The Great Qing (25 April 1644-12 February 1912), also called the Qing dynasty or Manchu dynasty, was the last imperial dynasty of China, lasting for 268 years, with a brief restoration from 1 to 12 July 1917 under Chang Hsun. The empire was founded in 1644 after the Manchus overran the collapsing Ming Empire, and they expanded to control northwestern China (Xinjiang) under the rule of the Kangxi Emperor, who divided the country into classes. The sophisticated Qing were isolated from Europe until the late 18th century, when British traders arrived, and China was repeatedly attacked by the West in the Opium Wars, Taiping Rebellion, and the Boxer Rebellion. In 1912, the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China in its place.
History[]
Fall of the Ming Dynasty[]
In 1644, after over twenty years of Manchu invasions of China, the Manchu (aided by Ming Empire general Wu Sangui) overran northern China, and they seized the capital of Peking, which had previously been taken over by Li Zicheng and his rebels - the doom of Li Zicheng allowed the Manchu to install their own emperor, allowing Shunzhi Emperor to be made emperor.
The Ming forced their citizens to wear their hair in ponytails called "queues", following Manchu custom. Many Han Chinese resisted the new culture that the Manchus brought with them, and Princes Dodo and Dorgon crushed several rebellions. Wu Sangui, Geng Jingzhong, and Shang Zhixin, known as the "Three Feudatories", rebelled against the Manchu, but the young Kangxi Emperor defeated them by 1681.
The Kangxi Emperor proceeded to campaign against the Tsardom of Russia on the Amur River, defeating them at the Battle of Albazin in 1685 with the help of Ferdinand Verbiest, and the Chinese also defeated the Dzunghars at the Battle of Jao Modo (Zuunmod) in 1696. In 1712, the Kangxi Emperor made the first Manchu dictionary, making it a written as well as a spoken language.
Rise of the Manchu[]
The Qianglong Emperor.
The Qing dynasty reached its height under the Qianlong Emperor, whose Ten Great Campaigns against neighboring countries (namely the Dzunghars, Konbaung Dynasty Burma, Lin Shuangwen's Taiwanese rebels, the Gurkhas of Nepal, and the Tay Son Dynasty of Vietnam) established Chinese dominance in Asia proper from 1755 to 1792. The Qianlong Emperor's reign from 1735 to 1796 was the second-longest reign of a Chinese emperor; he abdicated out of fealty to his grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor, refusing to reign longer than him. Earl George Macartney, an envoy of Great Britain, met with the emperor in 1793 to discuss trade as Chinese tea and porcelain became high in demand. The Qianlong Emperor told him that he was welcome to pay homage to him, but that Chinese goods had to be paid for in silver and not by British goods. The expedition's failure kept China isolated for the next several years.
The Battle of Amoy on 26 August 1841 during the First Opium War, where the British 18th Regiment of Foot repels Chinese attacks.
The Qing Dynasty faced some internal issues around this time, with the White Lotus Rebellion of 1794-1804 costing the lives of 100,000 peasant rebels who rebelled due to their poverty. Corruption, rebellion, and class warfare were rife in the Qing Dynasty, and soon, foreign powers stepped in, hoping to gain trade rights. On 18 March 1839 the United Kingdom declared war on China when they confiscated opium sold by the British to their population as an export to China; as the number of addicts rose, it became a danger to the Chinese people. The British bombarded Chinese forts and seized tax barges, and on 29 August 1842, the United Kingdom forced the Chinese to sign the Treaty of Nanking, an unequal treaty which gave the United Kingdom control of Hong Kong and five treaty ports.
This 16 January 1898 Le Petit Journal caricature depicts the United Kingdom, German Empire, Russian Empire, France, and Japan carving up China (the cake) between them while the Chinese emperor is powerless to stop them.
The British later defeated the Chinese in the Second Opium War of 1856 to 1860, where Britain, France, and the United States attacked China after Chinese forts attacked their vessels and confiscated HMS Arrow after a scuffle with Chinese civilians by drunken British sailors. In 1860, the Summer Palace was burnt down, forcing China to grant several treaty ports to all European powers.
At the same time, the Taiping Rebellion broke out in 1851, developing into a major uprising by 500,000 members of the Heavenly Kingdom under Hong Xiuquan. Although they just defeated China in the Second Opium War, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, in addition to the Ottoman Empire, Mysore, and the Choson Empire, intervened in the war. With 1,100,000+ soldiers, the Qing and their allies attempted to crush the rebels. The Taiping rebels wanted to replace Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and folk religion with their form of Christianity, give equality to women, share property, and put an end to the corrupt feudal system of the Qing. However, they were crushed when their capital of Nanjing fell on 19 July 1864; Hong Xiuquan committed suicide by taking poison. At least 20,000,000 civilians and soldiers were killed in the rebellion, and although the Qing were victorious, their empire was weakened.
