The Forgotten Rebellion

The Taiping Rebellion receives remarkably little attention in Western history despite its staggering scale. It killed more people than World War I.

It destroyed some of the most prosperous regions of China. And yet few Western textbooks mention it. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom controlled a territory larger than France for more than a decade, ran its own currency and army, and promoted radical ideas including female equality and land redistribution.

These reforms came centuries ahead of most of the world, yet the movement ended in catastrophic military defeat and mass slaughter.