The Right Approach: Why China’s Qing Dynasty Were Successful with Imperial Expansion on their Western Frontier

From the beginning of the Manchu led Qing Dynasty of China, Manchu emperors saw themselves as universal rulers of their growing empire – ruling for all while creating and controlling the identities of their subjects (including the Manchus’ themselves). This essay will study the Qing’s imperial top-down conquest leadership culminating with the Manchu’s unique implementation of regional and international relations, development of regional alliances and tactics, and extension of the Chinese frontier through military actions. All these factors resulted in the Qing victory over the Zunghar Mongols, the far western Mongol tribe posing the main threat to the Qing from China’s Inner Asian frontier. At the same time, the Qing spread their hegemony and rule into the Zunghar sphere of influence in Tibet and Eastern Turkestan. As a result, the High Qing actions of conquest significantly added to the physical size and demographic diversity of China, in essence, forming the modern borders of China.