The
Taiping Rebellion or
Taiping Civil War (
simplified Chinese: 太平天国运动;
traditional Chinese: 太平天國運動;
pinyin:
Taìpíng Tīanguó Yùndòng, literally "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement") was a massive
rebellion or
civil war in
China that lasted from 1850 to 1864, which was fought between the established
Manchu-led
Qing dynasty and the Christian millenarian movement of the
Heavenly Kingdom of Peace. The Taiping Rebellion began in the southwestern province of
Guangxi when local officials launched a campaign of persecution against a
Christian sect known as the
God Worshipping Society led by
Hong Xiuquan, who believed himself to be the younger brother of
Jesus Christ. The war was mostly fought in the provinces of
Jiangsu,
Zhejiang,
Anhui,
Jiangxi, and
Hubei, but over 14 years of war, the Taiping Army had marched through every regularized province of China proper except Gansu. The war was the largest in China since the
Qing conquest in 1644, and ranks as one of the bloodiest wars in human history, the bloodiest civil war, and the largest conflict of the nineteenth century with estimates of war dead ranging from 20 to 70 million dead, as well as millions more displaced.