The Sichuan Massacre: Cause Of The Chinese Massacre

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Sichuan Massacre
Lily Maynard
Chloe’Ann Hoffman
Allie Lathrom
Tyler Fox
Zayne Nowak
The Sichuan Massacre was caused by a man name Zhang Xianzhong. Zhang Xianzhong was born in 1606 in the Dingbian, Shaanxi province of China. Zhang was a Chinese rebel leader and he was close to the Ming Dynasty. After a terrible famine in the northern province of Shaanxi in 1628. After the famine Zhang became the leader of a group of freebooters. When attacking or looting they used hit and run tactics to plunder though China.
To compensate for not having to attack head on when trying to plunder. Although the gang uses hit and run tactics they were still fought off multiple times by government troops but no matter, the gang just regrouped in the hills and kept plundering. In 1644, the year the Ming Dynasty fell Zhang marched into Sichuan Province in West Central China. Zhang did so with about 100,000 men and declared himself Dixie Guo Wang or “King of the Great Western Kingdom.”
After being enthroned Zhang coined money and set up an examination system to recruit talented men. Although Zhang wanted a civilian government Zhang was extremely concerned about his military strength. Zhang pursued to make his military very strong; it’s said that 600 …show more content…

Until the late 17th century the area was very sparsely peopled, and much of it, apart from the Hanzhong Basin, has remained virgin forest. In the period after about 1680 the introduction of corn (maize) and sweet potatoes, followed in the 18th century by the introduction of the Irish potato, made upland farming possible. A pattern emerged of growing rice in the valley bottoms, corn on the lower mountain slopes, and Irish potatoes on the higher land. Southern Shaanxi, with its great amounts of vacant land, attracted immigrants on a large scale after severe famines and crop failures had occurred in Hubei and Sichuan provinces in the

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