Talk:Taiping China
From Alternative History
It is actually not very realistic that the Taiping would have modernised and democratised China- they were de facto Christian Talebans (more or less)! THe values proposed by Hong Xiuquan are egalitarian, but not that democratic. A Taiping China would have become a primitive, dictatorial theocracy and its impact on Chinese culture would have been akin to Mao's Cultural Revolution 110 years later... and an emperor Hong of Taiping Tianguo certainly deposed by the Western powers and Japan; perhaps the Qing would have been re-installed, but not before making crippling concessions towards the foreign imperialists. The Western powers frowned upon the movement, because the Taiping were Christians, but also staunch nationalists(they wanted to abolish WEstern influence and extraterritoriality) . Sorry, I did not mean to criticise you that harshly, but the Taiping were actually inefficient, corrupt and unbelievably brutal... like the late Qing regime. If Hong succeeded, China would have ended up in chaos, turmoil and an enormous bloodbath...
What I find hard to believe is that China develops nukes by 1935 having had no real science for centuries before. Likewise their suddenly undefeatable troops and navy.
Totally Draka.
Having no science they inveted gunpowder and paper
- Chinese science was amongst the most advanced in the world untill the 17th centuary. --Sikulu 15:02, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
Both are a bit more primative than an atomic bomb.
Look at what happened with the Maoist Revolution. The Taiping Uprising could have resulted in something like that. Chinese culture is irrevocably changed, and millions are killed, but in the end China becomes a modern, powerful nation. But unlike in the Maoist Revolution, the watchword for China would be imperialism, as in Japan, which began on that path at about the same time as the Taiping Uprising, and see how well they did? China has a much more powerful resource and production capability than Japan. So it makes sense that if they were modeling their government after European intitutions, and their ideology off the same, that China would look for its "place in the sun". And even with all of Europe allied against her, China would get it.
I agree with the above comment. Imagine if you combined the progress that China has made under Mao and Deng 1949-2006 with the Meiji Revolution and you have a superpower with a billion people. Even if the level Taiping China reaches in 1900 is less than Japan in OTL thats still a industrialized nation with vast resources and a billion people. Take a look at China today they're no where near even the poorest western nations when it comes to GDP per capita yet they're an emerging superpower. If Taiping China had accomplished something similar in the 19th century it would stand in 1906 where the PRC stands in 2006. --Mao1949 04:19, 27 December 2006 (UTC)
- But you sould still keep in mind that creating a superpower out of a Taiping rebellion (the mechanics of which you prsent are pretty implausable) does not entale the conquest of large swaths of hostile foreign countries. Sure it is fun to give an industrialized 19th century China some colonies in the tropics, but this sillyness you've described pushes the limits of plausibility into ASB territory. Also, think about what Hong was trying to do. Instead of this flowwering of democracy in 19th century China, the Taipings would have instituted a totalitarian, theocratic, hereditary monarchy, run by fanatical Puritans. I think that great Britain and the USA wouldn't touch such an abomination in the name of religous freedom and republican democracy with a ten-foot stick, much less give it industiral and military aid. In my opinion, of course.--GermanicusBritanicus 02:52, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
Most of the arguments for unlikeliness of this alternate timeline can be expunged by a further hypothetical change. Namely, than shortly after Taiping forces take Beijing, Yang Xiuqing takes power and has Hong Xiuquan killed or something similar. According to Wikipedia, "Yang clashed with Hong over the rebellion's policies and views toward Confucianism and iconoclasm; Yang believed that Confucian morality was essentially positive and that its basic tenets were compatible with the rebellion's interpretation of Christianity and that images of dragons were not sacrilegious. Hong, however, rejected this notion and believed that Confucianism ought to be eradicated, as it was the work of the devil." I imagine if Yang took over the policies of the Taiping Empire, the main cause of its decline, conflict with traditional chinese values, would not have been an issue. --saintbryan
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Well look here I just can't accept this timeline as being plusiable. It's just too ASB.... I am sorry about this timeline... Just get it fixed.
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There is a problem with the timeline, it's just implusiable... It is just ASB ...... I am sorry for this timeline...