Nurhaci
architect of Manchu unity; created distinctive Manchu banner armies; controlled most of Manchuria; adopted Chinese bureaucracy and court ceremonies in Manchuria, entered China and successfully captured Ming capital at Beijing
Banner Armies
Eight armies of the Manchu tribes identified by separate flags; created by Nurhaci in early 17th century; utilized to defeat Ming emperor and establish Qing dynasty
Qing
Manchu Dynasty that seized control of China in mid-17th century after decline of Ming; forced submission of nomadic peoples far to the west and compelled tribute from Vietnam and Burma to the south
Kangxi
Confucian scholar and Manchu emperor of Qing dynasty from 1661 to 1722; established high degree of Sinification among the Manchus
Compradors
Wealthy new group of Chinese merchants under the Qing dynasty; specialized in the import-export trade on Chian's south coast; one of the major links between China and the outside world
Opium War
Fought between the British and Qing China beginning in 1839; fought to protect British trade in opium; resulted in resounding British victory, opening of Hong Kong as British port of trade
Lin Zexu
Distinguished Chinese official charged with stamping out opium trade in southern China; ordered blockade of European trading areas in Canton and confiscation of opium; sent into exile following the Opium War
Taiping Rebellion
Broke out in south China in the 1850s and early 1860s; led by Hong Xiuquan, a semi-Christianized prophet; sought to overthrow Qing dynasty and Confucian basis of scholar-gentry
Hong Xiuquan
leader of the Taiping rebellion; converted to specifically Chinese form of Christianity; attacked traditional Confucian teachers of Chinese elite
Zeng Guofan
Qing official who raised effective military forces against the Taiping assault on Northern China
Self-strengthening movement
Late 19th-century movement in China to counter the challenge from the West; led by provincial leaders
Cixi
Ultraconservative dowager empress who dominated the last decades of the Qing dynasty; supported the Boxer Rebellion in 1898 as a means of driving out Westerners
Boxer Rebellion
Popular outburst in 1898 aimed at expelling foreigners from China; failed because of intervention of armies of Western powers in China; defeat of Chinese enhanced control by Europeans and the power of provincial officials
Sun Yat-sen
Head of Revolutionary Alliance, organization that led 1911 revolt against Qing dynasty in China; briefly elected president in 1911, but yielded in favor of Yuan Shikai in 1912; created Nationalist party of China (Guomindang) in 1919; died in 1925
Puyi
Last emperor of China; deposed as emperor while still a small boy in 1912