The Manchu empire was formed originally by three provinces: Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. The land that that it occupied extended much farther than it does in the present day of China that contains most of the Mongolia[1].
The nomadic Manchu people had left the Manchurian plain and entered Peking in 1644[2]. The Manchus had invaded China by taking the power and authority from the Ming Dynasty. It has been successful due to the weak government of Ming Dynasty as well as the poor Chinese armies and the occurrence of rebellious group[3]. The Manchu established their Qing Dynasty. The Manchu had invaded the Chekiang, Fukien as well as Szechwan. The empire took Canton in one year[4]. In order to maintain the good condition of the empire the Qing Empire had decided to maintain or continue the different beliefs and laws, together with the different reforms that had been done and implemented by the Ming dynasty[5].
The leaders of the Manchu had decided to order an evacuation of all the coastal regions in 1666. The said order was done in order to keep or prevent their citizens from being exposed to the culture of the outside world. In order for the Manchus to maintain their power and authority with their empire, in 1668, the Manchus had implemented their close policy where in Manchuria was closed to all of the Chinese people. During the said time, there were no allowed outside trade to come in or to be done in the empire. In addition to that, the customs of the outside people, especially the western people were not allowed[6].
The Manchu people had been able to take the Turkestan in 1670. In 1673, Wu San-kuei, which is considered as the first real rebellion against the dynasty had launched a campaign against the Manchu empire. Unfortunately, the said campaign was not successful[7].
As part of the dynasty’s expansion of empire, they had continued to conquer the outer part of Mongolia as well as Tibet. The Qing dynasty is also the responsible about the extinction of the Dzungars, a cultural group of that time[8].
During the late 1700s, the Manchus had took their armies to Nepal in order to fight the Gurkhas, the said campaign had been successful, and help the empire to acquire the said place[9].
During the time of the Qing dynasty, the commerce is at its peak, as a matter of fact, the Western trade was widely accepted during the later part of the leadership of the Manchus. That is the primary reason why the Britain had seen China as an easy target for their opium-trade. The opium-trade had begun and it was considered as one of the main and more important trade during that time. Eventually, the government of Qing had seen the said trade as an unlawful that is why the government had implemented a law that prohibited the opium trade. But despite the law that had been implemented by the government, the trade continues anyways. Due to the said reason, Emperor Qianlong had decided to send off Lin Zexu to restrain the illegal opium trade. The said campaign had been successful that had made the Britain to get even. It started the Opium War from 1839 to 1842[10]. The said war is the start of the fall down of the great dynasty.
References
Gernet, Jacques, A History of Chinese Civilization, Cambridge University Press, 1996, http://202.116.73.111/netedu/reference-book/English/gernet.html (Accessed April 1, 2008).
Maidt, Kristin, The History of the Manchu Dynasty, Charlotte Country Day, 2001, http://www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/History/China/save/maidt/Maidt.html (Accessed April 2, 2008).
Schlingmann, Aaron, Manchu, Minnesota State University Mankato, http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/oldworld/asia/manchu.html (Accessed April 1, 2008).
[1] Schlingmann, “Manchu”
[2] Ibid.
[3] Maidt, “The History of the Manchu Dynasty”
[4] Schlingmann, “Manchu”
[5] Maidt, “The History of the Manchu Dynasty”
[6] Ibid.
[7] Schlingmann, “Manchu”
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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