China - Qing Dynasty

what fuck happened?

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Steppeniggers trying to run a civilization instead of just destroying them.

Economic & military stagnation.

Also opium.

I know a lot about the Qing dynasty but I don't know how you want me to answer your question, can you elaborate a bit?

>Steppeniggers trying to run a civilization instead of just destroying them.

Manchus weren't Steppeniggers. Their ancestors were.

Prior unification of the Jurchen Tribes under Nurhachi, they were a Chinese province under Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Many of them were farmers or lived in cities.

Trying to modernize while simultaneously telling your people that the source of modernization is evil incarnate.

Fuckups of all flavours:

Foreign policy, the belief in Chinese superiority and the middle kingdom meant the Qing thought they could keep the British Empire out with no consequences despite all indicators to the contrary. Resulted in BEIC sponsoring the Opium trade and the unequal treaties that helped table the economy.

Infrastructure and economy, the agricultural industry was exceptionally vunerable to weather conditions + economic downturn, so every time a drought or flood or war happened massive numbers of peasants were left destitute and either died or joined rebellions like the Taipeng/Nian. Also self-strengthening was a flop, they tried to modernise on their own without westernising instead of pulling a Japan and just stealing all the good shit.

Culture/Society, the Qing were manchurian in decent and so when Han (the dominant ethnicity in central China) nationalism grew they generally got blamed for everything.

how did it go down
can i jump straight into their history or should i read up on chinese culture in general?
i know that it started after the manchus sweeped in while china was in a really shitty spot (TM)

>how did it go down
Do you mean how did they conquer China? You're right that they exploited a very shitty situation in China. The Ming dynasty had already collapsed under the weight of devastating peasant uprisings and numerous mutinies in the army. Millions starved to death or were murdered throughout the lawless countryside, Beijing had fallen and the last Ming emperor, Chongzhen, had already killed himself before the first Manchu soldier even set foot south of the great wall. (there's actually a very sad story about him having a final meeting with his ministers, dismissing them of their oath to him then he snuck out of the city and hanged himself on a tree that overlooked it)

That period was definitely an age with a lot of very dynamic personalities, like the late roman republic. Li Zicheng, the main rebel leader, tried to claim to be the successor to the Ming, but many others did as well. Wu Sangui, a former Ming general was another who declared himself a successor and attracted a large number of Ming remnants. Both of them were simultaneously making laws and conducting civil service exams, while declaring they were the true sovereign of all China.

Wu was the one who let the Manchus in, and they quickly took control from him and the core of their army quickly became former Ming soldiers despite being foreign. They captured Beijing largely intact and were able to enlist the gentry to serve them as they did the Ming, though there was some resistance. Unlike the Mongols who did a lot to tear down Chinese culture and customs the Manchu made it clear they were Chinaboos who greatly admired the stability the Ming had afforded before everything went to shit, and they wanted to set things back to what they were.

And yeah, you can just jump straight into Chinese history. If you want a good primer I recommend the Cambridge Illustrated History of China, by Patricia Ebrey

by how did it go down i meant how did it fall
thanks for the book rec btw, ill get to reading
unrelated, but do you speak chinese? if you do, do you think chinese memes are better?
from the little ive seen, i swear they built the great firewall to keep the memes in