Socially and economically, the Taiping rebels came almost exclusively from the lowest classes. Students engage with an intriguing image that lacks context or a title, drawing on their close viewing and analysis skills. It was an era noted for its initial prosperity and tumultuous final years, and for being only the second time that China was not ruled by the Han people. It is unfamiliar with untranslated foreign language sources and scholarship. It lasted for some 14 years (185064), ravaged 17 provinces, took an estimated 20 million lives, and irrevocably altered the Qing dynasty (16441911/12). Taiping Rebellion | Qing Dynasty, Fall, Facts & History Worksheets Their victims did not know where the bandits had come from and, when they plundered Buddhist temples, they were mistaken for Chinese Muslims from Yunnan called Hui in Mandarin and Haw in the Lao language (Thai: . Asia for Educators They renamed the city Tianjing (Heavenly Capital) and dispatched a northern expedition to capture the Qing capital at Beijing. The Taiping Rebellion: The Bloodiest Civil War You've Never Heard of He later became the second and last leader of the short-lived Republic of Formosa (5 June21 October 1895). Taiping Civil War - Chinese Studies - Oxford Bibliographies - obo Acta Asiatica 8 (1965): 139. Answer (1 of 6): External cause and internal effect. [74] The Taiping government proved especially welcoming to Western missionaries. [8] The Taipings established the Heavenly Kingdom as an oppositional state based in Tianjing and gained control of a significant part of southern China, eventually expanding to command a population base of nearly 30 million people. London: John Murray, 1862. [107] The Xiang Army used scorched earth tactics, refusing to take prisoners; Anhui, Southern Jiangsu, Northern Zhejiang and Northern Jiangxi were severely depopulated and had to be repopulated with migrants from Henan. The Taiping leadership consisted of opium smugglers and Triad members who had lost their source of income through this shift and who mainly recruited Triads and landless vagrants. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here. The first history of the Taiping civil war, written on the inspiration of Sun Yat-sen and published with a preface by him (who at the time referred to himself as Hong Xiuquan the Second). Students consider what parts of our identities we choose for ourselves and what parts are chosen for us, as well as the impact our names can have on our identities. Recently, however, scholars such as Tobie Meyer-Fong and Stephen Platt have argued that the term "Taiping Rebellion" is biased because it insinuates that the Qing government was a legitimate government which was fighting against the illegitimate Taiping rebels. The Taiping rebellion though still Una sailed by any Force of s.ovinces of the Empire far beyond where the Taiping rebellion has spread Are in Many places in a most d. Read More. In May 1860 the Taiping defeated the imperial forces that had been besieging Nanjing since 1853, eliminating them from the region and opening the way for a successful invasion of southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, the wealthiest region of the Qing Empire. The devastating death toll between 1850 to 1864 certainly makes the uprising one of the bloodiest events in . [118] In late 1861, Hope made a brief visit to Nanking to come to an agreement with the Taiping rebels not to attack the city of Shanghai, a proposal which was refused by the Taiping government. Hong then took Nanjing, by which time he boasted some 2 million followers. Taiping rebellion | Military Wiki | Fandom In contrast, around 17 million soldiers and civilians were killed fifty years later during the First World War. After capturing the city on March 10, 1853, the Taipings halted. After the failure of the Red Turban Rebellion (18541856) to capture Guangzhou, their soldiers retreated north into Jiangxi and joined forces with Shi Dakai. The army's organization was allegedly inspired by that of the Qin dynasty. Taiping Rebellion History And Uments By Michael F (PDF) - stats.ijm [27] His heavenly father lamented that men were worshiping demons rather than himself and informed Hong that his given name violated taboos and had to be changed, suggesting as one option the "Hong Xiuquan" moniker ultimately adopted by Hong. The rebellion led to the loss of 17 million lives in the Lower Yangzi, or half of the native population (Cao, 1998). The Qing dynasty was so weakened by the rebellion that it never again was able to establish an effective hold over the country. The Taiping Revolutionary Movement. You would take the formal exams-- very tough exams, very lengthy exams. A Documentary History of Chinese Communism. Calling himself the Taiping King after a historical region of China west of Nanjing, he decreed the separation of men and women, with beatings for anyone who defied him. Hong's ashes were later blasted out of a cannon in order to ensure that his remains had no resting place as eternal punishment for the uprising. He saw a vision, it was a very particular vision, that in fact, he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, and that he, Hong Xiuquan, this young, poor man from southern China, had been brought onto earth to destroy the demons. We don't have exact figures, but we know that tens of millions of people were killed during the course of the decade and half of this war. It also resulted in the destruction of much of the cultural heritage (buildings, books, paintings) in the contested areas. Upon visiting Nanking, McCartee described the situation in the city as "Dreadful destruction of life." But also-- and this is one of the things that later got a young man named Mao Zedong very excited-- a new social program. . Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1991. Taiping ranks swelled, and they increased from a ragged band of several thousand to more than one million totally disciplined and fanatically zealous soldiers, organized into separate mens and womens divisions. Students practice sharing what they are feeling while building empathy for their classmates. A small remainder of loyal Taiping forces had continued to fight in northern Zhejiang, rallying around Tianguifu. Private Collection. This might seem like an incredible and absurd premise for the deadliest Civil War in history, but sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. However, the Taiping Rebellion eventually failed, resulting in the . The younger Hong was inexperienced and powerless, so the kingdom was quickly destroyed when Nanjing fell in July 1864 to the imperial armies after protracted street-by-street fighting. Taiping Rebellion - Students | Britannica Kids | Homework Help The Taiping forces were run as a cult-like group called the God Worshipping Society by self-proclaimed prophet Hong Xiuquan, and resulted in the rebels seizing the city of Nanjing for a decade.. The story began in a very small-scale way in a village in southern China, in Guangdong province, where a young man named Hong Xiuquan had basically taken the exams to enter the imperial bureaucracy for the fourth time. [19], Meanwhile, the population of China had increased rapidly, nearly doubling between 1766 and 1833, while the amount of cultivated land was stable. New York: W. W. Norton, 1973. p. 40, Pelissier, Roger. Taiping Rebellion, radical political and religious upheaval that was probably the most important event in China in the 19th century. By 1862 Zeng had managed to surround Nanjing, and the city fell in July 1864. This definition of the Manchu coincided with their perception by Westerners in Western media as imperialists or Tartars who had occupied China by force. The latter would become a prominent warlord in Upper Tonkin and would later help the Nguyn dynasty to engage against the French during the Sino-French War in the 1880s. Students explore the factors that make up a community. I have collected a number of primary source documents from the period: accounts from missionaries, Chinese legal codes, writings of Europeans associated with the . Hong was now confident that he was the son of God. Ho Ping-ti. Deng, Kent G. (2011) "China's Political Economy in Modern Times: Changes and Economic Consequences, 18002000". [116], According to Clarke the Western missionaries changed their opinions upon further inspections of the rebellion. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Taiping tianguo, 18511864) presented a religious, ethnic and military challenge to the ruling ethnically Manchu Qing dynasty. They were not supported by foreign governments, but they bought modern munitions including firearms, artillery, and ammunition from foreign suppliers. [82], A particularly famous imperial force was Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army. They also aided imperial troops in reconquering Taiping strongholds along the Yangtze River. He suddenly found his message was taking off because there he was amongst the Hakka, a sub-ethnicity of the Chinese people who had traditionally been discriminated against by their ethnic majority, as it were, compatriots. But the Qing also took a somewhat desperate, but rather important, move to save themselves. [107] However, trade in coastal regions, especially in Guangzhou (Canton) and Ningbo was less affected by violence than trade in inland areas was. In other words, the idea that each province of China might have its own strongman in charge-- with his own army-- who would pay very little attention to the central government, because he had plenty of men on horseback behind him. Taiping Rebellion summary | Britannica What Was The Taiping Rebellion In China? | Son Of China The Taiping Rebellion was a revolt against the Qing dynasty in China, fought with religious conviction over regional economic conditions, and lasting from 1850 to 1864. Does anybody know any databases of websites were I can find these. Unexpectedly, the Taiping army was victorious in these first battles, but fighting continued over the following months as Hong proclaimed 1851 as the first year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.. The Taiping Rebellion began in the southern province of Guangxi when local officials launched a campaign of religious persecution against the God Worshipping Society. 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