Ganzhou (Chinese: 赣州; pinyin: Gànzhōu), alternately romanized as Kanchow, is a prefecture-level city in the south of Jiangxi province, China, bordering Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, and Hunan to the west. Its administrative seat is at Zhanggong District.

In 201 CE, Emperor Gaozu of Han established a county in the territory of modern Ganzhou.^{[citation needed]} In 236 CE, during the Three Kingdoms period, the Luling Commandery [zh] was established in the area. In the early years, Han Chinese settlement and authority in the area was minimal and largely restricted to the Gan River basin.^{[citation needed]} The river, a tributary of the Yangtze via Poyang Lake, provided a route of communication from the north as well as irrigation for rice farming.^{[citation needed]}

In 589 CE, during the Sui dynasty, the Nankang Commandery [zh] was abolished, and the area was reorganized as Qianzhou. During the Song, immigration from the north bolstered the local population and drove local aboriginal tribes into admixing with the northerners.^{[citation needed]} After the fall of the capital to the Jin in 1126 in the Jingkang Incident, immigration increased dramatically.^{[citation needed]}

In 1153, under the Southern Song, Qianzhou was abolished, and re-organized as Ganzhou, the same name as the present-day city.

In 1277, under the Yuan dynasty, the area was reorganized as Ganzhou Circuit [zh]. Near the end of the Yuan dynasty, in 1365, Ganzhou Circuit was reorganized again as Ganzhou Fu [zh], which it remained until 1912.

During the late 1800s Ganzhou was opened as one of the southern treaty ports and became a minor base for foreign companies.

In 1912, the Republic of China abolished the area's dynasty-era subdivisions, replacing them all with counties administered by the provincial government of Jiangxi. In 1914, the province of Jiangxi was divided into four circuits (Chinese: 道; pinyin: Dào), one of which being Gannan Circuit [zh], which ruled the area of present-day Ganzhou. In 1926, Gannan Circuit was abolished, and its counties were again directly administered by the Jiangxi provincial government. In 1932, the province established Administrative Inspectorates [zh], and the area of present-day Ganzhou was split between the 9th, 11th, 12th, and 13th Administrative Inspectorates. In subsequent years, the area would be reorganized to be divided between various Administrative Inspectorates.

Beginning in 1928, the Chinese Communist Party began operating in the area, and by June 1930, a local soviet had formed and began governing a number of counties in the region. In November 1931, the Chinese Soviet Republic was proclaimed in Yeping [zh], in the then-county of Ruijin. During the subsequent years, Ganzhou was governed by the Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet. Beginning in February 1934, Communist Party forces in the area began to lose territory to Kuomintang forces (Fifth encirclement). From then until March 1935, the Soviet gradually lost territory with only five northeastern counties left in Ganzhou as of early October 1934 until it collapsed.