Causes of the Taiping Rebellion
- According to Karl Marx, European Imperialism, foreign trade, and the Opium War were the major causes of the rebellion.
- The Qing Dynasty was intensively involved in the Opium Trade with Britain, due to which China was facing a huge decline in silver and paved the way for China’s demonetization; this led to a civil war between the Qing Dynasty and the peasants of China.
- It was because of the process of Imperialism, that China was becoming westernized slowly and gradually, which was not liked by the orthodox group of people.
- The process of Westernization led to the First Opium War from 1839-1842. In this particular war, China faced a crushing defeat and Great Britain was announced as victorious. This led to the signing of the “Unequal Treaties”. According to it, the free Opium trade was legalized in China and Britain sanctioned the opening up of new trade channels and ports in North China. The economic system of China now shifted from South China to North China.
- Due to the sudden economic shift from South to North, the level of unemployment increased drastically in South China. The inhabitants of South China blamed the Qing Dynasty for their loss of jobs. This was the beginning of a small spark in the South China.
Taiping Rebellion
Taiping Rebellion: The term rebellion mainly signifies those events in History where a group of people organized a violent insurrection against the government that was in power. One such major rebellion that took place around the 19th century was the Taiping Rebellion in China.
In this article, we will discuss the Taiping Rebellion in brief, its causes, how it progressed, leaders who were involved in the Taiping Rebellion, death tolls, and some interesting facts related to the Taiping Rebellion.