The transition from the Ming to Qing was a decades-long period of conflict between:
1. the Qing dynasty, established by the Manchu clan Aisin Gioro in contemporary Northeast China;
2. the Ming dynasty, the incumbent dynasty … See more

Hong Taiji was the eighth son of Nurhaci, whom he succeeded as the second ruler of the Later Jin dynasty in 1626. He organised imperial examinations to recruit scholar-officials from the Han Chinese, and adopted Chinese legal forms. He formed autonomous … See more

In their later years, the Ming faced a number of famines and floods as well as economic chaos, and rebellions. Li Zicheng rebelled in the 1630s in Shaanxi in the north, while a … See more

A major revolt around Zouping, Shandong broke out in March 1647. Shandong had been plagued by brigandage before the collapse of the Ming, and most Ming officials and their … See more

Conquest of Liaodong and other Jurchen tribes (1601–1626)
The Jianzhou Jurchen chief, Nurhaci, is retrospectively identified as the founder of the See more

Second Joseon campaign (1636–1637)
The Later Jin had forced Joseon to open markets near the borders because its conflicts with Ming had brought economic hardship and … See more

Conquest of Jiangnan (1645)
A few weeks after the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide in Beijing in April 1644, descendants of the Ming imperial house started arriving in Nanjing, which had been the auxiliary capital of the Ming dynasty. … See more