The King on the River
As the British wrapped up the Opium War, and “opened” China to the outside world, a power vacuum was created. The Qing dynasty lost its ability to govern the provinces of the empire and poverty and banditry became commonplace. In this post-isolation period a failed scholar from a small town in Guangxi was able to form a secret society which soon became an army. Claiming to be God’s son and the younger brother of Jesus Christ, Hong Xiuquan commanded over a million men and turned the centre of China into a wasteland for the best part of fifteen years in a civil war which cost over 20 million lives.
In The King on the River we examine how the Opium War opened the door for the Taiping Rebellion, and how the Yangtze river, China’s central artery, became the focus of all four of the war’s factions.
Thank you so much for your support. Going to have some extra written stuff coming to the Patreon in December in addition to the Ali - Liston episode so stay tuned!
Cheers,
Jack
Comments (4)
Slacky you old dog, you are good at what you do.
I enjoyed these a lot more than i thought i would. You should do the scramble for africa next
Yes, more of this please. Excellent work. Any chance you'll do a follow up on the Boxer Rebellion? I'd love to get more of this work (as long as you don't go full Dr. Pat Wyman and ditch the fighting analysis)
These two episodes have been amazing. I think I'll have to go back at some point and listen to both back to back because I forgot a lot of what was discussed in the first one. I hope this is something you do again, covering an historical period unrelated to combat sports. Thank you, for all your hard work Jack. Really appreciate it