How did corn change China after the population explosion?

Because of the population explosion, corn is widely popularized in China. Its popularity, in turn, changed the population distribution in various places and the ecological environment in mountainous areas, and later became the indirect fuse of the Anbaili Uprising. After the Qing army entered the customs, the population began to increase sharply because of the change of tax policy. During the Qianlong period, in order to alleviate the food pressure, the Qing government began to encourage farmers to enter the mountains for reclamation, so corn suitable for planting in mountainous areas began to be valued.

With more and more farmers planting corn, corn began to spread from Fujian and Jiangxi to other regions. For example, during the Jiaqing period, a large number of refugees from Fujian and Guangdong flooded into Yunnan. With the arrival of these refugees, corn planting in Yunnan gradually reached a climax. In addition, Sichuan, sparsely populated by war, also welcomed a large number of farmers who immigrated from Huguang area during the Qianlong period. During the period from Qianlong to Jiaqing, more than 6 million people immigrated to Sichuan, and after arriving in Sichuan, they began to grow corn for a living.

Corn is a high-yield grain, so its cultivation in turn promotes the population growth. At the same time, most mountainous areas have been reclaimed to grow corn, and the ecological environment in mountainous areas has been greatly destroyed. As a result of deforestation, mountainous areas will lose their farming value in a few years. In addition, there is also a certain degree of conflict of interest between farmers who immigrated from other places and local farmers. The worsening planting environment and the conflict of interests between farmers laid the groundwork for the later Anbaili Uprising.

In the first year of Jiaqing, farmers in Zhijiang, Yidu and other mountainous areas in Hubei suffered serious ecological damage, and their daily pressure increased sharply. As a result, they took the lead in the uprising under the leadership of the leaders of Anbaili Sect, and many places followed suit. The Bailian uprising lasted for nine years, but it finally failed, which had a great impact on the rule of the Qing government. When the Opium War broke out, the weak Qing government was unable to resist and was finally forced to sign an unequal treaty. After that, the Qing government signed many unequal treaties again and again under the invasion of foreign forces, and China's situation became more and more difficult.