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MID-CENTURY REBELLIONS AND WAR February 17, 2000 Background conditions:

• Bureaucratic corruption and inefficiency  — Problems with Grand Canal
• Militarization of the south China countryside
• Rise of secret societies — Triad Society
• Gentry militias.
• Trade dislocation caused by Treaty of Nanjing.
• Socioeconomic problems: overpopulation, land scarcity, ecological crisis.
• Note apparent quiesence of the 1840s

Southwest Muslim Rebellion (1855-73):

• Background:
• Heavy land taxes,
• Special discriminatory levies on Muslims,
• Chinese attempts to seize Muslim-owned gold & silver mines.
• Muslims under leadership of Du Wenxiu (Sultan Suleiman).
• Suppressed by Chinese military.  Use of divide and conquer tactics.

Northwest Muslim Rebellion (1862-73):

• Root cause: local Chinese-Muslim disputes (not anti-Qing sentiments).
• Initial attempts by Qing to put it down marked by poor leadership & lack of supplies.
• Appointment of Zuo Zongtang in 1866.
• Methodical and concerned with caring for the livelihood of populace under his control.
• Involved brutally fierce fighting & 6 years of struggle.
• Also resulted in deportation of large numberss of Muslims from the northwest.

Nian Rebellion (1851-68):

• "Nian" — roving bands roaming central China since the late 18th century:   Shandong, Henan, Anhui, northern Jiangsu.
• Region of extreme poverty.  Silted up Grand Canal, overpopulation, widespread female infanticide.
• Rebels only 30-50,000 but supported by the rural population with fortified villages. Character of guerilla war.
• Under Zeng Guofan, Qing defeated them using defensive perimeter.

Taiping Rebellion (1850-64).  Taiping Tianguo — Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace:

• Hong Xiuquan (1814-64) — classic rebel.
• Hakka (Kejia — "guest family") minority in Guangxi; son of a poor peasant propietor.
• Talented student but failed in the examinations in Canton — 1827, 1836, 1843.  Bouts of illness and delirium.
• Good Words to Exhort the Age (Quanshi liangyan).  Christian tract acquired in 1836, read in 1843.  Explained his earlier vision: ascent to heaven, man with golden beard (God), instructions to destroy demons (Manchus).  He was younger brother of Jesus.
• Spread of his God-Worshiping Society in Guangxi through the 1840s.
• Rebellion:
• Began in late 1850 in Jintian (Guangxi) after Qing forces surrounded & tried to crush.
• Broke out in early 1851 and headed north into Hunan, taking the name Taiping Tianguo.
• Grew from 20,000 in Guangxi, to 120,000 in Changsha (September 1852), and 500,000 in Wuchang in early 1853.
• Fleet sailed down Yangzi, taking Nanjing in March 1853.  Became capital.
• One failed expedition north thereafter.
• Fighting involved 16 of the 18 provinces.
• Taiping ideology.
• Syncretic mixture of Chinese and Christian elements.  Drew heavily from the Old Testament, but also from Chinese religion.
• Egalitarian philosophy:
• Gender equality, no bound feet, examinations for women.
• Division of all land and redistribution into family-sized holdings.
• Declared war on Manchus, officials, gentry, Daoists and Buddhists.
• Practice very different in the Nanjing period.  For example, vast harems assembled by major leaders.
• Role of Westerners:
• Debate over which side to back.
• Eventual support of the Qing by foreigners.  Ever Victorious Army under Frederick Ward (1831-62), then Charles Gordon (1833-85).
• Suppression:
• Largely the result of Zeng Guofan and the Xiang (Hunan) Army, and similar armies under Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang.  Unofficial armies.
• Brutal and savage fighting on both sides.
• Fall of Nanjing, 1864.
• Consequences:
• Enormous loss of life (20-50 million), decimation of whole provinces.
• Loss of central control to provincial governors.

The Arrow War —  or Second Opium War (1856-60). 

• Pretext:  Arrow incident.  Ship with a Chinese owner and crew, but English master and flying English flag, engaged in piracy, captured by Chinese government.
• Background of poor relations between British and Chinese authorities.
• Canton entry question (British retreat in 1847).
• Ascendency of conservative literati officials under the Xianfeng Emperor.
• Breakdown of attempts at treaty revision in 1854.
• British felt war would be beneficial.
• Divisions in Qing court:
• Hardline literati officials opposing any compromises with the British.
• "Barbarian management" group of high Manchu officials.
• Course of the war:
• 1856 - British declaration of war with some fighting in Canton.
• 1857 - British seizure of Canton in December.  Capture of Chinese governor-general.
• 1858 - British & French captured the fort at Dagu after heavy fighting in May and threatened to seize Tianjin.         Chinese sued for peace resulting in the Treaty of Tianjin in June.
• 1859 - Failed British attempt to exchange the Treaty's articles of negotiation led to attack on Dagu.  Repulsed.
• 1860 - British & French expedition (60 ships and 16,000 troops).  After a negotiating team sent to Beijing was imprisoned and several executed, British and French troops took Dagu, then moved on Beijing.  Captured Beijing in October, burning the Summer Palace complex north of the city.  Followed by Convention of Beijing, ratifying the Treaty.

Treaty of Tianjin — Terms:

• Nine new treaty ports: Tianjin, Niuchuang & Dengzhou in the north; Hankou, Jiujiang & Jinjiang in the Yangzi; and Swatow, Tamsui & Gaoxiong in the south.
• Embassies in Beijing.
• Opium legalized with the price set.
• Missionary access to the interior.
• Indemnity of 4 million taels.

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