D. Taiwan Conquest - Part 2

Yongzheng's fourth son Qianlong reigned the longest of any Emperor in Chinese history (1736-1799). China's population hovered at 65-80 million in 1390, rose to 300 million by 1790. During his reign, a picture emerged of rapidly expanding population across the country. While the population tripled, the acreage of arable land only doubled. Thus, the size of individual holdings shrank. Family holdings in the 1700s averaged 2.5 acres with holdings more than 20 acres becoming rare and with a quarter or more of the rural households become landless. China remained a nation of small landholders engaged in highly labor-intensive agriculture without the aid of significant technological innovations.

Massive ecological changes occurred with the introduction of new crops from the western world. Sweet potatoes, maize, Irish potatoes and peanuts had been introduced and helped to increase the caloric intake of China's rural workers. China's male life expectancy hovered at 32 in 1792. Qianlong's final conquest and integration of Xinjiang gave him the most important achievement. In 1760 a disastrous war in Burma and in 1788 an equally disastrous war in Vietnam occurred.