History of Qing Dynasty

History of  Qing Dynasty

The Manchu ethnic people began to rise in the late period of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and they captured Beijing and established the Qing dynasty in 1644. The former Ming-era general, Zheng Chenggong, mustered the remaining forces to escape to Taiwan, resulting in being defeated by the Qing army, and Taiwan became an integral part of Qing Empire then. The Qing army continued to occupy more territories through wars under imperial order, seizing Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia successively. What was more, the Qing government forced Russia to sign the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689. Owing to the closed-door policy taken by the Qing government, the Qing Empire lagged far behind in economy in the 19th century. Withthe Heaven Reason Society Uprising and the White Lotus Sect Uprising breaking out successively during Emperor Jiaqing's reign, Great Britain, Holland and Portugal seized the opportunity to wage invasive war on the Qing empire on the sea. The British merchants had begun to export opium to China since 1787, which resulted in an unfavorable adverse trade balance for the Qing Empire. The Qing rulers issued a decree to ban the opium trading in 1815, however, the unscrupulous British businessmen still smuggled opium blatantly into China. Under Emperor Daoguang's order, the imperial commissioner Lin Zexu was sent to Guangzhou to ban the opium trade, and he ordered to burn 1, 500,000- kilogram smuggled opium at Humen Beach, which greatly jeopardized the interest of British businessmen. Out of rage, the British government launched the Opium War in 1840 and deployed armies along the Yangtze River in 1842, cutting off the supplying line of the Qing government on the sea, so the Qing government had to sue for peace with Great Britain and signed the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing, which stipulated that five trading ports were opened to foreigners and Hong Kong Island was ceded to Great Britain. The Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing was the first unequal treaty signed with foreign countries in Chinese history, which symbolized the beginning of the Chinese modern history.

The Qing government was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties with foreign countries, and Yuanmingyuan (an imperial garden) was razed to the ground by the Anglo-French Allied Forces in 1860, which caused inestimable damages to the glorious Chinese civilization. At the same time, the domestic anti-Qing wars broke out successively from 1851 to 1864, and Hong Xiuquan (greatly influenced by Christianity) led Jintian Uprising in Guiping County of Guangxi Province and set up the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851-1864), capturing 18 provinces in South China and establishing a capital in Tianjing (present Nanjing), which directly confronted with the Qing government. The Boxer Uprising broke out in 1899, which accelerated the paces of the destruction of the Qing dynasty. The feudal monarchy was abolished in the revolution of 1911 led by Sun Yet-sun, resulting in the demise of the Qing Empire.

By Young M Qingwei