Question

What were the cause and effect of the Tai Ping Rebellion?

Answer 1

Hint: The Taiping Revolt, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a major rebellion or civil war in China between 1850 and 1864 that pitted the founded Qing dynasty against the theocratic Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Complete answer:
- Hong Xiuquan and class inequalities sparked the Taiping Uprising, which culminated in a radical shift in social and economic structure.
- Two things were happening prior to the uprising. One, the business was extremely exclusive—Cohongs and the British East India Company (with their opium, which everybody wanted to buy) were basically in control.
- Around this time, Hong Xiuquan began to believe that he was Jesus' brother and formed his own sect, the Society of God Worshippers (the Taiping Tianguo). He instigated a revolt, but it failed because the majority of the people were not warriors.
- Social changes declared by the rebels included strict gender separation, the abolition of foot binding, land socialisation, and the "suppression" of private trade. The Kingdom attempted to replace Confucianism, Buddhism, and Chinese folk religion with Taiping's version of Christianity in the realm of religion.
- Buddhist monastic libraries were destroyed entirely, particularly in the Yangtze Delta area. The temples of Daoism, Confucianism, and other religious religions were often defaced.
- However, it caused a lot of havoc, so the Self-Strengthening Movement (an attempt to westernise) and Guangxu's 100-Day Reform were implemented. As a result, new technology and industry were able to be integrated into Chinese culture.

Note:
- One of the reasons for the food crisis was the quickly increasing population, which had risen to 430 million by 1850, a 300 percent increase from the population of 1500.
- During the war, an estimated 20 million people were killed, about three million more than during World War I, 64 years ago.