The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

>>2356551
>heretics
>the west was largely secularized

File: Hong Xiuquan.jpg (20KB, 220x250px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2356551
>tfw we don't live in the timeline where the Taiping took over half of china became a fascist theocracy that eventually takes over the rest of China and ends up fucking up Japan before World War II

>>2356551
Was this the most wtf event of the last 200 years?

Because they were all batshit insane?

>>2356572
Their theology wasn't that much more far-fetched than that time an Arab warlord announced he was chosen to receive the final revelation of God from the Archangel Gabriel.

>>2356562
Japan could probably have held them off desu, they were much more successful in their modernization and the west of Japan is pretty defensible.

>>2356588
True, hence the 200 years part.

The Islamic conquests are probably second only to the Mongol conquests in terms of wtf factor.

>>2356551
It's insane how many people died in the Taiping rebellion. The actions of one single nutcase caused the deaths of more than 20 to 30 million people over the time span of 14 years.

>>2356551
>ignoring they became popular on a very anti-foreigner platform
Well there you go

>>2356894
The "foreigners" they were crusading against were the Manchu Qing.

Because theres not way it wouldnt fail. Most of the leaders gave up trying to do anything worthwhile and just fuck bitches every day. Then most of the soldiers arent even christians but rather revolutionaries that are sick of manchu shits.

>>2356581
>Because they were all batshit insane?
That's China in a nutshell

>dude claims to be Jesus' brother
>ensuing civil war causes +20 millions dead
>Mao wants Great Leap Forward
>ensuing famine kills tenths of millions
>Mao claims sparrow eat crops (forgetting they also eat shit like locusts)
>sparrow genocide ensues
>locust invasion aggravates famine

>>2356713
mormons basically. also in a sense hitler is the antipode of hong with his "we wuz aryan supermen from tibet n shit" ideology

>>2356551
>Christians
Their doctrine was literally a Sinicized heresy of Christianity.

>>2356883
Now you understand why the chinks hate religous groups like the Falon Gong.

>>2357152
Christianity with Chinesse characteristics

>>2356944
Dont forget the fucking boxers

They wanted a "stable" but weak China, they backed the stronger horse to end the conflict sooner.

>>2356551
Because Taipings were pro-American faction and their main goal was to clear Europeans from China.

>>2357332
>and their main goal was to clear Europeans from China.
Their main goal was to clear Manchus from China.

>>2356551
Equality of the sexes was like the go-to sign of heretics to be purged in Europe, ie Cathars. 19th century Europeans didn't want women to have rights.

>>2357292
They've had that problem forever though, like with the yellow turbans.

>>2357327
Also, the Heavenly Kingdom banned all vices including opium, which was something the British couldn't tolerate.

>>2357406
It was rather the same while Imperial Family becoming European puppet and recognizing colonization.

File: Taiping Rebellion.jpg (145KB, 512x676px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2356551
Because the game in China was to create a market for Western goods & services, not invade and occupy China and turn it into India 2.0. (with the exception of Germany later on: Angry German Nationalists wanted China to be German India). Basically a stable china, but a weak one, as per >>2357327 said. The Qing was already doing that job well and is the government Westerners go to to make deals in China.

The Taipings represented a bleak future in which China is carved up by local and foreign powers and the whole land too busy drowning in Chaos instead of trade. Ergo they were bad for business.

Furthermore I wouldnt call the Taiping "western friendly." Christian Extremism aside, most members joined in for their hate of the Qing government for failing to keep the Mandate of Heaven. Which includes "letting all these foreign cunts in to mess with our lives." A lot of Taiping commanders and soldiers actually survived the rebellion and went on to become the first Chinese nationalists. Case in point: Liu Yongfu of the Black Flag Army who later on fought the French in Vietnam and done his damned best to keep Formosa out of Japanese hands.

>>2357332
LOLNO, the founders of China's first modern army was a bunch of American Mercenaries led by Frederick Townsend Ward: the Ever Victorious Army.

In addition to the above answers, the British and French also used the Taiping Rebellion to strongarm the Qing into signing another unequal treaty (helped along by launching the second opium war in the meantime) in exchange for military aid against the Taiping.

