Natural calamities of unprecedented proportions, including droughts,…

Natural calamities of unprecedented proportions, including droughts, famines, and floods, compound China's problems during the mid-nineteenth century

Government neglect of public works is in part responsible for this and other disasters, and the Qing administration does little to relieve the widespread misery caused by them.

Economic tensions, military defeats at Western hands, and anti-Manchu sentiments all combine to produce widespread unrest, especially in the south.

South China had been the last area to yield to the Qing conquerors and the first to be exposed to Western influence.

It provides a likely setting for the largest uprising in modern Chinese history—the Taiping Rebellion.