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Dzungar genocide

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Dzungar genocide
Part of the Conquest of Dzungaria
Battle of Oroi-Jalatu in 1756
LocationDzungar Khanate (Dzungaria, Western Mongolia, Kazakhstan, northern Kyrgyzstan, southern Siberia)
Date1755–1758
TargetZunghars
Attack type
mass murder
Deaths480,000[1]- 600,000[1] 80% of the 600,000 Dzungar population

The Dzungar genocide (Chinese: 准噶尔灭族; pinyin: Zhǔngá'ěr mièzú[2]) was the mass extermination of the Dzungar people by the Manchu Qing dynasty of China. The Qing Manchu Qianlong Emperor ordered the extermination to punish the Dzungar leader Amursana's rebellion against Qing rule after the dynasty first conquered the Dzungar Khanate with Amursana's support before he rebelled in 1755. The genocide was carried out mainly by Manchu Bannermen and Khalkhas, who were part of the Qing force sent to crush the Dzungars. Uyghurs from Turfan like Emin Khoja who were vassals and allies of the Qing, helped supply its forces during their war against the Dzungars. After wiping out the native population of Dzungaria, the Qing then resettled Han Chinese, Hui, Uyghur, and Xibe people on state farms in Dzungaria along with Manchu Bannermen to repopulate the area.

The Oirats converted to Tibetan Buddhism around 1615. The Dzungars were a confederation of several Oirat tribes that emerged suddenly in the early 17th century. The Dzungar Khanate was the last great nomadic empire in Asia. Some scholars estimate that about 80% of the Dzungar population, or around 500,000 to 800,000 people, were killed by a combination of warfare and disease during or after the Manchu conquest in 1755–1757.[3] [4]

Qing conquest of the Zunghars

Background

The Dzungars who lived in an area that stretched from the west end of the Great Wall of China to present-day eastern Kazakhstan and from present-day northern Kyrgyzstan to southern Siberia (most of which is located in present-day Xinjiang), were the last nomadic empire to threaten China, which they did from the early 17th century through the middle of the 18th century.[5] After a series of inconclusive military conflicts that started in the 1680s, the Dzungars were subjugated by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1644–1911) in the late 1750s. Clarke argued that the Qing campaign in 1757–58 "amounted to the complete destruction of not only the Zunghar state but of the Zunghars as a people".[3] After the Qianlong Emperor led Qing forces to victory over the Dzungars in 1755, he originally planned to split the Dzungar Khanate into four tribes headed by four Khans, the Khoit tribe was to have the Dzungar leader Amursana as its Khan. Amursana rejected the Qing arrangement and rebelled since he wanted to be leader of a united Dzungar nation. Qianlong then issued his orders for the genocide and eradication of the entire Dzungar nation and name, Qing Manchu Bannermen and Khalkha enslaved Zunghar women and children while slaying the other Zunghars.[6]

The Outer Mongol Khalkha Prince Chingünjav conspired with Amursana to revolt against the Qing in 1755. Chingünjav then started his own rebellion in Outer Mongolia against the Qing in 1756 but it was crushed by the Qing in 1757. Chingünjav and his entire family were executed by the Qing after the rebellion was put down. He is now revered as a hero by Khalkha Mongols today.

Qianlong's orders

The Qianlong Emperor issued his commanders with direct orders to "massacre" the Zunghars and "show no mercy". Rewards were given to those who carried out the extermination and orders were given for young men to be slaughtered while women were taken as the spoils of war. The Qing extirpated Zunghar identity from the remaining enslaved Zunghar women and children.[7] Orders were given to "completely exterminate the Zunghar tribes, and this successful genocide by the Qing left Zungharia mostly unpopulated and vacant.[8]

Qianlong ordered his men to- "Show no mercy at all to these rebels. Only the old and weak should be saved. Our previous campaigns were too lenient."[9] The Qianlong Emperor did not see any conflict between performing genocide on the Zunghars while upholding the peaceful principles of Confucianism, supporting his position by portraying the Zunghars as barbarian and subhuman. Qianlong proclaimed that "To sweep away barbarians is the way to bring stability to the interior.", that the Zunghars "turned their back on civilization.", and that "Heaven supported the emperor." in the destruction of the Zunghars.[10][11] According to the Encyclopedia of genocide and crimes against humanity, Volume 3, under Article II of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Qianlong's actions against the Zunghars constitute genocide, as he massacred the vast majority of the Zunghar population and enslaved or banished the remainder, and had "Zunghar culture" extirpated and destroyed.[12] Qianlong's campaign constituted the "eighteenth-century genocide par excellence."[13]