The taiping. Were nuts, anti-western, and all those lucrative trade deals were in jeopardy from the wars instability.

Imperial powers weren't stupid

>>2357767
>Because the game in China was to create a market for Western goods & services
Read: drugs

>Taipings
>Christians

If you back the losing team you'll eventually have to answer to the winners.

>>2357292
>>2357451
Because peasants need to be exterminated. Stalin had the right idea. Mao had the absolute wrong idea.

>>2357295

Kek. Underrated.

>>2360174
>Be me
>Be the Xianfeng Emperor
>Some guy says that he's Jesus' little brother
>lolwut?
And then 20 million people died.

And to answer your question, like other people have said, it's that the Taiping were even more batshit insane and xenophobic than your average Chinese faction.

>>2357295
Kek

>>2356713
give me a quick rundown on the mongol conquests

>>2356944
Don't forget the Dungan Revolt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungan_Revolt_(1862–77)

One of the many brawls and riots that contributed to the rebellion was initiated by a fight triggered over the price of bamboo poles that a Han merchant was selling to a Hui. This eventually led to a massacre of Hui in many area villages when they refused to agree to the price of the poles. Afterwards, Hui mobs attacked Han and other Hui people who had not joined them in revolt. It was this seemingly trivial and unimportant dispute over bamboo poles that set off the full-scale revolt.
>some guy doesn't want to pay full price for bamboo poles
>up to 12 million people die

>>2361184
When your country has always been characterized by a having astronomical shitloads of population, it's easy to trip over and accidentally cause a mass slaughter.

>>2361080
v=szxPar0BcMo

File: AutumnintheHeavenlyKingdom.jpg (43KB, 325x499px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2356551
This is THE BOOK you need

>>2356883
Xiuquan did nothing wrong

>>2356588
>warlord
>>>/pol/

>>2361449
>takes control through war
>not a warlord

>>2361479
>never initiates a fight
>constantly settles for terrible treaty conditions
>>warlord

>>2361449
The Chinese also treat Liu Bei like a sainted paragon of Confucianism and righteousness, doesn't mean he wasn't a warlord either

>>2361526
I know nothing of Liu Bei but I do know it is not warlord behavior or text book definition to never start a fight and settle for losing conditions to prevent further bloodshed

>>2361488
Is English your first language?

>>2361249
Too bad it only covers the death of the rebellion without its rise.

>>2361249
>>2361830

God's Chinese Son is a good book that covers the rise and religious beliefs of the Taipings too.

>>2360091
Having a shitzillion peasants worth of labor to throw at everything was a huge part of China's strength before the Industrial Revolution.

>>2361488
I wonder if this is a mudslime or a lib.

Also, nice natsoc get.

For one, the British actually have an embassy in Beijing after the conclusion of the Arrow War, which makes diplomatic communication with the Qing even easier. This is further compounded by the fact that the closest the westerners were to the warzone, in Shanghai, was in Imperial territory, meaning that communication from the Taiping to the westerners is impeded. It also took a long time for communications to make it back to the men on the ground in China; sending a message back to London took four months..

Past the problem of communications, there was the question of religion. On the one hand, even after Hong Rengan reintroduces Confucius to the Taiping examinations, the rebels have forever alienated the native Chinese scholar class, whose legitimacy was gravely threatened by the alien doctrines and whose wealth would be devoured by the Taiping's land reform program. On the other hand, the "peculiarities" of the Taiping brand of Christianity made them blasphemers in the eyes of the Westerners. Keeping a harem of concubines, proclaiming to be the younger brother of Jesus, and receiving visions from the Heavenly Father all marked the Taiping as deeply idiosyncratic at best and outright satanic at worst.

Another fear for the British was the total collapse of order in China. They had no love of the Qing, but they feared that if the Qing fell, no state would replace it, and it would become another India. It would be Britain's 'moral duty' to conquer and colonize the entire country to restore order, and nobody wanted that. What they wanted was a government that would shoulder the costs of actually ruling China, while letting them reap all the rewards of unrestricted trade.

Taiping had no chance of actually taking over the country, the only reason to back them would have been to cause the Qing to collapse so Europeans can take over and turn China into Africa 2.0 or India 2.0, which nobody wanted.