At 2.30pm on 5th July 1840 a British fleet opened fire on the Qing port of Dinghai for just nine minutes, enough time to demonstrate the military gap between the British and Qing empires.  Amongst the weapons left by the Qing, were obsolete matchlock muskets, bows and spears.  One of the artillery pieces found by the British was dated to 1601.  This military disparity was to be repeated until in 1842 the Qing sued for peace.  Yet Qing China was greater in size and population than Europe; and twice the size of the earlier Ming empire.  The Qing and British had, however, developed different ‘systems of power’ to control their empires; not just their military, but also their finance, organisations and culture.  British control was shaped by it being a maritime and discontiguous empire, which fought seven major wars between 1689 and 1815.  Qing rule, by comparison, was shaped by it governing a contiguous land empire that had last fought a major war in 1760 and that in China the ruling class were an ethnic minority.

Tim

The Jurchen, who founded the Qing empire, were a steppe people living to the north of the Great Wall.  They were united by Nurhaci (1559-1626) who in 1589 was recognised as a Ming vassal.  He used that recognition to extend his control, bringing several Mongol groups under his domain.  In 1616 he renounced his vassalage and in 1621 attacked the Ming.  In 1635 his successor Hong Taji (1592-1643) formed a cultural alliance with the Dalai Lama.  His line was declared an incarnation of the fearsome Buddhist deity Manjusri, thus creating the ethnonym Manchu and giving Hong Taji the status to found the Qing Great State.  Manchu armies relied on their horsemanship and archery skills and were organised into a series of separate clan based ‘banners’.  They should not have been strong enough to defeat the Ming; but Ming China suffered from natural disasters, plague, and civil wars.  In 1644 when the Ming emperor committed suicide, the Manchu armies occupied Beijing and declared that the ‘mandate of heaven’ had passed to them.  Ming resistance was brutally crushed and many Ming defected to Qing control.  The empire’s foundation was based, not just on military conquest, but also on its diplomatic and cultural claims.