Initially the Qing Dynasty only accepted silver in trade. To bypass this the British East India Company smuggled Opium into China. In 1839 China burned the company's Opium store house. The Company retailed with the world' first Iron steam-warship Nemesis. It captured Nanjing in 1842 and blockaded the Grand Canal forcing China to give up Hong Kong while allowing unrestricted Opium trade. In 1856 China captured a British ship starting a new war. Britain retaliated with France, U.S, Russia joining them later. They captured Canton forcing China to negotiate again and treaties were signed. But China's Emperor refused to ratify them. So the war restarted and China tortured the British delegation to death. In retaliation Beijing was captured. Britain wanted to sack Beijing but was talked out of it by France and decided to only burn the Emperor's palace instead. But what if Britain went ahead and sacked Beijing ?
 
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Not sure. But I feel that if Britain did sacked Beijing, the then nascent nationalism and anti Western sentimentof the Chinese will get ramp up to 11. And I feel that there might be more pressure from the people (and the scholar/gentry class) to modernize faster. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can confirm this.
 
Major prestige and legitimacy hit to the Qing, which is significant given the number of rebellions they were facing.

Assuming the British haven't just sacked Beijing for a laugh, there was probably something major to precipitate it - and this might mean it takes a bit longer for peace to be established, especially if hardliners in the Qing court dig in. Alternately, possibly the British are able to impose peace relatively speedily, but still with a lot of distrust and hostility with the Qing. Fallout from the loss of Beijing might also effect how the succession to Xianfeng shapes out - IOTL the conservative circle of regents he appointed were ousted by his concubine Cixi and his brothers Gong and Chun.

This is all significant because the British went almost immediately from fighting the Qing to helping them against the Taiping - in fact, they had fended off an initial (very tentative) Taiping advance on Shanghai in August 1860, at exactly the same time their army was overcoming the Qing's Taku forts. Over the next few years Anglo-French forces took an active part battling the Taiping in the environs of Shanghai, most notably fending off another attack on the city in early 1862. British officer Charles Gordon was appointed to lead the mercenary 'Ever Victorious Army' in late 1862.

The direct military contribution of Anglo-French efforts to the downfall of the Taiping has probably been overstated, but they contributed in other concrete ways - e.g. in early 1861 the British envoy Harry Parkes had convinced the Taiping 'Brave King' Chen Yucheng from attacking the poorly defended city of Hankow, which had the effect of blunting the Taiping's great western offensive. As a result, the Taiping were unable to break Zeng Guofan's siege of the strategically vital city of Anqing, which fell in September, clearing the way for the final siege of Nanking. In 1862 several thousand of Zeng Guofan's troops, under his protege Li Hongzhang were shipped downriver to Shanghai on British boats, allowing them to act as a pincer against the Taiping.

So, if the British are soured on the Qing somewhat and/or are still deeply engaged in the north dealing with the fallout of the sack of Beijing, it is possible the Taiping get a new lease on life - the maximalist success would be cornering and destroying Zeng Guofan, who got into pretty desperate straits in 1861 IOTL anyway, and for Taiping sympathisers to win over enough of the foreign establishment to allow them to waltz into Shanghai and establish friendly trade relations. A more limited success might see them driving Zeng Guofan away, perhaps all the way back to Hunan, and some sort of tense neutrality with the foreigners in Shanghai, which would at least allow the Taiping some breathing room to reconsolidate in their core area.

Should also consider what the fall of Beijing does to Zeng Guofan's war effort - major hit to morale, at the very least. Possibly disorder at court, receiving contradictory orders, perhaps some trying to recall his army northwards to support the court (which would be awkward because in was a provincial force grounded in the west, in Hunan). Alternately, if things get shambolic enough and he finds himself in control of one of the few decent government armies going around, could he possibly make a play for the throne? Could even make it an act of desperation - the Qing have disappeared up north and are not supporting him, so he wants something to enervate his army and give him some chance of overcoming the resurgent Taiping?

The Taiping, to be clear, are still absolutely bonkers and there's heaps the foreigners will still find really off-putting about them - but if the 2nd Opium War has gotten nasty enough for the British to sack Beijing possibly the Taiping become the least bad option, or at least have more room to maneuver as the British find themselves occupied in the north trying to navigate the fallout of sacking Beijing.

Severe attenuation of central power will also be highly beneficial for all the other rebellions going around - Panthay in Yunnan, Miao in Guizhou, the Nian (which ranged pretty widely in the area south of Beijing IOTL, so with complete royal control withdrawn from the city...), Dungan in the Northwest (which only kicked off in 1862 IOTL, but longstanding tensions) etc.
 
Major prestige and legitimacy hit to the Qing, which is significant given the number of rebellions they were facing.

