5404–5672 AM · 1644 CE — 1912 CE · world history
The Qing dynasty
The Manchus take Beijing and found the Qing — the last dynasty in China's history.
A peasant revolt takes Beijing, the last Ming emperor takes his own life, and a frontier commander opens the passage through the wall to the Manchus. The newcomers from the north-east occupy the capital and step by step subdue all China. They keep the bureaucracy and the examinations, but require men to shave the forehead and wear the queue as a sign of submission. In the eighteenth century the realm reaches its greatest extent, taking in Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang, and the population triples. In the nineteenth it will be broken down by wars with the Europeans and by rebellion within.
§Sources
Documents of the period
- the Chinese dynastic histories
Scholarship
- archaeology of China
Basis: documents and evidence.