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[PAST EVENT] WMCI China Lecture Series
February 14, 2013
5pm - 6:30pm
"Financing Empire in Southwest China: Copper, Land and Local Society, 1650-1750."
Abstract: This talk will discuss Qing (1636-1912) expansion into China's southwest border region beginning with the defeat of Wu Sangui's (1612-1678) rebellious Zhou forces in 1681, and concluding in roughly 1750 with the Qianlong (r. 1736-1796) emperor's reversal of many of the interventionist policies endorsed during the preceding Kangxi (r. 1661-1722) and Yongzheng (r. 1723-35) reigns. Central to this discussion is an examination of the Qing state's long-held land reclamation policy (kaiken), and how this policy was incorporated into a series of measures designed to appropriate and exploit the region's vast natural resources for national purposes. How the land reclamation policy and the state's appropriation of the region's natural resources impacted both the non-Chinese indigenous to this border region and the Qing bureaucracy are important for understanding Qianlong's decision to pull-back from several of his father's and grandfather's activist policies.
Abstract: This talk will discuss Qing (1636-1912) expansion into China's southwest border region beginning with the defeat of Wu Sangui's (1612-1678) rebellious Zhou forces in 1681, and concluding in roughly 1750 with the Qianlong (r. 1736-1796) emperor's reversal of many of the interventionist policies endorsed during the preceding Kangxi (r. 1661-1722) and Yongzheng (r. 1723-35) reigns. Central to this discussion is an examination of the Qing state's long-held land reclamation policy (kaiken), and how this policy was incorporated into a series of measures designed to appropriate and exploit the region's vast natural resources for national purposes. How the land reclamation policy and the state's appropriation of the region's natural resources impacted both the non-Chinese indigenous to this border region and the Qing bureaucracy are important for understanding Qianlong's decision to pull-back from several of his father's and grandfather's activist policies.