The Taiping Rebellion
A man who believed he was Jesus's brother led a war that killed twenty million people.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 14 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Industrial, Holocene
Hong Xiuquan, after failing the imperial examinations and reading a Christian tract, concludes he is the younger brother of Jesus and founds the Heavenly Kingdom, which controls much of southern China from 1851 with Nanjing as its capital. The war to suppress it lasts fourteen years and kills perhaps 20 to 30 million — by most estimates the deadliest civil war in history and second only to the Second World War among all conflicts.