leaving the early modern period… • Dynasties founded by virtuous rulers; corrupt heirs lose Mandate of Heaven; conquered by foreign invaders or peasant rebels • Recent explanations: periods of extreme technological development, population growth, and economic & cultural change lead to political instability • When conquerors were non-Han (often steppe people), they were only partly assimilated • Legacy of middle period: China as a diverse, often conflicted, multiethnic empire
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Leaving the early modern period… Dynasties founded by virtuous rulers; corrupt heirs lose Mandate of Heaven; conquered by foreign invaders or peasant rebels.
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leaving the early modern period…• Dynasties founded by virtuous rulers;
corrupt heirs lose Mandate of Heaven; conquered by foreign invaders or peasant rebels
• Recent explanations: periods of extreme technological development, population growth, and economic & cultural change lead to political instability
• When conquerors were non-Han (often steppe people), they were only partly assimilated
• Legacy of middle period: China as a diverse, often conflicted, multiethnic empire
Part III: China in the World System -- the last dynastyQing (1644-1911)
The “16th-century crisis”?
• revolution in world monetary structures• sharp fluctuations in the levels of
international and domestic trade • dramatic increases in governmental
expenditure• significant changes in the growth rates and
geographical distribution of population• deteriorating climatic conditions• outbreaks of epidemic disease
Late-Ming problems and controversies
• Influx of foreign silver: destabilized Ming economy, led to rapid inflation
• Expense of foreign wars depleted imperial coffers, led to higher taxation
• Overtaxed farmers fled land, leading to decrease in food production
• “little ice age” of the 17th century• Widespread corruption, problem of
eunuchs
The Ming is attacked from within
• Li Zicheng: deserted soldier & unsuccessful official
• Becomes leader of a group of bandits in very remote part of the country
• 1644: attacks Peking; the last Ming emperor commits suicide
A Jurchen state takes shape• Considered themselves
descended from the Jin Dynasty
• Jurchen tribes mountain/nomadic: trappers, traders, gold, etc.
• By late Ming, start settling just north of the wall and become more sedentary & agricultural; intermarry with Chinese and adopt many elements of Chinese culture
• Still, not really a central, unifying political/military forceKorean painting of Jurchen warriors
• 6,352 km (3,948 miles) long, from Shanhaiguan to Jiayuguan
• Average dimensions roughly 18 feet wide and 25 feet high, 40 feet high at the watchtowers
• Most watchtowers not garrisoned at any given time. Troops regularly redeployed between watchtowers. The goal was to keep invading enemy guessing how many defending soldiers might be occupying a given watchtower.
How the Manchus conquered China
• Ming court already been defeated by Li Zicheng
• Ming general Wu Sangui allows Qing to enter through Shanhai pass