The Decline and the Fall of Qing Dynasty in China

The Decline and the fall of Qing Dynasty in China

The Qing Dynasty was founded by the Manchu clan Aisin Gioro , located in northeast China , expanded into China proper and the surrounding territories of Inner Asia , establishing the Empire of the Great Qing The Qing was the last imperial dynasty of China . Declared as the Later Jin Dynasty in 1616 , it changed its name in 1636 to "Qing , it became the ruler of all of China in 1644 , completing the Manchu conquest Between 1839 and 1842 the British fought an "Opium War " against

China to force the Chinese to keep buying the drug opium from British India although opium use was banned in China

The Chinese and Japanese governmental policy restricted European trade (according to William McNeill . These modernizing changes took place just as China 's Manchu-led Qing Dynasty was reaching its highest peak under the Qianglong Emperor (1736-95 . Immediately after the Qianglong Emperor retired in 1795 , the Empire faced a series of domestic rebellions by ethnic minorities , secret societies , and sects under the Jiaqing Emperor (1796-1820 ) and his successor Daoguang (1820-50

The first of these was the Miao Revolt (1795-1806 , the second was the White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1805 , and the third was by the Eight Trigram Sect (1813 . Although the Qing succeeded in putting down all three uprisings , in addition to quelling Muslim uprisings in Xinjiang during the 1820s , this era of rebellion led to incredible destruction and to massive economic dislocation

During a second war in 1860 a combined British French army attacked Beijing and burned down government buildings . In 1894-95 Japan attacked and annexed Korea , Formosa (Taiwan ) and Port Arthur . After each of these wars the foreigners forced the rulers to sign "unequal treaties " giving the foreign powers control of China 's seaports and allowing them special trading rights . China was also divided up into spheres of influence each falling under one or another foreign power . There was a lot of discontent in China . Many Chinese blamed the Manchus for allowing China to be taken over by foreign powers and in 1850 the Taiping Rebellion broke out . For 14 years the country was laid waste , cities were destroyed and 20 million people were killed . The Manchus were forced to call on the Europeans to help them put down the rebellion , but this weaken their position even more

By the early nineteenth century , population pressure , rising inflation the increasing costs of river conservancy , and a numerous other fiscal problems prompted him to hold his officials more closely accountable for cost overruns and to authorize deductions from their supplemental salaries (known as yanglian ) in to hold the line on administrative expenses

From this point onward , rational fiscal administration deteriorated quickly . Informal networks of funding became the hallmark of the Chinese bureaucracy , and the acceptance of lougui became the mark of even virtuous officials . Corruption continued to be a problem , and the central government increasingly resorted to the sale of official titles (and even substantive offices ) to cover its...