Taiping Rebellion

Name: Taiping Rebellion
Rating: 4.2 (224 reviews)

by Hourly History Book 9 in the History of China series.

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4.1(224)

The Taiping Rebellion examines the vast civil war that convulsed Qing China from 1850 to 1864. It traces Hong Xiuquan’s religious movement, its rapid expansion from Guangxi and the creation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at Nanjing.

The account follows ideological reform, military campaigns, internal division and the mobilisation of regional armies that eventually defeated the rebellion. It places the conflict alongside foreign intervention and Qing weakness, emphasising the enormous destruction and demographic loss that made it one of the nineteenth century’s deadliest wars.

The rebellion also challenges simple distinctions between religious movement, peasant uprising and civil war. Its leaders attempted to construct an alternative state with its own theology, administration and social reforms, while Qing survival depended increasingly on regional armies and foreign-supplied weapons. The conflict therefore accelerates changes in Chinese government even as it fails to replace the dynasty.