Qing Dynasty (China)

Capital: Beijing

Founded: 1644, when the Manchu people from northeast Asia conquered Ming China

Territory in 1750: All of China proper plus Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Largest land empire in Chinese history.

Government: Emperor with mandate of heaven, Confucian bureaucracy selected by civil service exams

Key emperors: Kangxi (r. 1661-1722) and Qianlong (r. 1735-1796) presided over the height of Qing power

Economy: Self-sufficient agricultural economy. China dominated global trade because European demand for tea, silk, and porcelain ran one way; China wanted little from Europe except silver.

Policy: Increasingly isolationist. Foreign trade restricted to a single port (Canton/Guangzhou) under the Canton System. This isolation would later become a vulnerability.