Around the mid-point of the nineteenth century, China experi…
Around the mid-point of the nineteenth century, China experienced a massive civil uprising known as the Taiping Rebellion, where more than 20 million Chinese were killed. The figure responsible for the rebellion was , a Chinese man influenced by Christianity who believed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus of Nazareth. He and his followers began a religious and moral reform movement that emphasized the prohibition of alcohol, opium, prostitution, and foot-binding. They also destroyed idols and temples of other religions and tried to form a utopian society based on the equality of men and women and the equalization of landholdings. The rebellion lasted around fourteen years and demonstrated the relative weakness of the Manchus and the Qing government, which had to rely on Chinese scholar-officials in order to raise an effective army.