1837
Hong Xiuquan has first visions.
1839–1842
Opium War between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty.
Hong Kong ceded to Great Britain.
Shanghai opened as treaty port.
1843
Hong Xiuquan begins preaching among the Hakkas.
1850
MARCH 9 The Xianfeng emperor accedes to the throne.
SUMMER First uprisings of the Society of God Worshippers in Guangxi.
1851
JANUARY 11 Hong Xiuquan announces founding of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Taiping Rebellion begins.
1852
Hong Rengan meets Theodore Hamberg.
1853–1854
Hong Rengan studies with Hamberg in Hong Kong.
1853–1856
Crimean War.
1853
JANUARY 8 Zeng Guofan receives instructions to organize militia in Hunan.
JANUARY 12 Taiping conquer Wuchang.
MARCH 19 Taiping conquer Nanjing, massacre Manchu population.
APRIL 27 British ship Hermes visits Nanjing.
1854
FEBRUARY Zeng Guofan’s Hunan Army begins fighting Taiping in Hunan.
MAY Hong Rengan travels to Shanghai, trying to get to Nanjing.
JULY 27 Yung Wing graduates from Yale University.
OCTOBER 14 Zeng Guofan’s militia forces take back Wuchang.
OCTOBER 25 Battle of Balaclava, Crimean War.
1855–1858
Hong Rengan in Hong Kong, employed by London Missionary Society.
1855
JANUARY–FEBRUARY Disastrous defeat for Hunan Army at Jiujiang.
FEBRUARY 11 Zeng Guofan attempts suicide.
APRIL 3 Taiping reoccupy Wuchang.
SEPTEMBER Muslim rebellion breaks out in southwest China.
1856–1860
Arrow War (Second Opium War) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty.
1856
SEPTEMBER 2 The Eastern King and his followers killed in coup in Nanjing.
OCTOBER 8 Smuggling ship Arrow boarded by Qing authorities at Canton.
DECEMBER 19 Hunan Army recaptures Wuchang.
1857–1858
Sepoy Mutiny in India.
1857
APRIL 20 Lord Elgin appointed plenipotentiary to China.
DECEMBER 28 Allied forces bombard, occupy Canton (take possession January 1).
1858
MAY Hong Rengan leaves Hong Kong for Nanjing.
MAY 20 British and French fleet attacks Taku forts, goes on to invade Tianjin.
JUNE 27 Treaty of Tianjin signed between Britain and China.
NOVEMBER–DECEMBER Elgin’s fleet sails up Yangtze River past Nanjing to Hankow.
NOVEMBER 1 Great Britain institutes direct rule of India; East India Company dissolved.
NOVEMBER 15 Major Taiping victory against Hunan Army at Three Rivers, Anhui.
Zeng Guofan’s brother Guohua killed.
1859
APRIL 22 Hong Rengan arrives in Nanjing, is promoted to Shield King on May 11.
JUNE 25 Repulse at Peiho River: British fleet devastated at the Taku forts.
1860
MAY Taiping armies rout imperial siege troops at Nanjing.
JUNE Zeng Guoquan lays siege to Anqing (will last until September 1861).
Frederick Townsend Ward enlists foreigners for rifle corps in Shanghai.
JUNE 2 The Loyal King occupies Suzhou.
JUNE 10 Zeng Guofan appointed acting governor-general of Jiangxi, Anhui, and Jiangsu; receives full appointment on August 10.
JULY 15 The Loyal King sends letter stating that the Taiping won’t harm foreigners at Shanghai.
JULY 16 Frederick Townsend Ward’s militia captures Songjiang.
JULY 28 Zeng Guofan sets up headquarters in Qimen.
JULY 30 Frederick Townsend Ward attacks Qingpu, is defeated.
AUGUST 1 Allied fleet lands at Beitang.
AUGUST 2 Joseph Edkins and Griffith John arrive in Suzhou to meet Hong Rengan.
AUGUST 19 British and French forces attack Taiping rebels at Shanghai.
AUGUST 22 British and French forces capture Taku forts in north China.
SEPTEMBER 22 The Xianfeng emperor abandons the capital.
OCTOBER 13 British and French troops occupy Beijing.
Issachar Roberts arrives in Nanjing.
OCTOBER 18 British troops burn the Summer Palace.
OCTOBER 24 Sino-British Treaty of Beijing signed.
1861
FEBRUARY 9 Confederate States of America founded in Montgomery, Alabama.
FEBRUARY 20 Admiral Hope makes first visit to Nanjing.
MARCH 4 Abraham Lincoln sworn in as U.S. president.
MARCH 22 Harry Parkes meets with the Brave King at Huangzhou.
