For about 2000 years, the place we now call China was ruled by a series of imperial dynasties. The Ming ruled until the 1600s. Around midway through that century, the Ming dynasty fell and the ethnically Han Ming were replaced with conquerors from the northeast. The invaders had an ethnically Manchu leadership and were from Manchuria, which is roughly north of Korea and northeast of Beijing. These were the ones who gave their state the name: Great Qing.
The Qing ruled over a vast territory, larger than China is today. It included all modern China, but also parts of what are now Tajikistan (in the northwest), Mongolia in the north and parts of what are now Russia’s pacific holdings, including Vladivostok. The Qing also took Taiwan. Their protectorates – areas that were not under direct administration but who paid tribute- included Korea and in south-east Asia – which the Chinese call Nanyang and which today includes countries like Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos.
This vast empire was ruled from Beijing. The Qing dynasty had grown out of Manchuria and its initial capital, which is now called Shenyang. The Ming had built the Forbidden City in Beijing and now the Qing controlled it. Qing Emperors would usually live in the regional palace in Shenyang at least part of each year. There was also an imperial hunting lodge north of Beijing. However, the administration was primarily based in Beijing in and around the Forbidden City.
When the Europeans arrived in great numbers wanting to trade, they encountered this large and sprawling Great Qing State. But interactions between the Qing and the Europeans were tightly controlled. The Qing did not allow the Europeans to visit Beijing or to set up embassies. In fact, Europeans were generally restricted to trading in one port in in the south and only for part of the year.
These traders weren’t even supposed to speak directly with Qing officials. They were to interact exclusively with merchants who had a monopoly on foreign trade.
The Europeans weren’t satisfied with that and tried to change the status quo. Britain’s Macartney Mission in 1793 managed to meet the Qianlong Emperor. But little changed.
The Qing saw no reason to change. Theirs was the central kingdom. They governed approximately 400 million subjects directly. Through a tribute system and a strong culture, they had influence over neighbouring nations containing tens of millions more.
Qing control had been expanding. While its army was stronger than its navy, the Qing had a sufficient navy to wrestle control of Taiwan from Ming loyalists.
Administration was mostly in the hands of Manchurian, Mongol and Han elites. As with most previous dynasties, government administration was coveted employment. To be a senior administrator, one had to pass three successive and grueling examinations. These examinations were about mastering classical and Confucian teachings. Successful administrators were therefore knowledgeable about poetry, the classical arts and lessons of governance and philosophy almost 2000 years old. These scholar officials came to prize tradition more than innovation.
As a result, the Qing’s administration and technology were developing more slowly than these new visitors by sea.
The Qing would begin to realize this because of the Opium War. When the Qing met the British navy. The Qing coastal areas were rocked first. But eventually even the inland areas would feel the reverberations.
Like the Ming Dynasty and every imperial dynasty before it, the Qing Dynasty would eventually end too. It took time and the final 80 years or so of the Qing were eventful. But when the Qing did fall, they would not be replaced by a new dynasty, but by the Republic of China. In 1912, the mother of the boy emperor Puyi tendered his abdication, peacefully ending the first Chinese Revolution. Change came to China. But peace and stability would not last. The Qing were followed by a period of civil war.
Image: "Map of Qing dynasty 18c.svg" by Samhanin is marked with CC0 1.0.