Qing China — internal challenges and opening up
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Flip to reveal answersWhen did the Qianlong Emperor reign?
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Question
When did the Qianlong Emperor reign?
Answer
1736–1796, one of the longest reigns in Chinese history.
Question
Who was Heshen?
Answer
Qianlong's favourite official from the 1770s who used his power to sell offices and take bribes, amassing a huge fortune before being forced to suicide in 1799.
Question
What was the White Lotus?
Answer
A secret religious sect promising salvation, whose followers led a major rebellion (1796–1804) in the Sichuan/Hubei/Shaanxi border region.
Question
Why did the White Lotus Rebellion take 8 years to suppress?
Answer
Corruption had weakened Qing armies, and mountainous terrain let rebels scatter and hide, forcing reliance on costly local militias.
Question
What caused the Miao revolts?
Answer
Han Chinese settlement onto Miao lands in Guizhou/Hunan and unfair Qing taxation and administration, sparking major revolt from 1795.
Question
What was the Canton System?
Answer
A policy from 1757 restricting all Western maritime trade to the single port of Canton, managed through the licensed Cohong merchant guild.
Question
What was the Macartney Mission?
Answer
A 1793 British diplomatic mission seeking more open ports, a permanent ambassador, and eased trade restrictions — rejected by Qianlong.
Question
Why did the Macartney Mission fail?
Answer
Qing China saw Britain as a tributary state paying respect; Britain wanted equal sovereign diplomatic relations — the two worldviews were incompatible.
Question
How did the opium trade begin growing?
Answer
Britain, needing to fix its silver trade deficit under the Canton System, increasingly smuggled opium into China from the late 1700s, despite it being banned.
Question
Compare Qing and British views of Macartney's requests.
Answer
Qing: China is self-sufficient, foreign rulers are tributary. Britain: trade should be equal and mutually beneficial, expanding markets is progress.
Question
What is the significance of Qianlong's later reign for Paper 3 essays?
Answer
It shows the roots of Qing decline (corruption, rebellion, rigid diplomacy, opium) well before the nineteenth-century crises like the Opium Wars.
Question
What was the Cohong?
Answer
A guild of licensed Chinese merchants at Canton who held the sole legal right to trade with foreign merchants under the Canton System.
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Full study notes for Qing China — internal challenges and opening up
Topic 12.3 hub
Challenges to imperial rule in China (1736–1911)
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