It’s one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history. In 1851, the Taiping Rebellion exploded in Qing dynasty China, causing death on an unprecedented scale. Over 14 years of civil war, an estimated 20 million people died, more than were killed in the whole of WWI. It was, simply, the deadliest war of the nineteenth century, and it was all thanks to one man: Hong Xiuquan.

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Credits:
Host - Simon Whistler
Author - Morris M.
Producer - Jennifer Da Silva
Executive Producer - Shell Harris

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Source/Further reading:

Excellent podcast on the rebellion: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yqvqt
Good overview of Hong Xiuquan’s life: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hong-Xiuquan
(excellent resource on the rebellion’s formation and early years): https://www.facinghistory.org/nanjing-atrocities/nation-building/seeds-unrest-taiping-movement
(references to the famine and peasant uprising that started it all in 1851): https://www.thoughtco.com/what-was-the-taiping-rebellion-195606
https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/clips/zg3j4j6
(some good details on beliefs, including styles of dress): https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/04/books/unheavenly-kingdom.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19977188
Cannibalism: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/portrait-of-a-bloody-siege
Mao and Taiping: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-09/03/content_371353.htm
Mao’s death toll: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/02/05/who-killed-more-hitler-stalin-or-mao/