The Qing Dynasty
Learn about the Qing Dynasty — China's last imperial dynasty, founded by the Manchus, which expanded China to its greatest territorial extent.
The Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) was the last imperial dynasty to rule China and the one that expanded Chinese territory to its greatest historical extent. Founded by the Manchus — a semi-nomadic people from northeast Asia — the Qing conquered the failing Ming Dynasty and went on to incorporate Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Taiwan into a multi-ethnic empire of extraordinary size and diversity.
The early Qing emperors — Kangxi (r. 1661–1722), Yongzheng (r. 1722–1735), and Qianlong (r. 1735–1796) — presided over a period of prosperity and cultural achievement that rivals any in Chinese history. The population roughly doubled to 300 million. New crops from the Americas (sweet potato, maize, peanut) expanded agriculture into previously marginal lands. Kangxi commissioned massive literary and encyclopedic projects. The empire's administration blended Manchu military tradition with Chinese Confucian bureaucracy.
The Manchus maintained a distinct identity — preserving their language, hairstyle (the infamous queue), and martial traditions — while adopting Chinese culture and governing through Chinese institutions. This dual identity created tensions that persisted throughout the dynasty. The Qing's decline in the 19th century, accelerated by the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, and European imperialism, led to the revolution of 1911 that ended over two millennia of imperial rule in China.