The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War, was a large-scale rebellion and civil war in China from 1850 to 1864. It was a revolutionary movement that aimed to overthrow the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty and create a new Chinese state. The conflict was fought between the Qing imperialists and the rebels of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict resulted in millions of casualties and marked the greatest domestic upheaval in China in centuries.
The rebellion was led by Hong Xiuquan, a Hakka peasant from Guangdong province who experienced intense religious visions and was convinced that he had been chosen by God to lead a great crusade against the corrupt Qing dynasty. He declared himself the younger brother of Jesus Christ and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with its capital at Nanjing. The Taipings were comprised mostly of peasants and members of the Hakka and Miao ethnic minority groups.
The Taiping rebellion began in earnest on January 11th, 1850, when a small group of rebels attacked a government military garrison in Jintian village in Guangxi province. Over the next two years, they quickly gained strength and support from those angered by oppressive taxation, high grain prices, rampant banditry and weather-related losses of crops. By December 1851, the Taipings had successfully captured the city of Nanjing and declared it the new capital of their kingdom.
The Qing dynasty initially responded to the revolt by sending in troops to suppress it. However, the Qing army quickly found itself outmatched by the Taiping’s large numbers and innovative tactics, and the rebellion quickly spread all across southern China. By mid-1853, the Taipings had gained control of an estimated third of the country.
In response to the Taiping’s success, the Qing government began reorganizing its forces to combat the rebellion. The Qing court appointed the renowned general Zeng Guofan to lead the Imperial forces against the Taipings. He organized armies of local militias and allies from provinces sympathetic to the Qing cause, and recruited some foreign intervention in the form of British and French advisors and engineers. He also secured the aid of the powerful Eight-Nation Alliance, composed of the United States, Britain, France, Prussia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Japan, and Russia, which sent in troops to fight the Taipings.
The Taipings managed to hold on until October 1864, when the city of Nanjing finally fell to the Qing forces. The remaining Taiping army was crushed shortly afterwards, and Hong Xiuquan died in 1864.
The Taiping Rebellion was one of the bloodiest wars in Chinese history, with estimates of the death toll ranging from 20 million to 70 million. It did, however, bring about some lasting social and political change as the Qing dynasty was forced to implement reforms aimed at curbing the power of local officials and preventing famine and unrest.