<P> The Qing dynasty, officially the Great Qing (English: / tʃ ɪŋ /), also called the Qing Empire by itself or the Manchu dynasty by foreigners, was the last imperial dynasty of China, established in 1636 and ruling China from 1644 to 1912 . It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China . The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the territorial base for the modern Chinese state . </P> <P> The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria . In the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing "Banners", military - social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements . Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into a unified entity, which he renamed as the Manchus . By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, the Qing . In 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing . Rather than serve them, Ming general Wu Sangui made an alliance with the Manchus and opened the Shanhai Pass to the Banner Armies led by the regent Prince Dorgon, who defeated the rebels and seized the capital . Resistance from the Southern Ming and the Revolt of the Three Feudatories led by Wu Sangui extended the conquest of China proper for nearly four decades and was not completed until 1683 under the Kangxi Emperor (r . 1661--1722). The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Inner Asia . The early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used "Bogd khaan" to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism . They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of bureaucratic government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus . They also adapted the ideals of the tributary system in dealing with neighboring territories . </P> <P> During the Qianlong reign (1735--96) the dynasty reached its apogee but then began its initial decline in prosperity and imperial control . The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, virtually guaranteeing eventual fiscal crisis . Corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites failed to change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system . Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, extraterritoriality and treaty ports under foreign control . The Taiping Rebellion (1850--64) and the Dungan Revolt (1862--77) in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war . In spite of these disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order and the Qing rulers . The initial gains in the Self - Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino - Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea and the possession of Taiwan . New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days' Reform of 1898 was turned back in a coup by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader . When the Scramble for Concessions by foreign powers triggered the violently anti-foreign Yihetuan ("Boxers"), the foreign powers invaded China, Cixi declared war on them, leading to defeat and the flight of the Imperial Court to Xi'an . </P> <P> After agreeing to sign the Boxer Protocol the government then initiated unprecedented fiscal and administrative reforms, including elections, a new legal code, and abolition of the examination system . Sun Yat - sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao to transform the Qing empire into a modern nation . After the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike by obstructing social reform . The Wuchang Uprising on October 11, 1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution . General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12, 1912 . The empire was briefly restored on July 1 of 1917, before it was once again overthrown 11 days later . </P>

During the manchu dynasty what is now china expanded to control part of what now independent country