AHC: longest White Lotus Rebellion possible

During OTL White Lotus Rebellion, the leader(leaders, actually) raised the rebellion from the Szechuan-Hunan area and led it for 8 years from 1796 to 1804. Is it possible to prolong this rebellion, where the White Lotus Society garners more support from other regions in China? Could this be a major POD in Chinese history? Speculations are also possible!:p
 
WhiteLotus2.jpg
 
The White Lotus rebellion was never going to succeed as long as they continued to rely on guerrilla tactics. They need to face a Qing army in the field and beat them - that will inspire others to rise up into open rebellion as well. No one was ever inspired to join a bunch of deadbeats hiding in the woods, not with the Qing willing to kill your family if you did.

Cheers,
Ganesha
 
I was trying to draw a parallel from the Taipings, of course.
Since they were also religious and remained for some time.
Perhaps the White Lotus people can also use tactics of similar fashion?
 
What if everyone who historically rebelled pre-1900s did so at the same time, Russian/Spanish Civil War style, in the late 19th century? Such an event would feature the Hui in Yunnan, the Taiping, an earlier Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, Mongols, rogue Han Chinese generals, the White Lotus Society, the Uyghur, Tibetans, bandit kings, coastal pirates, the Indochinese, and random peasants.
 

katchen

Banned
From where the White Lotus started, their base area is not terribly far from a) Northern Vietnam and b) the Gulf of Tonkin. And south of the White Lotus territory, half of Guanxi is inhabited predominantly by Tai people. And Yunnan has large numbers of Miao people.
If White Lotus can pull in those non-Chinese people and reach the sea, their chances of resupply by other European nations (perhaps the VOC attempting to break the British stranglehold on China via it's opium trade) by selling them advanced weaponry), then White Lotus actually stands a chance.
 
I agree with others, if initial White Lotus rebellion leads to unrest in other parts of Qing, then there could be big problem for Qing. And indeed it could lead to collapse of Qing.
 
From where the White Lotus started, their base area is not terribly far from a) Northern Vietnam and b) the Gulf of Tonkin. And south of the White Lotus territory, half of Guanxi is inhabited predominantly by Tai people. And Yunnan has large numbers of Miao people.
If White Lotus can pull in those non-Chinese people and reach the sea, their chances of resupply by other European nations (perhaps the VOC attempting to break the British stranglehold on China via it's opium trade) by selling them advanced weaponry), then White Lotus actually stands a chance.
so we would be seeing the White Lotus Republic of Yunnan? Sounds awesome.:D:D
 
And south of the White Lotus territory, half of Guanxi is inhabited predominantly by Tai people. And Yunnan has large numbers of Miao people.
What do you mean is:
"Half of Guangxi is inhabited primarily by Yao and Zhuang people. Yunnan has large numbers of minorities like Naxi, Bai, Yi and Lisu, while Guizhou has a large population of Miao people.
 
Hmmm..... White Lotus state of Yunnan....
How big is that? (It's also interesting)
I'd suppose it'll be OTL Yunnan Guizhou and Guangxi. Economically supported by the Dutch. Ideology would be personal salvation through faith and tax protest. Damn, this thing could go on for at least a decade!:D:D
 
Perhaps. I only said Guangxi just to include a coastline for our new White Lotus Nation.:eek:

Actually you would have to include Guangdong, as the entire coastline in modern Guangxi belonged to Guangdong during Qing;)

And what can the White Lotus promise to non-Han people to get them join in? Although provincial governors were appointed, the minority tribes were still ruled by chieftains and exercise almost unlimited power as long as they stay loyal to Qing. On the other hand, if they want to convert the locals, they need to have preachers who can speak local languages, and I think these kind of people won't be as easy to find as Chinese speaking ones.
 
Just realised there was another rebellion going on at the time in China. Gotta take that into consideration, since that also was in Guizhou.Doesn't seem like it'll grow into full-flung rebellion, considering that the dissent was village-based rather than a centralised movement. Any way we can make it "Spanish-style" or "Russia-style"?
 
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