Founded by Manchu conquerors in 1644, the Qing was the last dynasty to rule China. It was overthrown by the 1911 Revolution, which marked the establishment of the Republic of China

The Manchus were a hunting, fishing , and farming people of central Manchuria, the region northwest of China proper. Although descended from the Tunguz Jurchen tribes that had founded from the Jin dynasty (1115-1234) in North China, they politically divided and under loose Chinese suzerainty by the middle of the Ming period (1368-1644) .

Late in the sixteenth century the Jurchen chief Nurhaci (1559-1626) unified the tribes over a span of thirty years . He consolidated his power by establishing a walled fortress, employing armoires and blacksmiths, recruiting Chinese advisors, and reorganizing the Jurchen tribes. Nurhaci’s most important innovation was the banner system. The entire population was enrolled in quasi-military units, each identified by a colored banners crossed tribal lines and were commanded by appointed officers rather than hereditary chiefs, they marked a shifted from tribal to bureaucratic organization . Four banners initially were established; four more were added later. Eventually the system added eight Mongol and eight Chinese banners to incorporate the Manchus’ non-Manchu allies.

Nurhaci also sponsored the invention of a Manchu writing system , based on the Mongolian alphabet. It facilitated the keeping of records (hitherto kept in Mongolian) ; moreover, translations of the Ming law code and Chinese classical works enabled the Manchus to adopt Chinese administrative practices and Confucian ideology.

In 1616 Nurhaci renounced fealty to the Ming. Two years later he invaded Ming territory in southern Manchuria . In 1625 he moved his capital to the recently captured city of Shengyang (Mukden) . Nurhaci died in 1626 and was succeeded by his eighth son, Huang Taiji . As he eliminated rivals among his brothers and subjugated other Manchu princes to autocratic rule. He depended increasingly on Chinese models and collaborators. In Shenyang he organized a central government based on Chinese institutions.

Huang Taiji also expanded the Manchu state , incorporating Inner Mongolia and the Amur River valley . He also forced Korea to accept Manchu suzerainty. Manchu forces raided China as far south as Shandong . In 1636 Huang Taiji proclaimed the establishment of the Qing dynasty, implicating claiming succession to the Ming . He died in 1643. His ninth son, Fulin (1638-1661) , came to the throne as the Shunzhi emperor on the eve of the Manchu invasion of China.

The Qing conquest of China

The Manchus invasion was facilitated by the collapse of Ming authority in North China , where popular uprisings had brought much turmoil. Li Zicheng (1605-1645) had emerged as the most powerful contender for power . In the spring of 1644 Li marched east ward and occupied Beijing . A Ming general, Wu Sangui (1612-1678) , thereupon joined forces with the Manchus against Li . With the help of Wu and other Chinese generals, the Manchus overran North China and easily defeated the divided resistance. Initially meeting with little opposition , the Manchus won the allegiance of government officials and local gentry, many of whom welcomed the Qing as deliverance from banditry and rebellion . In October 1644 the Qing capital was transferred to Beijing.

The conquest of South China was much more prolonged . The Ming government there had not loyalist regimes vied for succession, and one controlled parts of southwest China for fifteen years. Zheng Chenggong (1624-1662) ,also known as Koxinga, led a sustained Ming loyalist movement on the southeast coast and Taiwan and defeated the last Ming resistance.

The Qing dynasty became more sinicized under the Shunzhi emperor (r. 1644-1661) . The first Manchu monarch to master the Chinese language , he revived the Hanlin Academy , a stronghold of Confucian scholarship and eunuchs . The pendulum swung back toward Manchu control upon his death. His seven years old son was chosen to rule as the Kangxi emperor (r.1661-1722) , aided by a regency of four Manchu princes . After Kangxi assumed personal power in 1669 , he institutionalized the privileged position of Manchus by reserving for them top positions in the bureaucracy . Each of the Six Boards had one Chinese and one Manchu minister : only half of the grand secretaries were Chinese bannermen serving as governors -general .

Qing government followed Ming administrative practices, with some minor modifications. Each of the eighteen provinces was administered by a governor. He was supervised by a governor- general. Who usually oversaw two provinces. Below the provincial administration was a hierarchy of circuits, prefectures, and districts. The district magistrate, representing the lowest level of formal government , was aided in his duties by local gentry , mostly degree holders and their families.

Under the Yong zheng emperor (r.1723-1735) , the monarchy became more autocratic, and state administration further centralized . Yong zheng established a small and informed group of advisors , the Grand Council , to aid him in governing ; he developed a secret memorial system to allow confidential communications between the emperor and his most trusted officials; and he took direct control over all banners , some of which had been commanded by Manchu princes.

The tax system was reformed under Kangxi and Yongzheng. In 1713 the head-tax quota was frozen . Yongzheng reformed tax collection by supplementing officials’ salaries with "intrigrity-nourishing" allowances in order to bring corruption under control.

The Qing began to expand into inner Asia not long after consolidating its control over China proper . These Qing conquests were motivated at least in part by strategic concerns: nomadic cavalry could threaten sedentary civilizations , and the Mongols had been a constant threat to the Ming. The Manchus began to deal with the Mongols as early as in the 1603s, when they conquered the Eastern Mongols. The Western Mongols and Tibetans, both predominantly Lamist.

In the 1670s a Western Mongol prince of the Dzungar tribe , Galdan (1644-1697) , conquered the Islamic cities of Eastern Turkestan, creating a Dzungar empire in what is now Xinjiang . Eventually Galdan invaded Outer Mongolia and threatened Beijing before being turned back . In 1696 , however , Qing armies expelled the Dzungar from Outer Mongolia, which was incorporated into the Qing empire.

Both the Dzungars and the Qing became involved in Tibet in 1717 , the Qing army took Lhasa in 1720 and established a protectorate . Qing control over Tibet was enforced by a permanent Manchu garrison.

In the years that followed, internecine strife weakened the Dzungars. In the 1750s the Qing defeated the Dzungars in a series of campaigns and subjugated the Trukic populations of eastern Turkestan. By 1760 the Qing reached its greatest extent of territorial control.