Manchu

The Manchu empire originally was formed by three provinces, Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning. The land that it occupied extended much farther than it does in present day China containing most of Mongolia.

In 1644, the nomadic Manchu people left the Manchurian plain and entered Peking. The Manchu established the Ching dynasty of rulers. With the power of the Manchu growing, they made the Chinese wear the traditional pigtail and clothing. In 1646, the Manchu invaded Chekiang, Fukien, and Szechwan, and, within one year, they took Canton. In 1966, the leaders of the Manchu ordered evacuation of all the costal regions to keep them from being exposed to outside cultures. Then, in 1668, Manchuria was closed to all Chinese. No outside trade or customs were allowed. In 1670, Manchu people took Turkestan. Wu San-kuei was the first real rebellion against the Manchu, in 1673. The rebellion was not successful.

Manchu continued conquering Outer Mongolia and Tibet. The Manchu were also responsible for the massacre and extermination of the Dzungars, another cultural group of people. During the late1700's, the Manchu took their armies to Nepal to fight the Gurkhas and defeated them. By mid 1800, the Manchu territory slowly started to disappear by the advancements of Russians, British and French troops. In the early 1900's, the Manchu people where down to only about eighty percent of the previous conquering population. The Manchu empire that expanded over much of present day China and Mongolia was reduced to one-tenth the size.

Though this page has been carefully researched, the author does not claim expertise on Manchu culture.

Please send questions, comments, and corrections to emuseum@mnsu.edu and include the URL.

If you are Manchu, your feedback is much appreciated.

Manchu

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