Enlightenment · Central Asia · War
1758
Qing Complete Conquest of the Dzungars
1758
The last Dzungar resistance collapsed in the Tian Shan. Qianlong's generals reported the steppe emptied; Chinese settlers, Uighurs, and Hui were moved in to fill it. An entire nomadic nation had been erased from the map. The emperor commissioned victory stelae and Jesuit-drawn battle prints. The campaign's ferocity shocked even Qing officials; some memorialized their unease in private letters that survive in the archives.