17th century, the entire Ming Dynasty , whether it is territory or population, reached the peak of the world. The Ming Dynasty's population exceeded the total population of Europe. The huge population brought about the prosperity of business and culture. The southern region of Ming Dynasty had already vaguely shown signs of capitalism .
However, less than half a century later, the prosperity took a sharp turn, and the Ming Dynasty was conquered by a Jurchen tribe with only a few hundred thousand. A professor at Tsinghua said it was incredible when evaluating this history. So what caused the demise of the Ming Dynasty? What was the world pattern when the Ming Dynasty was destroyed?
The crisis at the end of the Ming Dynasty
Chongzhen When he just ascended the throne, the entire country was already in crisis. Chongzhen took over a mess full of internal and external troubles. In , Donglin Party and eunuchs bit each other, outside, Jurchens kept harassing the frontier, and the country also faced serious economic problems.
To make matters worse, the Ming Dynasty faced extremely frequent natural disasters during this period. As a province with a large population and grain in the Central Plains, Henan suffered from natural disasters in every year from the third to fifteen years of Chongzhen. drought, locust plague, , plague, and the Yellow River breach are constantly eroding this elderly dynasty.
Lu Weiqi , who was the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing at the time, once said in a memorial to Chongzhen that there was no green grass in Henan, nine out of ten rooms were empty, the loess and arable land was covered with blood, and starving white bones could be seen everywhere. Chongzhen felt heartbroken when he saw such a memorial, but he had no choice because there was a serious problem with the imperial finances.
In fact, Chongzhen often receives memorials about reporting disasters like this. At this time, refugees and hunger were already common in the Ming Dynasty, as far as weeds. But at this time, the officials living in the temple still regarded the people's livelihood as hard as nothing, busy with fighting and wantonly embezzlement, as if the building in the Ming Dynasty had nothing to do with them.
Faced with the crisis of the empire, Chongzhen did not have enough ability to turn the tide, and could only watch the broken ship of the Ming Dynasty be swallowed by the darkness.
If we only look at what happened on the land of China, we may not be able to see many problems comprehensively. Then we will take a holistic perspective and see what happened to other countries in the world during the period of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Global Crisis
In the mid-17th century, not only the Ming Dynasty was not easy, but other countries in the world were also trapped in war and famine.
1638, an uprising broke out in Scotland. King Charles I had a dispute with Congress over the issue of raising military wages and levying taxes, which triggered a civil war between Congress and the king. Charles I eventually lost the war and was beheaded for treason.
After the death of Charles I, the internal turmoil in Britain did not end, and it was accompanied by famine and a large number of people's deaths. It was not until the completion of the " Glorious Revolution " in 1688 that Britain gradually moved towards stability.
Just the year before the Scottish uprising, the farmers of Shimahara Peninsula and Amakusa Island in Kyushu, Japan launched an uprising because they could not bear the oppression of the shogunate. Since 1634, natural disasters have occurred in Shimahara and Amakura have frequent natural disasters and severe famines have occurred. Shogunate ignores this and collects rental taxes as usual. The angry peasants finally couldn't bear it and chose to rise up. The uprising was eventually suppressed by the shogunate, with about 37,000 people dying in the war.
In addition to the United Kingdom and Japan, insurgency caused by disaster taxation also occurred in Dutch , Poland , France and Spain and other countries. It can be said that during this period, the world was in serious turmoil.
In the mid-17th century, wars in the entire European region began one after another, and natural disasters continued to rage. Thirty-year war broke out between Protestantism and Catholicism, causing a large number of people to die. During the war, the German region, which was the main battlefield, suffered a population loss of up to 6 million, accounting for 1/3 of the region's population.
Why were wars everywhere in the world during this period, and it was accompanied by a large number of natural disasters? What does this have to do with the demise of the Ming Dynasty?
The crisis stems from the cold
" Bible " mentioned The Four Horsemen of the Doomsday , namely plague, war, famine and death. In ancient times, only required one condition to summon these four knights, that is, cold.
By observing the changes in temperature in various eras in history, we will find that every drop in temperature will be accompanied by the demise of dynasties, and in history, the Central Plains dynasties were periods of higher temperatures.
Historical books have recorded that the temperature dropped sharply in the late Western Zhou Dynasty , and the Yangtze River was frozen for a while, and what followed was hundreds of years of Spring and Autumn chaotic times. Later, the temperature was significantly lower than that in other periods in the late Han Dynasty and the late Tang Dynasty.
Little Ice Age in the Ming Dynasty, the temperature dropped by 1 degree Celsius compared to the usual average temperature. Don’t underestimate this 1 degree Celsius. The temperature of this difference in can cause a reduction in crop yields by one tenth, which means at least one tenth of people are going hungry.
When the temperature rises, the rainfall line moves northward significantly, and the area where farming can be expanded, and the Central Plains dynasty has more population carrying capacity. When the temperature drops, grain production will be reduced, and the peasant uprising will come.
The northern grasslands will also face cold weather. In order to survive, they will go south to plunder, and the Central Plains dynasty will also face the crisis of destruction. The politics of the late Ming Dynasty was already difficult to return, and natural disasters accelerated the demise of the dynasty. Unfortunately, the Jurchen barbarians seized the world after the turmoil of China.
In the mid-17th century, the global average temperature dropped by 2 degrees Celsius, which undoubtedly caused a major disaster for the ancients who were extremely dependent on the climate.
Low temperature causes drought and crop yield reductions, causing famine and death. The dead will bring plague, and the survivors will rebel and rob in order to survive, which will trigger war. When the four horsemen of famine, plague, death and war fall, any country will fall into chaos, and turmoil and recession are inevitable.
Conclusion
After the turbulent period of the 17th century, China and the West embarked on a completely opposite development route. The West ushered in the era of capitalist colonialism and became more open and progressive, but China gradually fell into conservatism and darkness, which really made every Chinese today feel regretful.
Although the demise of the Ming Dynasty is incredible, it eventually perished. Today, China has passed through that dark and conservative era. believes that in the near future, China will once again stand at the top of the world and complete the great national rejuvenation !
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