Prior to the devastating famines China experienced in the 20th century, Northern China suffered a major famine under the watch of the Qing Dynasty, during the late 1870s. According to Cambridge University Press, this famine was also sparked by environmental conditions, but exacerbated by Qing Dynasty policies. In the years just before the famine, there were a number of significant events including drought in some places, excess rain in others, flooding, warfare, disease, plagues of locusts and rats, even wolf attacks. What's more, the government didn't really seem very interested in doing anything to help the suffering people — there was some relief offered to people in a few limited places, but not enough to really make a difference.
Cambridge University Press says it's hard to pinpoint the precise cause of this particular famine, especially since 19th-century China was marked by other famines. Much of what historians know comes from local records, which talk about a "great drought" that caused crops to fail and forced some people into eating bark, grass, and even "weathered rocks." Other records discuss inflated food prices, dry lakes, and cannibalism. Still others discuss government relief that provided very little help and dried up after just six months. Overall, the disaster seems to have been confined to a large number of small, localized areas, and was made worse by the lack of assistance from the government. Overall, death toll estimates number between 9 and 13 million people.
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