadic invaders to try to overthrow the kind [sic: king], but fail.