Qing dynasty

The Qing dynasty, also called the Great Qing or Qing China, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty that ruled from 1636 or 1644 until 1912. It was the final imperial dynasty in China, coming after the Ming dynasty and ending with the Republic of China. At its peak, the empire reached from the Sea of Japan in the east to the Pamir Mountains in the west, and from the Mongolian Plateau in the north to the South China Sea in the south. It began as the Later Jin dynasty, founded in 1616 by Nurhaci, a Jurchen leader and Ming vassal who united the Jurchen clans (later known as Manchus) and created the Eight Banners military system. His son Hong Taiji declared the Great Qing in 1636. In 1644, as Ming rule collapsed, peasant rebels took Beijing and formed the short-lived Shun dynasty. Ming general Wu Sangui then opened the Shanhai Pass to Qing forces, who defeated the rebels, captured the capital, and took over the government under the Shunzhi Emperor and his regent. Full conquest took until 1683, after resistance from Ming loyalists and the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, marking the start of the High Qing era. The Kangxi Emperor, a Manchu, consolidated control, embraced the role of a Confucian ruler, supported Buddhism, and encouraged scholarship, population growth, and economic expansion.

The Qing maintained influence over neighbors like Joseon Korea and the Lê dynasty in Vietnam by adapting the traditional tributary system, while also extending control over Inner Asia. The dynasty reached its height under the Qianlong Emperor, who led the Ten Great Campaigns and oversaw Confucian cultural projects. After his death, the empire faced internal revolts, economic troubles, official corruption, foreign pressure, and resistance to change from Confucian elites. Population rose to 400 million, but fixed low taxes and revenues led to a fiscal crisis. Defeats in the Opium Wars forced the Qing to sign unequal treaties with Britain, France, Russia, and the United States, granting trading privileges, extraterritoriality, and treaty ports, beginning the century of humiliation. The Taiping Rebellion and Dungan Revolt caused over 20 million deaths from famine, disease, and war.

The Tongzhi Restoration in the 1860s brought reforms and foreign military technology through the Self-Strengthening Movement. Defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War cost Qing suzerainty over Korea and ceded Taiwan to Japan. The Hundred Days' Reform in 1898 proposed major changes but was poorly executed and ended by Empress Dowager Cixi in the Wuxu Coup. In 1900, anti-foreign Boxers killed Chinese Christians and missionaries, prompting the Eight-Nation Alliance to invade and impose a punitive indemnity. The government then launched unprecedented fiscal and administrative reforms, including elections, a new legal code, and abolition of the imperial examination system. Revolutionaries like Sun Yat-sen debated reform officials and constitutional monarchists such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao over how to transform the Manchu-ruled empire into a modernized Han state. After the deaths of the Guangxu Emperor and Cixi in 1908, Manchu conservatives blocked further reforms. The Wuchang Uprising on October 10, 1911, sparked the Xinhai Revolution, and the Xuantong Emperor abdicated on February 12, 1912, ending the dynasty.

The name "Qing" (清, meaning 'clear' or 'pure') was chosen by Hong Taiji in 1636. One theory suggests it contrasts with "Ming" (明, 'bright'), which is associated with fire in the Chinese zodiac, while Qing is linked to water, symbolizing the conquest of fire by water. The name may also have Buddhist connotations of clarity and enlightenment, connected to the bodhisattva Manjusri. Early European writers used "Tartar" broadly for northern Eurasian peoples, but by the 17th century, Catholic missionaries used it specifically for the Manchus and "Tartary" for their lands—Manchuria and parts of Inner Asia ruled by the Qing before the Ming–Qing transition. After conquering China proper, the Manchus identified their state as "China," which became the standard English translation of Zhōngguó (中國, 'middle kingdom'). The Qing assembled the territorial base for modern China, controlled more territory than any previous Chinese dynasty, and in 1790 was the fourth-largest empire in world history to that point. It was also the most populous state at the time, with over 426 million citizens in 1907.