Dungan Revolts

Fought in the 19th-century in western China, mostly during the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor (1856–1875) of the Qing Dynasty, the Dungan Revolts refer to intense fighting between the Hui (Muslim) minority with the Qing authorities. During the First Dungan Revolt (1862–1877), some Hui generals—like Ma Zhanao (Ma Zhan'ao) and his son Ma Anliang—defected to the Qing Empire and helped crushed the Hui (Muslim) rebels. The revolt increased the power of Hui generals and military men within the Qing Dynasty. The descendants of these Hui generals were the forefathers of the later Ma Clique generals in Qinghai. During the Second Dungan Revolt (1895-1896), they led Hui armies loyal to the Qing Empire against the Muslim Hui rebels, and later in the Boxer Rebellion against Western armies. The conflict resulted in massive demographic shifts in Northwest China, and led to a population loss of twenty-one million people from a combination of massacres, migration, famine, and corpse-transmitted plague.