Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty Time Period

The Qing Dynasty controlled China from 1644-1912 CE.

Qing Dynasty History

In 1644, the Chinese capital of Beijing was captured by rebel leader Li Zicheng and the Manchus took control of the government. During their takeover, they kept many officials of the previous Ming dynasty in government positions to legitimize the transition of power. With their successful appropriation, the Qing dynasty was established.

From 1644 until 1683, the Qing moved their armies across China to conquer the remaining strongholds loyal to the Ming. In addition to the Ming territories that had been subdued, the Qing rulers also had to fight against rebellious warlords who rose in protest, feeling they enjoyed fewer rights than they had during Ming rule.

Fig. 1: Map of Qing China at its extent in 1765.

The Ten Great Campaigns

• In the mid-18th century, the Qing military engaged in a series of campaigns and conquests, some expansionists and others focused on suppressing rebellions and further consolidating the Qing power.

The first campaign suppressed an uprising of the Dzungar people of Xinjiang, which secured China’s northern and western borders and secured their influence in the region against neighboring groups such as the Mongols.

The Qing also campaigned in Jinchuan against the Gyalrong Tibetans, fighting a series of costly wars of attrition to take control of the region.

During the late 1760s, the Qing launched a series of campaigns into Burma, resulting in disastrously high casualties for the Qing armies. The failure of those campaigns effectively ensured that the Chinese would not expand to include Burma and Southeast Asia.

The Qing maintained control over the island of Taiwan against anti-Qing rebels there, campaigned against the Nepalese in Tibet, and interfered in the succession of Vietnam’s throne in the 1780s. The Ten Great Campaigns resulted in an expanding China that established borders similar to what they would look like in the modern China of the 21st century.

Fig. 2: Painting of a Qing Solider.

Qing Dynasty Achievements

During the Qing period, the population of China grew, and many developments were made in arts and culture, with new styles of painting and calligraphy becoming popular.

The population growth of Qing China, along with increased trade with the rest of the world and the development of cities, resulted in a thriving market economy that dwarfed that of other world powers and empires.

However, the Qing was slow to industrialize the country following the developments of the industrial revolution. Though Chinese scholars contributed to math and science, Qing China failed to develop itself into an industrialized state.

Decline of the Qing Dynasty

Several conflicts weakened the Qing dynasty, leading to its decline. Some of these are summarized below.

Fig. 3: Siege of Pekin Castle, Beijing, during the Boxer Rebellion.

Revolution and the End of the Qing Dynasty

The aftermath of the various conflicts of the 19th century left the Qing government in a severely weakened state. To restore their legitimacy, the Qing worked to pass various reforms in the early 20th century. However, divisive politics meant that conservatives in the government opposed reform outright, whereas their opposition felt that the reforms were too little and too slow in coming. Various parties in China began to plot an overthrow of the Qing government.

In October of 1911, an armed revolt from part of the Chinese Army called the Wuchang Uprising began, which sparked similar revolts across China. In what came to be referred to as the Xinhai Revolution, the Qing were removed from power and established a new government.

Though the revolution resulted in continued civil wars and the rise of regional warlords, the abdication of the last Qing emperor, Puyi, was completed in February 1912. While some in China favored imperial restoration in the following decades, they never had any real success. Puyi was briefly restored to the throne for twelve days at the beginning of July 1917 with aid from the warlord Zhang Xun. Still, the considerable opposition ensured that the move would not be legitimate.

In the 1930s and during World War II, Puyi served as the chief executive of Manchukuo in Manchuria - a puppet state of the Japanese Empire - where he aspired to reconquer China with Japanese support and restore the Qing Dynasty. With a lack of Japanese military progress in China, combined with the shift in support of Japanese militarists toward Wang Jinwei - a defector of the nationalist party of the Republic of China - Puyi’s aspirations were never realized. He was captured by soldiers of the Soviet Union in 1945 and held in Siberia until the end of the Chinese Civil War, after which he was returned to China, where he lived until he died in 1967.

Fig. 4: Photo of Puyi