Genocide

Qianlong emperor moved the remaining Zunghar people to China and ordered the generals to kill all the men in Barkol or Suzhou, and divided their wives and children to Qing soldiers.[14][15] In an account of the war, Qing scholar Wei Yuan, wrote that about 40% of the Zunghar households were killed by smallpox, 20% fled to Russia or the Kazakh Khanate, and 30% were killed by the army, leaving no yurts in an area of several thousands of li except those of the surrendered.[1][16][17][18][19] Clarke wrote 80%, or between 480,000 and 600,000 people, were killed between 1755 and 1758 in what "amounted to the complete destruction of not only the Zunghar state but of the Zunghars as a people."[1][20] 80% of the Zunghars died in the genocide.[21] The Zunghar genocide was completed by a combination of a smallpox epidemic and the direct slaughter of Zunghars by Qing forces made out of Manchu Bannermen.[22]

It was not until generations later that Dzungaria rebounded from the destruction and near liquidation of the Zunghars after the mass slayings of nearly a million Zunghars.[23] Historian Peter Perdue has shown that the decimation of the Zunghars was the result of an explicit policy of extermination launched by Qianlong,[1] Perdue attributed the decimation of the Zunghars to a "deliberate use of massacre" and has described it as an "ethnic genocide".[24] Although this "deliberate use of massacre" has been largely ignored by modern scholars,[1] Dr. Mark Levene, a historian whose recent research interests focus on genocide,[25] has stated that the extermination of the Dzungars was "arguably the eighteenth century genocide par excellence."[26]

Uyghur assistance to Qing forces against the Zunghars

Anti-Zunghar Uyghur rebels from the Turfan and Hami oases had submitted to Qing rule as vassals and requested Qing help for overthrowing Zunghar rule. Uyghur leaders like Emin Khoja were granted titles within the Qing nobility, and these Uyghurs helped supply the Qing military forces during the anti-Zunghar campaign.[27][28][29] The Qing employed Khoja Emin in its campaign against the Zunghars and used him as an intermediary with Muslims from the Tarim Basin to inform them that the Qing were only aiming to kill Oirats (Zunghars) and that they would leave the Muslims alone, and also to convince them to kill the Oirats (Zunghars) themselves and side with the Qing since the Qing noted the Muslims' resentment of their former experience under Zunghar rule at the hands of Tsewang Araptan.[30]

References

Volume 145 of Indiana University Uralic and Altaic series, Indiana University Bloomington. Contributor Indiana University, Bloomington. Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies. Psychology Press. ISBN 0700703802. Retrieved 24 April 2014. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); horizontal tab character in |others= at position 12 (help); line feed character in |volume= at position 64 (help)

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Perdue 2009, p. 285.
  2. ^ 呂 2010, p. 353.
  3. ^ a b Clarke 2004, p. 37.
  4. ^ Template:WebCite
  5. ^ Chapters 3–7 of Perdue 2005 describe the rise and fall of the Dzungar Khanate and its relations with other Mongol tribes, the Qing dynasty, and the Russian empire.
  6. ^ Millward 2007, p. 95.
  7. ^ Crowe 2014, p. 31.
  8. ^ Crowe 2014, p. 32.
  9. ^ Roberts 2011, p. 152.
  10. ^ Nan & Mampilly & Bartoli 2011, p. 219.
  11. ^ Nan & Mampilly & Bartoli 2011, p. 219.
  12. ^ Shelton 2005, p. 1183.
  13. ^ Westad 2012, p..
  14. ^ 大清高宗純皇帝實錄, 乾隆二十四年
  15. ^ 平定準噶爾方略
  16. ^ Perdue 2005, p. 285.
  17. ^ ed. Starr 2004, p. 54.
  18. ^ Wei Yuan, 聖武記 Military history of the Qing dynasty, vol.4. “計數十萬戶中，先痘死者十之四，繼竄入俄羅斯哈薩克者十之二，卒殲於大兵者十之三。除婦孺充賞外，至今惟來降受屯之厄鲁特若干戶，編設佐領昂吉，此外數千里間，無瓦剌一氊帳。”
  19. ^ Lattimore 1950, p. 126.
  20. ^
  21. ^ Powers & Templeman 2012, p. 537.
  22. ^ Lorge 2006, p. 165.
  23. ^ Tyler 2004, p. 55.
  24. ^ Perdue 2005, pp. 283-285.
  25. ^ Dr. Mark Levene, Southampton University, see "Areas where I can offer Postgraduate Supervision". Retrieved 2009-02-09.
  26. ^ Moses 2008, p. 188
  27. ^ Kim 2008, p. 308
  28. ^ Kim 2008, p. 134
  29. ^ Kim 2008, p. 49
  30. ^ Kim 2008, p. 139.
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