The Taiping War

AD – MPE: 0.7

ND – MPE: 14

According to White most experts estimate that 20 million people died during the Taiping Wars from 1850 to 1864. He explains that a few sources claim that up to 30 million people were killed, but he found no evidence for this higher number. So he considers 20 million to be the most plausible estimate. This number includes soldiers, civilians and deaths from famine and disease. We have no estimates of how many of the victims were civilians or people killed by politically-induced famines. We do know that all war parties besieged cities and burned fields. It also isn’t clear how many people were killed by government forces, the Taiping rebels or Western imperial powers.

In his book: “Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom – China, the West and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War” historian Stephen R. Platt takes a close look at major crimes committed by all domestic and foreign parties involved in the Taiping War. He shows that military interventions by Western imperial powers worsened the war and economic hardship. Britain in particular played a significant role in the conflict. Together with France they fought the Second Opium War – or Arrow War – against the Qing government during its war with the Taiping rebels. The attacks culminated in the capture of Beijing, the flight of the emperor and the looting of the Summer Palaces. Later in the conflict the British and the French reversed their policy and intervened on the side of the Qing forces against the Taiping rebels. Platt shows that the foreign forces and arms shipments had a decisive impact on the war’s outcome. He documents massacres and brutal sieges by the Qing Imperial Army, the Taiping armies and foreign troops. He also shows that many people died from epidemics and famines which were unintended outcomes of the wars.

It is highly uncertain how many people were actually killed in these wars. Plausible estimates range from 10 to 19 million victims of democide by nondemocratic forces. I choose 14 million as the most plausible estimate. Plausible estimates for the number of victims of democide by advanced democracies range from 0.3 to 1.3 million . I choose 0.7 as the most plausible estimate.