1. The modern history of China is the history from the First Opium War 1840 to the collapse of the Nanking Kuomintang regime 1949 and the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC). The semi-colonial and semi-feudal society in China gradually formed and disintegrated after the late Qing Dynasty, the provisional government of the Republic of China, the northern warlords and the national government.

The modern history of China is a history of humiliation full of disasters, backwardness and beatings, a history of China people's exploration of saving the country and realizing freedom and democracy, and a history of China people's struggle against aggression, overthrowing imperialism and realizing national liberation and feudalism and people's prosperity.

The modern history of China can be divided into two stages. The first stage was from the Opium War in 1840 to the eve of the May 4th Movement in19/9, which was the stage of the old democratic revolution. The second stage is from the May 4th Movement in 19 19 to the eve of the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, which is the stage of new-democratic revolution.

This period began with the Opium War in 1840 and ended with the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.

2. 1840 The Opium War broke out, which was a historical turning point in China's transformation from a feudal society to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society and the beginning of modern history in China.

The following hundred years, marked by the May 4th Movement of 19 19, were divided into two periods: the former was the old democratic revolution period and the latter was the new democratic revolution period, but both of them belonged to the bourgeois revolution category.

In the whole semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the social nature of China determines the main contradiction, revolutionary object and task nature of China society.

3. In modern history, there are two major contradictions in China society: the contradiction between foreign capitalism and the Chinese nation, and the contradiction between feudalism and the masses of the people. The former is the most important contradiction. However, in the course of history, these two contradictions show a complicated and ups and downs relationship. The two major contradictions stipulate that the historical theme of modern China is to overthrow the rule and oppression of foreign capital-imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism, and strive for national liberation, national prosperity, social progress and people's happiness. In other words, the fundamental task of modern China was to thoroughly oppose imperialism and feudalism, realize national modernization and change the semi-colonial and semi-feudal social nature of modern China.

4. The previous review (1840- 19 19) is also called the period of the old democratic revolution (the old democratic revolution was a bourgeois democratic revolution in nature, it was led by the bourgeoisie, it opposed foreign aggression and feudal rule of the country, and its political purpose was to establish a bourgeois dictatorship state power in capitalist society; The revolution with the ultimate goal of developing capitalism, in which the Revolution of 1911 is an old democratic revolution with relatively complete significance.

5. This period has a history of about 80 years from the Opium War of 1840 to the May 4th Movement of 19 19. According to the internal relations and interrelationships of various historical phenomena in textbooks, a relatively complete and rigorous knowledge system can be formed, which can not only reflect the characteristics and objective laws of development during this period, but also contain basic knowledge of all aspects of social life during this period, which can be divided into the following three stages of development:

At the beginning of becoming a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society (65438+11940s-1early 1960s), two historical events occurred in this period: the Opium War and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. The former is an unjust war of aggression against China launched by western capitalist countries, that is, the just national self-defense war of the Chinese nation against aggression, while the latter is a revolutionary movement of the peasant class, and the two are closely related.

/kloc-In the first half of the 9th century, Britain took the lead in completing the industrial revolution and became the number one capitalist power. In order to expand overseas colonies and seize raw material producing areas and commodity markets, Britain and other countries urgently demand the opening of China market, with war violence as the main means to achieve their goals. At this time, China's feudal society has reached a period of decline.

Before the Opium War, it had reached the end of the road. The Qing government ruled corruption and economic backwardness, tried its best to suppress the budding growth of domestic capitalism, stifled the development of new ideas and technologies, brutally exploited the people, led to the intensification of class contradictions, adhered to China's dignity and closed-door policy, and finally led to the disaster of the Chinese nation. During the Opium War, although the Qing government was the organizer and leader of the national war, China soldiers and civilians fought bravely. However, due to the corruption and backwardness of the Qing Dynasty and the policy of compromise and surrender in the war, the end of the war ended in failure. Foreign invaders gained a lot of sovereignty from China through unequal treaties, and China's gateway was opened by big powers with gunboats. China began to be regarded as a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society ("semi-colonial" refers to the loss of some but not all sovereignty; "Semi-feudalism" means not only retaining the feudal system, but also developing capitalism. Both of them have political, economic and cultural connotations.

6. The Second Opium War was launched by the great powers, unable to satisfy their vested rights and interests in invading China, trying to expand their aggression in an all-round way and taking advantage of the predicament of the Qing government in the civil war, on the pretext that the treaty had not been amended. Britain and France are the principal offenders, the United States is an accomplice, and Russia is a murderer who follows Britain and France to commit crimes alone. China has lost a lot of sovereignty, and the degree of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society has further deepened.

7. As can be seen from the above, in the twenty years after the Opium War, China society was mainly characterized by semi-colonialism, and in the sixties, it was characterized by semi-feudalism. However, the Opium War did not solve the contradiction between China and foreign countries, but intensified the class contradiction, which led to the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. Although it finally failed due to the limitations of the times, especially the class, it was of great significance, and it undertook the dual tasks of anti-feudalism and anti-aggression and developed some new characteristics of the times of capitalism (determined by the social nature), which was unprecedented in previous peasant wars and was the highest peak of China peasant war.

I. Theoretical basis

1, regarding modernization as the basic clue of China's modern history development, has a long history in China. At the beginning of the 20th century, Liang Qichao divided the historical evolution of modern China in recent 50 years into three periods from the perspective of modernization, which respectively represented the three levels of China's transformation from tradition to modern society. First, from the Opium War to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the theory of practical application and the movement of self-improvement were the beginning of modernization at the object level; Second, from the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 to the May 4th Movement, the Reform Movement was a modernization reform at the institutional level. Third, it began with the May 4th New Culture Movement-the May 4th New Culture Movement and the New Literature Movement, that is, cultural modernization.

2. Since the end of 1970s, due to the policy of reform and opening up and focusing on economic construction, modernization has become the main cause of common concern and development of the country and people, and the idea of China researchers taking modernization as the theme in the study of modern history of China has been put forward again.

3. Studying the modern history of China with modernization as the basic clue has aroused widespread concern. This topic soon entered the writings of China's predecessors in modern history. 1990 In September, the Institute of Modern History of China Academy of Social Sciences held an international seminar on "Modern China and the World" to commemorate its 40th anniversary.

4. 1949, Mao Zedong said,' winning the national victory is only the first step of the long March.' What are the second and third steps? That is to solve the problem of modernization. "

5. Hu Sheng thinks: "1840 Since the Opium War, what efforts, processes, difficulties, differences and disputes have been made by generations of China people in order to realize modernization? These are all important topics in China's modern history. It is obviously meaningful to use this theme to describe the modern history of China. "

6. Many scholars have clearly declared that modernization is the theme or basic clue of China's modern historical development. They believe that examining the historical process since the Opium War with a modern historical view not only covers the revolutionary struggle against imperialism and feudalism for a hundred years, but also covers many social reform movements such as the Reform Movement of 1898 and the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, which can more comprehensively reflect the historical development and be closer to the historical truth.