Wars of Manchu Expansion
The "Wars of Manchu Expansion" refers to the military campaigns and political maneuvers undertaken by the Manchu people, originally nomadic Jurchids, to establish and solidify their control over China, leading to the formation of the Qing Dynasty. The rise of the Manchus began with Nurhaci in the early 17th century, who united various Jurchid tribes and initiated conflicts against the Ming Dynasty. Following a succession of leaders, including Nurhaci’s son Abahai, the Manchus transformed their tribal identity and began extensive military campaigns, seizing key territories.
In 1644, with the decline of the Ming Dynasty, the Manchus capitalized on internal revolts, capturing Beijing and establishing the Qing Dynasty. The subsequent years were marked by conflicts against Ming loyalists and other regional powers, during which notable leaders like Kangxi emerged, who continued to expand the dynasty's territory into Taiwan and Tibet. By the late 17th century, the Qing Dynasty had stabilized its rule and established borders with neighboring states, significantly shaping the political landscape of East Asia. The wars and subsequent consolidation of power reflected a complex interplay of military strategy, governance, and cultural integration during a pivotal era in Chinese history.
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Wars of Manchu Expansion
At issue: Establishment and consolidation of the Qing Dynasty
Date: c. 1600–1683
Location: Manchuria
Combatants: Manchu leaders vs. Ming loyalists
Principal commanders:Manchu and allies, Nurhaci (1559–1626), Abahai (1592–1643), Dorgon (1612–1650), Kangxi (1654–1722); Rebel, Li Zicheng (1606–1645); Ming, Zheng Chenggong (1624–1662); Ming/Manchu, Wu Sangui (1612–1678)
Principal battles: Mukden, Beijing, Chao-Modo
Result: Manchurian victories create a larger country and create the Qing Dynasty
Background
The Manchus were initially nomads of the Jurchid group. Their ancestors founded the Jin Dynasty that ruled parts of northern China. During the Ming Dynasty, they lived in southern Manchuria intermixed with the Han Chinese, from whom they learned the ways of sedentary life.
Action
The rise of the Manchus began under Nurhaci, who, between 1600 and 1615, conquered most of the Jurchid tribes and formed them into the eight banners (military and administrative units). As Manchu power expanded, eight Mongol and eight Han Chinese banners were added, and bannermen were able to concentrate on fighting and governing, leaving farming to conquered subject peoples. In 1616, Nurhaci proclaimed himself emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty. In 1618, he began to fight the Ming. The Manchus captured Mukden (1621) but were defeated by the Ming near the Great Wall in 1623.
In 1627, Nurhaci was succeeded by his son Abahai, who continued his father’s work. He changed his tribal name from Jurchid to Manchu and the dynastic name from Ming to Qing in 1835 (although his son, not Abahai, is generally regarded as the first Qing emperor). He set up a Chinese-style civil administration employing Chinese and Mongols in addition to Manchus in a pattern that would persist to the end of the Qing Dynasty. Abahai subdued Korea (1636–1637) but did not make sustained efforts to attack the passes along the Great Wall, which were heavily defended by Ming armies. In 1643, Abahai was succeeded by his five-year-old son Fulin with his uncle Prince Dorgon as regent.
In 1644, rebels led by Li Zicheng seized the Ming capital of Beijing, and the last Ming emperor committed suicide. Whereupon General Wu Sangui, commander of Ming forces at the eastern terminus of the Great Wall, invited the Manchus to help him against the rebels. The joint forces ousted the rebels from the capital, and while Wu chased them to complete defeat, Dorgon restored order in the capital, buried the emperor with honors, proclaimed his nephew Fulin as Emperor Shun Zhi, and moved the Qing capital to Beijing.
Between 1644 and 1683, the Qing Dynasty battled Ming loyalists who proclaimed several emperors in the southern capital of Nanjing and controlled several provinces in southern China. Although most of these loyalists were ineffective, Zheng Chenggong, a member of a pirate family, was able to sustain the Ming cause until 1663, first along the southern coastal provinces, then in Taiwan, which he captured from the Dutch East India Company.
Shun Zhi’s early death led to the enthroning of Kangxi, who then was less than eight years old. He would become the longest reigning emperor since the first century in the common era and one of the greatest in Chinese history. Assuming personal power at age twelve, Kangxi completed the conquest begun by his ancestors. He suppressed the War of the Three Feudatories (1673–1681), a rebellion led by Wu Sangui and two other Chinese generals, whose defection to the Manchus in 1644 had enabled the establishing of the Qing. These three generals had been rewarded with princely titles and given semi-independent powers in several southern provinces. In 1696, Kangxi defeated a Dzungar chieftain at Chao-Modo in Mongolia to end the Dzungar War, started in 1690. In addition, Kangxi annexed Taiwan in 1683 and Tibet in 1720.
Aftermath
By 1683, the Qing Dynasty had become well established and essentially at peace, although there were boundaries to be settled with the expanding Russian Empire in the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 (further defined in the Treaty of Kaikhta in 1727) and other campaigns under Kangxi’s successors to subdue Mongol and Turkic tribes.
Bibliography
Chan, Albert. The Glory and Fall of the Ming Dynasty. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1982.
Fang, Chaoying. “A Technique for Estimating the Numerical Strength of the Early Manchu Military Forces.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 13 (1950): 192–215.
Kessler, Lawrence D. K’ang-hsi and the Consolidation of Ch’ing Rule, 1664–1684. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Michael, Franz. The Origin of Manchu Rule in China. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1942.
Spence, Jonathan D. The Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K’ang-hsi. New York: Vintage Books, 1974.