The Scramble for China

Only completely agree with 3) and 4) which is what I'm arguing for; China's distance makes it hard to conquer, requiring the British to surrender India as a result (at least most of it) and there would be indeed a lot of European infighting plus conflict with the US which surprisingly hasn't been mentioned that much.

1) depends on the highly overstated premise that the Chinese are more cohesive than the Indians when they weren't (look at the sectarian conflict between Daoists and Buddhists for instance, as well as the sizable minority populations not to mention geographical and political divisions among the Han Chinese as well), and 2)'s idea that the Chinese had higher availability of small arms is highly debatable seeing how the Mughals and Marathas used firearms as much as China and the former are even called a gunpowder empire by certain historians like Douglas Streusand.
Distance is not a problem since Britain can just ship supplies,troops and equipment from India.That is why for Britain to conquer China,it needs India,not to abandon it.India supplied much of the resources,troops,supplies and equipment to Britain’s other Imperial ventures including the two world wars.I have no idea why you insist on arguing that Britain needs to abandon India in order to rule China.IOTL,it was precisely because of the lost of India that Britain’s control of the rest of the empire became untenable.
 
How about a POD in the first Opium War in which the Daogaung Emperor refuses British calls for peace and the British storm Nanking the sack happens and the Emperor and his court are killed trying to flee. During the same time the Sikh general Zorawar Singh Kahluria is invading Tibet and with the shit show happening in China the Sikhs win all the while the rest of Europe finding about the collapse of the unified Chinese empire and a diplomatic conference by Britain is held in a neutral nation while literally everyone is talking, Russia takes Manchuria and early ww1 doesn't happen. Does this sound plausible?
 
How about a POD in the first Opium War in which the Daogaung Emperor refuses British calls for peace and the British storm Nanking the sack happens and the Emperor and his court are killed trying to flee. During the same time the Sikh general Zorawar Singh Kahluria is invading Tibet and with the shit show happening in China the Sikhs win all the while the rest of Europe finding about the collapse of the unified Chinese empire and a diplomatic conference by Britain is held in a neutral nation while literally everyone is talking, Russia takes Manchuria and early ww1 doesn't happen. Does this sound plausible?
No.In the first opium war,the war was confined to only the south,nowhere near Beijing. I'm not quite sure about what use are the Sikhs in this given Tibet was a marginal area where the Manchus barely had any control over.As for Europe finding out the fragmentation of China,there is literally no body who can take advantage of this except for the British and the Russians.Even then,Russian military adventuring will be quite limited given this is prior to the construction of the Trans-Siberian railroad.If the emperor and his court got taken out during the Second Opium War,then that's gonna be a real shit show--given the Taiping rebellion's occurring at the same time.
 
No.In the first opium war,the war was confined to only the south,nowhere near Beijing. I'm not quite sure about what use are the Sikhs in this given Tibet was a marginal area where the Manchus barely had any control over.As for Europe finding out the fragmentation of China,there is literally no body who can take advantage of this except for the British and the Russians.Even then,Russian military adventuring will be quite limited given this is prior to the construction of the Trans-Siberian railroad.If the emperor and his court got taken out during the Second Opium War,then that's gonna be a real shit show--given the Taiping rebellion's occurring at the same time.

Thank you for the information. The Sikhs would be of use to allow to allow the British to conquer a part of china using a soon to be vassal, thus not stretching British manpower to the breaking point. But the rest of the points are valid. Though if the Emperor and his court fell during the second opium war could that lead to a European war.
 
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