APRIL 17 Lincoln gives order to blockade Confederate ports.
MAY 13 Great Britain grants belligerent status to the Confederacy.
MAY 19 Frederick Townsend Ward arrested in Shanghai.
MAY 31 U.K. Parliament debates belligerent status of Taiping.
JUNE 7 U.K. Parliament debates recognition of the Confederacy.
JULY 21 First Battle of Bull Run.
AUGUST 22 The Xianfeng emperor dies.
SEPTEMBER 5 Hunan Army forces conquer Anqing, slaughter 16,000 survivors.
NOVEMBER 8 Trent Affair (U.S. Civil War).
Coup d’état in Beijing; Sushun and other regents executed.
DECEMBER 9 Taiping take Ningbo.
DECEMBER 15 Zeng Guofan given military control of four provinces.
DECEMBER 29 The Loyal King Li Xiucheng conquers Hangzhou.
1862
JANUARY 20 Taiping forces attack Wusong, begin siege of Shanghai.
JANUARY 22 Issachar Roberts flees Nanjing, writes denunciation of Taiping.
FEBRUARY 10 Taiping forces defeated by Ward’s Ever-Victorious Army at Songjiang.
FEBRUARY 22 Admiral Hope submits plan for clearing rebels from area of Shanghai.
Beginning of alliance among British, French, and Ward.
APRIL Li Hongzhang’s Anhui Army transported to Shanghai by steamship.
APRIL 25 Li Hongzhang becomes acting governor of Jiangsu.
MAY 10 British and French forces retake Ningbo from Taiping.
Beginning of Allied campaign in Zhejiang.
MAY 12 Allied forces and Ward capture Qingpu.
MAY 13 Duolonga captures Luzhou from the Brave King.
MAY 15 Brave King captured in Shouzhou, executed on June 4.
MAY 17 French Admiral Protet killed by Taiping bullet; French troops rampage.
MAY 30 Zeng Guoquan pitches camp at base of Yuhuatai.
Beginning of the siege of Nanjing (will last until July 1864).
SUMMER Major cholera epidemic in Shanghai.
Massacre of Taiping prisoners makes world newspapers.
JULY 20 U.S. Minister Anson Burlingame arrives in Beijing.
SEPTEMBER 17 Battle of Antietam in U.S. Civil War.
SEPTEMBER 21 Frederick Townsend Ward dies of bullet wound in Ningbo.
OCTOBER 13 Li Xiucheng launches assault on Zeng Guoquan’s forces at Yuhuatai (will continue for forty-five days, until November 26).
DECEMBER 13 Major Union defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia.
1863
JANUARY 1 Abraham Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation.
JANUARY 7 Zeng Guofan’s brother Zeng Guobao dies of typhoid at Nanjing.
FEBRUARY 13 Anglo-Chinese Fleet begins departing from England for China.
MARCH 25 Charles Gordon takes charge of the Ever-Victorious Army.
JUNE 13 Zeng Guoquan’s forces take control of Yuhuatai.
Shi Dakai surrenders in Sichuan, executed on June 25.
JULY 1–3 Battle of Gettysburg; tide of U.S. Civil War turns against the Confederacy.
AUGUST 2 Henry Burgevine defects to the Taiping.
SEPTEMBER Yung Wing meets with Zeng Guofan at Anqing.
Sherard Osborn arrives in China to take command of the Anglo-Chinese Fleet.
OCTOBER 15 Burgevine surrenders.
NOVEMBER 19 Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address.
NOVEMBER 20 Lord Elgin dies in India.
DECEMBER 4 Esteemed King Tan Shaoguang assassinated by other Taiping generals who surrender Suzhou to imperial forces under Gordon and Cheng Xueqi.
DECEMBER 6 Li Hongzhang takes control of Suzhou, executes generals who surrendered.
End of Military cooperation between Britain and Qing imperial government.
1864
MARCH 19 Ulysses S. Grant put in charge of all Union Armies.
MAY 31 Ever-Victorious Army disbanded.
JUNE 1 Hong Xiuquan dies.
JULY 19 Zeng Guoquan conquers Nanjing.
JULY 22 Li Xiucheng captured in outskirts of Nanjing.
JULY 28 Zeng Guofan arrives from Anqing to take possession of Nanjing.
AUGUST 7 Li Xiucheng executed at Nanjing.
OCTOBER 9 Hong Rengan captured in Jiangxi province.
OCTOBER 25 The Young Monarch captured, executed on November 18.
NOVEMBER 23 Hong Rengan executed and cut to pieces at Nanchang, Jiangxi province.
1865
APRIL 9 Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.