Taiping Rebellion

The Taiping Rebellion was a large-scale revolt against the authority and forces of the Qing Empire in China, conducted by an army and civil administration inspired by Hakka self-proclaimed mystics named Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing . Hong was an unorthodox Christian convert who declared himself the new Messiah and younger brother of Jesus Christ. Yang Xiuqing was a former salesman of firewood in Guangxi, who was frequently able to act as a mouthpiece of God to direct the people and gain himself a large amount of political power. Hong, Yang and their followers established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (... and officially, Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace) and attained control of significant parts of southern China.

Taiping Rebels

The Taiping Rebellion of 1850-1864 killed at least 20 million people and devastated southern China, but a more disturbing facet of the rebellion for the Imperial Chinese government was that they required considerable military assistance from Western powers to eventually suppress it, the Chinese Imperial Army (perhaps as many as 5 million + men) being insufficient by itself to get the job done.The Ever Victorious Army, trained and officered by Europeans and armed with modern weapons and active from 1860 was the decisive force in eventual victory.

The Taiping rebellion showed that the Imperial govenment was incapable of keeping control in its own country without foreign military aid - someone not lost on foreign governments.