Person:

Elliott, Mark

The Eight Banners (Chinese baqi 八旗/Manchu jakūn gūsa) is well known as the omnibus military, social, political, and economic institution that played a crucial role in enabling the Manchu conquest of China in the middle seventeenth century and the establishment of the Qing state (1644-1912), the last of China’s dynastic regimes. Along with their Mongol and Han allies in the banners, the Manchus were vastly outnumbered by Han Chinese supporters of the Ming state (1368-1644), not to mention various rebel armies, and formed a tiny group next to the general Chinese population. Yet, despite being so greatly outnumbered, they nonetheless seized and retained power for 267 years.