Why do we remember Crimea and forget the Taiping war?

In the 1850s, Crimea and the Yangtze were at war at the same time. One conflict was wired, photographed and fed daily into European newspapers; the other devastated much of central China and killed tens of millions. Put the two archives side by side and watch how historical memory gets made.

What you will follow

This guided story moves the same world map through 13 sourced scenes. It begins at the opening rather than dropping you into an unexplained year.

How to read the map: The map uses discrete, approximate border snapshots. A narrated year may use the closest available snapshot, and schematic arrows show relationships rather than precise routes.

Related subjects on the map

• The Taiping Rebellion
• The Crimean War

Sources used by this story

1. Stephen R. Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War (New York: Knopf, 2012).
2. Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996).
3. Tobie Meyer-Fong, What Remains: Coming to Terms with Civil War in 19th Century China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013).
4. Philip A. Kuhn, Rebellion and Its Enemies in Late Imperial China: Militarization and Social Structure, 1796-1864 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970).
5. Cao Shuji, Zhongguo renkou shi [A History of China's Population], vol. 5 (Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 2001).
6. Orlando Figes, Crimea: The Last Crusade (London: Allen Lane, 2010).
7. Candan Badem, The Ottoman Crimean War (1853-1856) (Leiden: Brill, 2010).
8. Andrew Lambert, The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy against Russia, 1853-56, 2nd ed. (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011).