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228 PERIOD 2 • The Early Modern World, 1450–1750

New World “discoveries” of the Europeans. Chinese authority in these regions had
been intermittent and actively resisted. Then, in the early modern era, the Qing
dynasty undertook an eighty-year military effort (1680–1760) that brought these
huge areas solidly under its control. It was largely security concerns, rather than
economic need, that motivated this aggressive posture. During the late seventeenth
century, the creation of a substantial state among the western Mongols, known as
the Zunghars, revived Chinese memories of an earlier Mongol conquest. As in
so many other cases, expansion was viewed as a defensive necessity. The eastward
movement of the Russian Empire likewise appeared potentially threatening, but
after increasing tensions and a number of skirmishes and battles, this danger was
resolved diplomatically, rather than militarily, in the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689),
which marked the boundary between Russia and China.
®
AP The Qing dynasty campaigns against the Zunghar Mongols marked the evolu-
COMPARISON tion of China into a Central Asian empire. The Chinese, however, seldom thought of
What were the distinctive themselves as an imperial power. Rather, when describing this Qing expansion, they
features of Chinese spoke of the “unification” of the peoples of central Eurasia within a Chinese state. But
empire building in the
early modern era? although unification was achieved through conquest, it did not involve the assimilation
of local people into Chinese culture. Instead, the Qing ruled the conquered area sepa-
rately from the rest of China through a new office called the Court of Colonial Affairs
and showed considerable respect for the Mongolian, Tibetan, and Muslim cultures of

®
AP
CONTINUITY AND
CHANGE
What does this image
suggest about the
process of China’s
imperial expansion?

Qing Conquests in Central Asia Painted by the Chinese artist Jin Tingbiao in the mid-eighteenth
century, this image portrays Machang, a leading warrior involved in the westward extension of the
Qing Empire. The painting was commissioned by the emperor himself and served to honor the
bravery of Machang. (Pictures from History/CPA Media)
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample.
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

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