The Battle of Nam Dinh on 19 July 1883
After the end of the Taiping Rebellion, China continued to be attacked by foreign powers. In 1882, French naval officer Henri Riviere led an attack on Hanoi, driving the Chinese out of northern Vietnam. French Cochinchina in the south was going to be supplemented by the Chinese-held northern parts of Vietnam along the Gulf of Tonkin in the next three years, with the French victory at the Battle of Fuzhou on 23-26 August 1884 marking the destruction of the Chinese navy. In April 1885, the defeat of the Black Flag Army irregulars under Liu Yongfu, the Qing armies, and the Nguyen Dynasty's last forces led to the French conquest of Vietnam, and soon, they also took over Laos and Cambodia to form French Indochina.
Japanese soldiers beheading captured Chinese troops during the First Sino-Japanese War
Not only did European powers invade China, but also did Japan. Japan was a nation of four islands, which had struggled with warlords in the same fashion as China, with the people being loyal to individual clans rather than their country. On 1 August 1894, a modernized Japan (which had been whippd into shape during the Boshin War by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States) declared war on China. After six months of unbroken successes, the Japanese defeated the Chinese, and on 17 April 1885 China gave Taiwan, the Penghu archipelago, and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan.
US troops attacking Peking in 1900
Later, imperial powers came into conflict against China again. Empress Dowager Cixi, the regent of China from 11 November 1861 to 15 November 1908, backed attacks against Western priests and diplomats by the Righteous and Harmonious Fists (also known as "Boxers" due to their boxing rituals they claimed made them immune to bullets), a society of xenophobic Chinese rebels who wanted to rid the land of the western people. In August 1899, after the murder of German Empire diplomat Clemens von Kettler and a Japanese diplomat, the Eight-Nation Alliance of the United Kingdom, Russian Empire, Japan, Italy, France, the United States, the German Empire, and Austria-Hungary gathered 50,000 troops and invaded northern China, facing 300,000 Boxers and 100,000 Chinese troops. The conflict left a total of 100,000 civilians, 2,500 Allied troops, and 2,000 Imperial Chinese soldiers dead, plus Boxer rebel casualties.
In the aftermath of the rebellion's quelling in September 1901, the Qing dynasty declined. To keep the dynasty in power, Empress Dowager Cixi passed the "New Policies" and began to westernize China, going against her forty years of isolationism. After Cixi's death in 1908, the hardline Manchu court did not continue her reforms, so revolutionary Sun Yat-sen and the Tongmenghui (Chinese United League) and 100,000 Chinese revolutionaries rebelled against the Qing. General Yuan Shikai and his Beiyang Army was deployed to crush the revolutionaries. The imperial Beiyang troops managed to drive the republican forces out Hankow and Hanyang, but with several provinces proclaiming independence from the Qing government, Yuan agreed to sign a ceasefire with them December 1. The Qing Dynasty's last emperor, Puyi, was forced to abdicate on 12 February 1912, and the Republic of China was declared. An era of warlords fighting for supremacy followed, and in 1917, the Qing Dynasty was briefly restored by Zhang Xun, an imperialist general. However, after eleven days in power from 1 to 12 July 1917, the Qing were overthrown for good.
Culture[]
Population of China in 1836
In 1836, China had a population of 100,530,000 people. 45% were Beifaren, 36.8% were Nanfaren, 4.5% were Yue, 3.1% were Min, 2.6% were Manchu, 2.2% were Hakka, 1.4% Mongols, 1.4% Zhuang, and 3% (including Vietnamese, Tatars, Kazakhs, Yi, Siberians, Miao, Hui, and Asian Minor). 93.3% were Mahayana, 3.4% were Animist, 2.1% were Gelugpa, and 1.3% were Sunni. China was an isolationist society, with 66.4% farmers, 24.1% laborers, 5.3% artisans, 2% aristocrats, 1% soldiers, 1% clergymen, .1% officers, and .1% bureaucrats.
After their conquest of Dai Nam on 3 July 1838, the Chinese population increased to 102,400,000 people. 44.3% were Nanfaren, 35.9% were Nanfaren, 4.6% were Yue, 3% were Min, 2.6% were Manchu, 2.2% were Hakka, 1.4% Mongol, 1.4% Zhuang, 1.4% Vietnamese, and 3.2% were other (Tatars, Kazakhs, Yi, Siberians, Miao, Hui, etc.).
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