The Taiping Rebellion was a peasant revolt in nineteenth-century China, it was also the bloodiest conflict of the nineteenth century and the bloodiest civil war in human history. The war was fought between the ruling Qing Dynasty and a coalition of, mostly peasant, rebels who fought under the banner of the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace. It is worth noting that many of the rebels were fighting for their belief in Christianity. The Rebellion ended in defeat for the rebel forces, but also led to the weakening of the Qing Dynasty.

The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763 and brought to an end the hostilities of the Seven Years’ War (French-Indian War). All of the above answer choices were part of the terms of the treaty except for Britain gaining control of Manila from Spain. Spain would remain in control of Manila and the Philippines until defeated by the United States in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

The Treaty of Shimonoseku was signed in 1895 and brought to an end the hostilities of the Sino-Japanese War. It was an unequal treaty designed by the victorious Japanese to be in their best interests. Amongst other things it led to Japanese control over Korea and Taiwan.

The Crimean War (1853-1856) was fought between Russia and an alliance of France, the United Kingdom, the Ottoman Empire and Sardinia. Russia was defeated, in part due to the other powers using technologies such as naval shells, railways and telegraphs for the first time in a large-scale conflict. While the Russo-Japanese war also demonstrated Russian weakness and the effects of Japanese industrialization in imitation of the West, it was not fought against a Western power.

Ethiopia successfully defended its sovereignty against Italian invasion in the First Italo-Ethiopian war from 1895-1896. The Battle of Adwa was a decisive victory for Ethiopia.

The United States took no active part in the 1853-1856 global conflict, caused by expanding empires and a delicate alliance network. Russia sought to expand influence into the Crimean region from the crumbling Ottoman Empire. Britain and France joined on the Ottoman side to keep Russians expansion in check. An early modern war, the Crimean War saw the first use of railways, photographs, telegraphs and modern nursing technique in war time.

The Opium Wars were fought between China and Britain in the middle of the nineteenth century. The First Opium War was fought from 1839 - 1842 and the Second Opium War was fought from 1856 - 1860. The wars began as a dispute between Britain and China over Britain’s trading privileges and actions in Chinese territory. The wars ended in defeat for China and the weakening of the Qing Dynasty.

All of these were results of the Sino-Japanese War except China losing control over most of Indochina. This took place in the Sino-French War a decade earlier, when France took control over Indochina from the Chinese.

The Seven Years’ War was primarily fought between the British and French empires in the middle of the eighteenth century, however it involved nearly every major European power at one point or another. Most of the European powers, including Spain, Russia, and the Holy Roman Empire were allied with the French, but Prussia was notable in its allegiance with Britain.

Napoleon, like many conquerors before him and after him, was ultimately defeated by the vastness of the Russian expanse. Napoleon conquered almost all of continental Europe in the first decade of the nineteenth century, but his 1812 campaign against Russia was one conquest too far. The Grand Army of France entered Russia with 600,000 troops, but over the course of one long winter of organized Russian resistance more than 500,000 were lost. Napoleon marched home having failed to hold any significant portion of Russian land and with his army decimated.