First, China was forced to trade the goods required by the great powers, and then the two sides went to war, and China was defeated and opened the door. As for the Opium War of 1840, this is just a title. Fundamentally speaking, it is a product with high production efficiency that the great powers require to enter China. As the saying goes, "goods can't cross national borders, soldiers will cross national borders."

Two: In the face of being bullied by foreign powers, they set up seaports at will, and even Japan, the younger brother of neighboring countries, bullied themselves. A group of people with lofty ideals started the national salvation movement. This is what we now call the "Westernization Movement".

Thirdly, the attitude of those in power at that time was particularly important for the development of the Westernization Movement, because we know that the system in China at that time was an imperial system with imperial power as the supreme. At that time, the imperial power was lost to Empress Dowager Cixi (as we all know) because the emperor was weak. /kloc-in the 9th century, that is, the Opium War and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement made great changes in the power composition of China. Because when the Qing Dynasty was established, the power of Han officials was very restrained. After all, the Qing Dynasty was founded by ethnic minorities, and it is an inevitable problem under the imperial system to consolidate the interests of one's own nation over the interests of the state. The Opium War and Tian Ping Tian Dynasty made the strength of Han Chinese officials begin to increase. Zeng Guofan, Zuo and Li Hongzhang are all Han Chinese. Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army and Li Hongzhang's Huai Army were among the best in China at that time. Compared with these outstanding Manchu talents, it seems that there are only a handful. At that time, local power was greater than central power. As a patriotic plot of China people (admittedly including the power struggle contained in the self-enrichment movement), this Westernization Movement was largely operated by powerful officials of the Han people, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang.

Four: the stimulation of the great powers. It must be said that this is also one of the reasons for the Westernization Movement. Because we in China have always regarded ourselves as China under the imperial system for more than 2,000 years, just before the Opium War, when British envoys visited Emperor Qianlong, the two sides were unhappy because of some etiquette problems, so psychologically speaking, China always looked down on the great powers (naturally, they were called foreigners at that time, even though all the advanced equipment we used in the Westernization Movement came from great powers, we would call it "learning from foreigners". When we are defeated by these foreigners at once, the psychological trauma should be greater than the personnel and financial losses caused by the war itself to a certain extent. And this kind of psychological trauma is enough for us to work hard, because we want to find that sense of superiority, that kind of dignity of serving our country.

Five: The rupture of the traditional small-scale peasant economic system in China. When the war continued (among which the great powers' war was still a few reasons, mostly because of the war between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing army), and the tax revenue needed by the Qing army increased, the small-scale peasant economy on which farmers originally depended for survival was completely broken. The goods introduced by the great powers further dwarfed the goods produced under the agricultural economy. In order to cope with the "invasion" of such goods, the Westernization Movement began to develop (the Westernization Movement includes not only military factory manufacturing, but also commodity factory manufacturing, as well as overseas students and other matters. )

The failure of Westernization Movement:

First of all, the failure of the Westernization Movement should be doomed to some extent, because the leader of this movement is the Qing ruler who thinks that "the world is not a king's land". They have to consider their own interests first, and they have not put the interests of the country first. How can such a movement really enhance the national strength and defeat the powers?

Two: the operator is a bureaucrat and what is a bureaucrat. I remember a saying that "an official is not necessarily a wolf, but a group of officials must be a group of wolves". Like rulers, they think of their own interests first. Undoubtedly, the commodity economy under the leadership of bureaucrats has been labeled as "official government". At that time, there was no free economy in China, but only a "deformed" bureaucratic economy. This economic system is inefficient, and the state may invest more, but there are still many factories under construction. The movement is still in full swing. Why? Because of one thing, those officials learned something from these reforms. "Officials are not afraid of reform, most afraid of not reforming", because the bureaucratic system is already a pathological system. As long as there is reform, it will inject fresh blood into this stagnant water and make them hungry again. But it is in the national interest to be squeezed dry like this.

Three: What the Westernization Movement learned was superficial, not fundamental. The implementers of the Westernization Movement in China can only accept the technology of the great powers (they also find it hard to accept this, such as trains, and some die-hards are afraid that they will shake their spirits, Long Mai. However, we simply do not accept the democratic system of big countries. It is a joke to try to bring China back to life with the old system and several seemingly brand-new technologies. Just like why the Japanese can surpass China in a short time, on the one hand, it is easier to implement the reform because of the small land area, and on the other hand, they change the system first and then the technology. Only in this way can the inside and outside be coordinated. The real success of the Westernization Movement.

Four: Reform is from top to bottom, not from bottom to top. We know that the Westernization Movement is a group of people who think they are smart and are busy realizing the prosperity of the country. "Although Li Hongzhang also pointed out that he was just a plasterer, he barely repaired the building of China." However, this movement rarely gets the participation of the people, so that a few people decide the direction of the vast majority of people, which is taken too seriously by the people. Moreover, the direction is not standard. At that time, the people were still addicted to the imperial examination, or "the book has its own golden house, and the book has its own Yan Ruyu", but the rise and fall of these countries did not integrate them. This is fundamentally wrong. (However, once the imperial examination candidates are drained and democracy is promoted, the rule of the Qing Dynasty will come to an end, as evidenced by the overthrow of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty. This has to be said that the inevitable tragic ending of the monarchy. On the one hand, the rulers want to make the country rich and strong, on the other hand, they can't let go of their absolute power.

The above is my own opinion, I hope it will help you.