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The Taiping Rebellion

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Megan Yang
History-Dr. K When Hong Xiuquan converted to Christianity in 1843 and began preaching from village to village in southern China, little did he know that he had started a religious movement that, by 1850, would have more than thirty-thousand members.1 These members, who called themselves the “Society of God Worshippers,” consisted primarily of poor and disenfranchised Chinese peasants who suffered greatly from the oppression of the Manchu dynasty.2 It was their discontent with the Manchu, paired with a desire for better treatment through a new ruling class, that turned their originally religious movement into a political one. Led by Hong Xiuquan, who declared that the Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty had wrongfully usurped …show more content…

To them, the defeat was a sign that perhaps the Manchus were not as strong as they seemed. If the Westerners could defeat them, perhaps they, the peasants, stood a chance in overthrowing the ruling class they so deeply disliked. There were multiple reasons for the discontent, and even hatred, the southern Chinese felt towards the Manchu dynasty. The population of southern China had been alienated and oppressed since the Manchus had taken up the throne in the 17th century. Ruling China as if they were the masters of a conquered territory, the Manchus oppressed and exploited the Chinese people, especially the peasants, who had high taxes imposed upon them, while the wealthy and corrupt state officials got away with tax evasions.9 Moreover, the growth of the population in a period of economic recession and depreciation of the copper currency, in addition to unexpected droughts that occurred along the lower Yellow River valley due to the abandonment of irrigation systems, lead to starvation, misery, and exacerbated poverty that resulted in widespread anti-Manchu sentiment.10 This sentiment

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