Assuming the British haven't just sacked Beijing for a laugh, there was probably something major to precipitate it - and this might mean it takes a bit longer for peace to be established, especially if hardliners in the Qing court dig in. Alternately, possibly the British are able to impose peace relatively speedily, but still with a lot of distrust and hostility with the Qing. Fallout from the loss of Beijing might also effect how the succession to Xianfeng shapes out - IOTL the conservative circle of regents he appointed were ousted by his concubine Cixi and his brothers Gong and Chun.

This is all significant because the British went almost immediately from fighting the Qing to helping them against the Taiping - in fact, they had fended off an initial (very tentative) Taiping advance on Shanghai in August 1860, at exactly the same time their army was overcoming the Qing's Taku forts. Over the next few years Anglo-French forces took an active part battling the Taiping in the environs of Shanghai, most notably fending off another attack on the city in early 1862. British officer Charles Gordon was appointed to lead the mercenary 'Ever Victorious Army' in late 1862.

The direct military contribution of Anglo-French efforts to the downfall of the Taiping has probably been overstated, but they contributed in other concrete ways - e.g. in early 1861 the British envoy Harry Parkes had convinced the Taiping 'Brave King' Chen Yucheng from attacking the poorly defended city of Hankow, which had the effect of blunting the Taiping's great western offensive. As a result, the Taiping were unable to break Zeng Guofan's siege of the strategically vital city of Anqing, which fell in September, clearing the way for the final siege of Nanking. In 1862 several thousand of Zeng Guofan's troops, under his protege Li Hongzhang were shipped downriver to Shanghai on British boats, allowing them to act as a pincer against the Taiping.

So, if the British are soured on the Qing somewhat and/or are still deeply engaged in the north dealing with the fallout of the sack of Beijing, it is possible the Taiping get a new lease on life - the maximalist success would be cornering and destroying Zeng Guofan, who got into pretty desperate straits in 1861 IOTL anyway, and for Taiping sympathisers to win over enough of the foreign establishment to allow them to waltz into Shanghai and establish friendly trade relations. A more limited success might see them driving Zeng Guofan away, perhaps all the way back to Hunan, and some sort of tense neutrality with the foreigners in Shanghai, which would at least allow the Taiping some breathing room to reconsolidate in their core area.

Should also consider what the fall of Beijing does to Zeng Guofan's war effort - major hit to morale, at the very least. Possibly disorder at court, receiving contradictory orders, perhaps some trying to recall his army northwards to support the court (which would be awkward because in was a provincial force grounded in the west, in Hunan). Alternately, if things get shambolic enough and he finds himself in control of one of the few decent government armies going around, could he possibly make a play for the throne? Could even make it an act of desperation - the Qing have disappeared up north and are not supporting him, so he wants something to enervate his army and give him some chance of overcoming the resurgent Taiping?

The Taiping, to be clear, are still absolutely bonkers and there's heaps the foreigners will still find really off-putting about them - but if the 2nd Opium War has gotten nasty enough for the British to sack Beijing possibly the Taiping become the least bad option, or at least have more room to maneuver as the British find themselves occupied in the north trying to navigate the fallout of sacking Beijing.

Severe attenuation of central power will also be highly beneficial for all the other rebellions going around - Panthay in Yunnan, Miao in Guizhou, the Nian (which ranged pretty widely in the area south of Beijing IOTL, so with complete royal control withdrawn from the city...), Dungan in the Northwest (which only kicked off in 1862 IOTL, but longstanding tensions) etc.
No West will never support Taiping who attacked their outposts. And they didn't want a divided China but one strong enough keep to itself united to provide a single market
 
No West will never support Taiping who attacked their outposts. And they didn't want a divided China but one strong enough keep to itself united to provide a single market

I mean, I agree that that was definitely the case IOTL and most of the British higher ups in China came to a quick and firm negative opinion of the Taiping.

But there has to have been some catalyst ITTL for them to sack Beijing - a thing the West surely knows will severely weaken (and also piss off) the Qing. Would they do that if they viewed the Qing's continued rule and suppression of the other rebellions as the best route for western interests? Or would it only result from something major happening that compromises the Qing's ability to (in the eyes of the west) credibly govern or be productive trade partners.

Possibly you could bring about a sack of Beijing out of frustration over the Qing being difficult and stonewalling negotiations, and it is intended to show the West really means business or otherwise precipitate regime change around the Emperor, but feel like it would be a pretty major miscalculation?
 
Possibly you could bring about a sack of Beijing out of frustration over the Qing being difficult and stonewalling negotiations, and it is intended to show the West really means business or otherwise precipitate regime change around the Emperor, but feel like it would be a pretty major miscalculation?
OTL Britain did miscalculate badly but was talked out of it by France
 
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