In 1644, the Battle of Shanhaiguan marked a turning point in Chinese history. The Manchu Bannermen, from what is now northeastern China and Russia, defeated the Ming forces, captured Beijing, and founded the Qing Dynasty — the last imperial dynasty of China.

The Qing Dynasty ruled for 267 years before it fell with the establishment of the Republic of China under Sun Yat-sen in 1912.

Military professor Geoff Babb discusses the dynasty’s rise and fall, its military campaigns amid the “Century of Humiliation,” and the events that led to the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

This is Babb’s seventh visit to the Library and the third installment of the Library’s Rise and Fall of Empires series in partnership with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.

Babb is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel. He served as a foreign area officer in China and in the Defense Intelligence Agency and on the Joint Staff in Washington, D.C. He earned an M.A. in East Asian languages and cultures, and a doctorate in history from the University of Kansas.