| Manchu conquest of China | ||||||||
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Qing Dynasty in 1820. |
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
| Qing Dynasty | Ming Dynasty | Shun Dynasty | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
| Nurhaci Dodo Dorgon |
Chongzhen Emperor Yuan Chonghuan |
Li Zicheng | ||||||
| Strength | ||||||||
| varies | varies | between 60,000 and 100,000 men | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| varies | varies | unknown | ||||||
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The Manchu conquest of China was a long period of war between the Manchu-established Qing Dynasty from the north and the Ming Dynasty of China in the south. The Manchus, based on Manchuria, had invaded Korea during the reign of Hong Taiji, and headed south to conquer the Ming starting in the 1640s.
The Ming Dynasty was fighting for its own survival against various peasant rebellions. On May 26, 1644, Beijing fell to a rebel army led by Li Zicheng, a former minor Ming official who became the leader of the peasant revolt, who then proclaimed the Shun dynasty. The last Ming emperor, the Chongzhen Emperor, hanged himself on a tree in the imperial garden outside the Forbidden City. When Li Zicheng moved against Ming general Wu Sangui, the latter made an alliance with the Manchus. Li Zicheng was defeated at the Battle of Shanhai Pass by the joint forces of Ming general Wu Sangui and Manchu prince Dorgon. On June 6, the Manchus and Wu entered the capital and proclaimed the young Shunzhi Emperor ruler of China. Soon after, the Kangxi Emperor ascended the throne and fought off several rebellions and then countered by launching a series of campaigns that expanded his empire. This was the second (and the last) time all of China was conquered and ruled by a non-native dynasty(non-Han Chinese dynasty) in history.
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Jurchen warlord Nurhaci is retrospectively identified as the founder of the Qing dynasty. In 1616 he declared himself khagan. His unifying efforts gave the Jurchen the strength to assert themselves. In 1618 he proclaimed Seven Grievances against the Ming and seized the city of Fushun in what is now Liaoning province in China's northeast. In a series of successful military campaigns in Liaodong and Liaoxi (east and west of the Liao River), the Jurchens seized a number of Ming cities including Shenyang, which they made into the capital of their newly founded "Later Jin" dynasty, named after a Jurchen polity that had ruled over north China several centuries earlier.
Under the inspirational leader Yuan Chonghuan, the Ming used western artillery to defeat the Jin forces at the Battle of Ningyuan in 1626. Nurhaci was injured and died soon afterwards, but the Ming failed to seize the chance to counter-attack. The Jurchens' nemesis Yuan Chonghuan was soon purged in a political struggle, while under the leadership of the new khan Hung Taiji the Jurchens kept seizing Ming cities, defeated Joseon Korea, a crucial ally of the Ming, in 1627 and 1636, and raided deep into China in 1642 and 1643.
The Ming faced several famines, floods, economic chaos, and rebellions. Li Zicheng rebelled in the 1630s in Shaanxi in the north, while a mutiny led by Zhang Xianzhong broke out in Sichuan in the 1640s. Many people were killed in this self-proclaimed emperor's reign of terror. In 1642 Ming forces besieged Kaifeng and over 300,000 people died. In 1644, at last, Li's forces entered Beijing. The Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide.
After the fall of Beijing to Li Zicheng, Ming commander Wu Sangui still hoped he could restore the Ming, but was soon cornered by Li Zicheng. He turned to the Manchus, and defeated Li Zicheng's forces at the Battle of Shanhai Pass with their help. But he effectively invited a Manchu invasion of the rest of China.
The order to make new subjects shave their front hair and wear a pigtail was a profound humilitation for the populace. In 1645, the city of Yangzhou in Jiangsu was the scene of a massacre in which thousands died at Dodo's hands.
A man known as Koxinga established his own state in Xiamen. His armies founded alliances with nearby powers against the Manchu, but was driven back to the sea. So he gathered a navy and conquered Taiwan from the Dutch. He founded the Kingdom of Tungning in the island, a base of operations against the Manchu. However, he died the same year of his great feat. This ended any idea of a Ming restoration, but the Manchu faced opposition from its inside.
Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi, and Geng Jimao, the "Three Feudatories", rebelled against the Kangxi Emperor. They dominated southern China, and Wu declared the "Zhou Dynasty". However, their disunity destroyed them. Shang Zhixin and Geng surrendered in 1681 after a massive Qing counteroffensive.
The Kangxi Emperor, the one who had crushed the Three Feudatories' revolt, began his own campaigns to expand his empire. In 1683 he dispatched Shi Lang with a fleet of 300 ships to take Taiwan in 1683 from the wealthy Zheng family. The descendants of Koxinga did not stand a chance against the experienced Manchu troops. He used the Zheng family's knowledge of sea warfare to seize the town of Albazin on the Amur River from Russia in 1685, giving the Manchus control of all the area south of the river.
Finally, Kangxi gambled on an invasion of the north. Galdan, leader of the Zunghar Khanate, prepared to unite the tribes of Mongolia to restore the Mongol Empire. The Chinese armies of 80,000 led by the Emperor Kangxi himself marched south of Ulaanbaatar to engage the Zunghars. In a brief engagement, the enemy units were pounded by cannon fire and routed. Galdan died one year later.
Kangxi's conquest of Mongolia completed his northern expedition. Before his death in 1722, he expanded his empire as far as the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. His successors campaigned further, taking over areas such as Qinghai and Xinjiang. In 1710, he orchestrated the standard Kangxi dictionary and gave a written language for the Manchus.
The Qing Dynasty would rule until the Wuchang Uprising in 1911. Puyi, the last reigning Manchu emperor, officially abdicated the following year. The new Chinese Republic was also established in the same year.