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What long-term impacts did the Taiping Rebellion and other revolts have on China? |
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See answer below. |
In 1853, Small Swords Society rebels led by Liu Lichuan captured Shanghai. To protect their interests in Shanghai, the foreign powers sided with the Qing government. Liu clashed many times with Qing and foreign soldiers before he was defeated and killed in 1855. In 1854, Chen Kai and Li Wenmao launched a revolt in Foshan (佛山), Guangdong, and established the Dacheng Kingdom in Xunzhou (潯州), Guangxi. There, Chen styled himself the Xun King (潯王) and Li styled himself the Pingjing King. In 1858, Li died shortly after sustaining a grave injury in a battle. In 1861, Chen was captured and killed by the Qing army. Despite their subjects’ continued resistance, the rebellion was crushed in 1864.
Established in 1851, the Nian rebels achieved numerous victories against the Qing army by using guerrilla strategy years followed. At one point, they were active in a region that spanned the provinces of Henan (河南), Anhui (安徽), Jiangsu (江蘇), and Shandong (山東). From 1853 onwards, the Nian rebels allied with the Taiping Army on some occasions. This earned Zhang Lexing the title of “Wo King” from the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace. In 1866, Zeng Guofan was dismissed for his failure to defeat the Nian rebels. He was succeeded by Li Hongzhang (李鴻章).
Sengge Rinchen was a Qing prince and Mongolian noble with prowess in battles. The Qing government relied heavily on him. His key achievements were mainly in suppressing anti-Qing forces. In 1855, he annihilated the Taiping Rebellion’s northern expeditionary force, the rebels’ generals Lin Fengxiang (林鳳祥) and Li Kaifang (李開芳) were captured and killed. In 1855, he captured and executed the Nian rebels’ leader Zhang Lexing. In the following year, by luring Sengge Rinchen into a chase, the Nian rebels set a trap of encirclement. It ended up with the annihilation of over 7,000 men of Sengge Rinchen’s force and his own death, a defeat that stunned the Qing government. The loss of Sengge Rinchen and his elite force meant that the Qing government had no capable generals or warriors among the nobility. Thus, they had no choice but to rely more heavily on the Xiang Army (湘軍) and Huai Army (淮軍), and later the new Beiyang Army (北洋新軍) under Yuan Shikai (袁世凱).
From the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion in 1851 to the time the Qing government fully recovered Xinjiang, China endured 27 years of internal strife. The total death toll could not be ascertained, but some estimates put it at 50 million, 70 million, 80 million and even over 100 million, reflecting the magnitude of the turmoil that gripped China for 27 years.
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What long-term impacts did the Taiping Rebellion and other revolts have on China? |
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The Taiping Rebellion and additional revolts that happened during that period had important impacts on China. They can be summarised as follows: 1. It gave China the impetus to pursue the Self-Strengthening Movement. In suppressing the mass uprisings, the Qing government, and its newly rose military leaders such as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and Zuo Zongtang relied heavily on Western weapons. They acknowledged the necessity of learning from the Western powers’ strengths, especially military strength. This made the Self-Strengthening Movement possible. 2. The rise of local powers: the Qing government’s use of militias raised by local Han officials and gentry to suppress the rebellions weakened central rule, giving local Han elites the opportunity to rise to power. Many generals who had served in the Xiang Army and Huai Army were later appointed as high-ranking local officials. Zeng Guofan, for example, served as the Viceroy of Zhili (直隸總督) and Viceroy of Liang-Jiang (兩江總督); Zuo Zongtang as the Viceroy of Shaan-Gan and Viceroy of Liang Jiang; and Li Hongzhang as the Viceroy of Zhili and Viceroy of Liang-Guang (兩廣總督). Their reputation and power were far greater than preceding viceroys. From that time onwards, powerful local officials could even disobey orders from the Qing government on some key occasions. For example, during the Boxer Rebellion and the invasion of Eight-Nation Alliance (八國聯軍) in 1900, the south-eastern provinces’ viceroys refused to obey the Qing government’s order of fighting against the invaders. They even made the pact of “Mutual Protection of Southeast China (東南互保)” with the foreigners. Participants in the pact included Viceroy of Huguang (湖廣總督), Zhang Zidong (張之洞), Viceroy of Liang Guang, Li Hongzhang, and Governor of Shandong (山東巡撫), Yuan Shikai. Meanwhile, locally raised militias like the Xiang Army and Huai Army inspired the government to promote the recruitment and training of local armies during the late Qing period. However, the government could not control these local militias effectively. Some of the newly formed armies even participated in the anti-Qing revolution. For example, in 1911, the Wuchang Uprising (武昌起義) was sparked off by the New Army of Hubei (湖北新軍). Later, after establishing the Republic of China, the government inherited this situation and was unable to control those provincial powers. It resulted in China being carved up by warlords. 3. Anti-Qing sentiments spread far and wide: the Taiping Rebellion, in particular, served as a revolutionary inspiration for Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) and his followers whose efforts would later topple the Qing regime. |
