<P> During the Qianlong reign ( 1735 -- 96 ) the dynasty reached its apogee but then began its initial decline in prosperity and imperial control . The population rose to some 400 million , but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate , virtually guaranteeing eventual fiscal crisis . Corruption set in , rebels tested government legitimacy , and ruling elites failed to change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system . Following the Opium War , European powers imposed unequal treaties , free trade , extraterritoriality and treaty ports under foreign control . The Taiping Rebellion ( 1850 -- 64 ) and the Dungan Revolt ( 1862 -- 77 ) in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people , most of them due to famines caused by war . In spite of these disasters , in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s , Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order and the Qing rulers . The initial gains in the Self - Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino - Japanese War of 1895 , in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea and the possession of Taiwan . New Armies were organized , but the ambitious Hundred Days ' Reform of 1898 was turned back in a coup by Empress Dowager Cixi , a conservative leader . When the Scramble for Concessions by foreign powers triggered the violently anti-foreign Yihetuan ( `` Boxers '' ) , the foreign powers invaded China , Cixi declared war on them , leading to defeat and the flight of the Imperial Court to Xi'an . </P>
during the manchu dynasty what is now china expanded to control part of what now independent country
Taiwan