Sarah Paine

This is a mess.

This is not business as usual.

Think about one country being afflicted by this much trouble.

And then it comes at a time when the Manchus are in real trouble themselves.

They had ridden to power on these fabulous cavalries and in tremendous operational success for people who are only 2% of the population that they dominate, and they transformed China into the richest polity around China.

of the globe by the 18th century.

But here's the problem with their tremendous success in their military campaigns.

They're overextending China financially.

Inside the round circle there, that's China proper.

These are the core provinces of China that produce all the income.

But the Manchus came in from Manchuria up there, but they also take Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet.

The areas that cost not Manchuria so much, but the other ones, they cost a lot of garrisoning

It costs a lot of money to garrison these places.

And so it looks like a great success, but it's going to have problems later on.

And then here's what happens to the Manchu emperors.

They no longer ride at the head of their armies.

The Qianlong emperor who's considered to be ruled at the height of the dynasty, what's he spending his money on?

All sorts of interesting architectural programs.

And that's why people think he's great, builds beautiful things.

But these emperors are isolated.