ABSTRACT
The six mid-nineteenth-century Chinese rebellions at their peak controlled broad areas of China challenging Qing rule in the northwest, southwest, and the Yangtze valley. Only the extreme southern and northern parts of the empire escaped severe loss of life and property. A movement beginning in 1861, largely stemming from the urgent need to counter the mid-nineteenth-century Chinese rebellions. Initially, the campaign consisted of military reforms adopted by Zeng Guofan and later broadened to adopt Western methods in education, industry, and diplomacy. Both rebellions, like the Taiping Rebellion, were notable in that effective independent governments were established, ruled over large areas of territory for more than a decade, and hinted at ethnic and cultural differences that would remain to the present day. Even as Chinese officials began using Western military technology to suppress the Taiping and other rebellions, a small group of Chinese literati suggested that Western learning should also be employed to address China’s domestic problems.
