Nineteenth-century Qing China suffered from both foreign intrusion and social unrest. What was the most obvious demonstration of the Chinese people's dissatisfaction at midcentury? Explain in detail the causes and results of that unrest

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
Students should recognize the Taiping Rebellion as the most prominent example of social unrest. Beginning in the Guangxi region, the rebellion was sparked by an unstable agricultural base and a population that increasingly relied on odious labor, such as carrying human waste. Ethnic divisions were destructive as well. One minority group, the Hakkas, was significant in the rebellion. Influenced by Protestant Christianity, the Hakka Hong Xiuquan, a failed candidate in the examination system, saw himself as a younger brother of Jesus, destined to drive the Qing from China. Hong gathered different ethnic and economic groups to fight against the Qing. The movement was unique in its use of women in warrior brigades. Other villages feared the rebellion's mix of warrior women, totalitarian rule, and bizarre foreign ideology. Taiping armies controlled the countryside and captured the city of Nanjing, where they barricaded themselves against imperial forces during a ten-year siege. The Qing government was now heavily indebted to Britain and France, and these European powers feared that the Taipings might succeed in the war to overthrow the Qing Empire. At first they hesitated to attack the Taipings because they understood the Taipings to be Christians. However, they soon concluded that the Taipings were not true Christians. When the Crimean War was ended in 1856, Britain and France were free to turn their attention to China. They briefly attacked Qing port cities as punishment for Qing reluctance to fulfill the obligations of previous treaties, then threw themselves into the war against the Taipings on the side of the Qing. By 1864 the Taiping Rebellion was suppressed.