Earl_of_Rochester

What was all that about then? Some chap thinks he's the son of God (where have I heard that before?) then next thing you know 20-60 million Chinese have been killed in what was apparently the worst civil war in history.

Apparently the Siege of Nanking was the bloodiest battle ever fought too. As a Westerner I'm rather ignorant of the facts. Can someone more informed provide further details?

EoR

mingming

The Taiping Rebellion started off as a series anti-Qing movements, popular among southern laborers who saw the Manchus are corrupt and inefficient. Hong Xiuquan was able to unite them together and declared himself to be Jesus's brother. He started off fighting bandits and pirates then later turned to guerrilla warfare against the Qing. Once his support was solidified, Hong declared all out war against the Qing government.

The Qing government was pretty much taken by surprise and lost battle after battle. After he conquered Nanjing, Hong pretty much withdrew from the world and devoted his time to women and other pleasures. This led to infighting between the Princes (Kings) Hong appointed. Once the Qing army reorganized, the Taiping pretty much collapsed. Corruption, discontent among the populace, and infighting led to the Kingdom's downfall.

Kevinmeath

I believe Rochester were you are going this didn't happen OK! if it did it was the faut of western imperialist-- got it comrade?

RollingWave

The full name is "Taiping TianGuo" which means "The Heavenly State of Peace"

The backdrop of the situation is multifold.

1.The Qing dynasty was largely at peace for well over a century by the then, some border wars occured but non of them really effected the general population since the end of the 3 Fiefdom's war. The Qing rulers were generally competent and as a result population soared, the population went from 101 million in the Imperial census of 1685 to 432 million in the census of 1851, so in the span of less than 200 years the population of China grew *4* times.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the problem this will lead to, even China's highly productive farmlands had trouble sustaining the massive population growth, unemployment became higher in the cities and standard of living continue to fall. Unlike Britian in the industrial era, the bowl of rice didn't get that much bigger in this 200 year span, so everyone got a incraesingly smaller share of the pie.

2.The Opium and entrance of foreign goods: the Opium's effect were mainly amongst the city population and some wealthy landowners, however the entrance of othe foreign products had an equally devastating effect, China's population was for the most part small farming families, they were not just reliant on substaince farming, a lot of the additional income rise from small handicraft works such as weaving . with the city being messed up and the entrance of competition in foreign textiles, the already fragil rural economy was also devastated.

So you can see from an economic point of view that the Qing was already flirting with disastor by the mid 1800s.

The vast population of China was concentrated south of the Yangtsi river, which just happen to be the region the Taiping rebellion ripped through, so it's not hard to see why the casualties would be so crazy.

Earl_of_Rochester

Well I'm off to Changsha now, I guess I'll have to leave all this opium stuff behind.

Wish me luck! Back in a month.

EoR

Wenge

We have the internet in China. You don't have to be out of communication for a month. I'm sure the place they put you up will have internet access. If it doesn't just look for a Wangba 网吧 Internet Cafe. They are every where. Take your ID with you when you go they will want to check it.

If you use a 网吧 be careful what you post. They take your ID so they know which machine you were using and can check what you have been doing. An insecure government is a frightened government.

But, anyway, Good Luck and Good Voyage getting here.

fangqingming

wish you luck!

unclefred

Sounds like a great trip, have fun.

Guaporense

The Qing data on wages and population dynamics show clearly the phenomena of malthusian population pressures. Basically, in ~1680, thanks to the influx of foreign technology, standards of living improved far above minimum subsistence and population started to growth. After 150 years of increasing population the growth increased the supply of laborers to a so great extent that wages again fell to the minimum subsistence.

The rebellion strained the few resources above subsistence that the country had and hence caused a massive population decrease.

Mandate of Heaven

Make sure you get to venture out to eat alot!