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The recent years had not been good to the ruling Qing dynasty. The country had suffered defeat at the hands of Britain in the Opium in 1842 losing Hong Kong and being forced to pay large war indemnity along granting extraterritorial privileges to the British along with other Europeans in following years. The government lead by the minority Manchu was becoming increasingly corrupt with anti-Manchu sentiments growing. The spark that kicked off the Taiping rebellion would be Hong Xiuquan, a Hakka who had failed the imperial examination multiple times. After receiving a pamphlet from a Christian missionary and connecting it with a visions from years ago. He would proclaim himself as the younger brother of Jesus and begin preaching in the Southern Chinese province of Guangxi. The growing number of converts would face a campaign of persecution by local officials culminating into an uprising by the Taiping.

Hong would declare himself as the Heavenly king on January 11 1851. The Taiping rebels marched north taking various cites and town along the Yangtze river culminating in the conquest of Nanjing on March 1853. After this success, the Taiping launched two expeditions one to the North and another to the west. The Northern Expedition would leave in early May and grow in size with recruits from the areas it passed through. Ignoring any well-defended cities and facing little resistance the rebels reached the doorstep of Beijing by late August and launched an attack on the poorly defend city taking it by early September[1]. The Qing government fleeed north into Manchuria while the Taiping loot the city. In the aftermath the Taiping pushed north to the great wall and begin to fortify both the wall and the city. The Taiping turned to taking the city of Tianjin with the siege dragging on for many months enabling the Qing to gather reinforcements.By early February 1854 the Qing would launch a counter attack on Taiping forces. The Qing forces pushed from both North and South retaking Beijing after a two month siege. Despite being weaken by the cold and raids by hostile locals, the Taiping ensured a Qing attempts to take the city would be costly.

Other rebellions sprung up egged by the fall of Beijing, high taxes,and anti-Manchu such as the Miao rebellion in the province of Guizhouu, and the Panthay Rebellion in Yunnan. One such rebellion was the Red Turbans in Guangdong which was lead by Chen Kai with the claim of restoring the Ming to power. The rebellion begin in early January 1854 and succeed in taking the provincial capital of Guangzhou by late February aided by the poor state of Qing forces in the province and the chaos around Beijing[3].

[1] The Northern expedition doesn't siege Huaiqing or Tianjin and goes straight for Beijing

[2] Earlier rebellions

[3] Earlier uprising which succeeds in taking Guangzhou