The Invaders were a stock of the Jurched tribe who lived in Manchuria. In the twelfth century, they founded a dynasty in Manchuria called the Chin or Gold dynasty. The Jurched lived north of Korea and east of Liaotung, which was a Chinese province just north of Pyongyang, Korea. In the sixteenth century, Chinese crossing over from Liaotung taught the Jurcheds how to build forts and how to farm. The importation of technology and agriculture converted the Jurcheds from a largely nomadic culture to a sedentary one. The stage was set for the emergence of the Jurcheds as a major cultural force in Asia. The new Jurched tribes, having traversed several hundred years of development in a single century, awaited a single catalyst to erupt on the scene. That catalyst was Nurhaci (1559-1626), who led the Jurched on a series of conquests that would eventually position the Jurched, which his son, Abahai, renamed as Manchu (1635), to conquer the whole of China. Thus began the last imperial dynasty of China, the Ching or Pure dynasty.

The Jurchen (Mancu) Dynasty took advantage of the rebellion and chaos in the Chinese empire and moved south. Forming an alliance with a Ming loyalist general, they entered Beijing in June and almost immediately took power for themselves. A combination of military campaigns and diplomacy enabled them to wipe out the remains of Ming resistance. By 1673 they had completed their conquest of China, though they continued to expand well into the next century, bringing Xinjiang and Taiwan into the motherland.