"The Self-Strengthening movement was conditioned bysituations and its achievements were rather limited" - Discuss.

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“The Self-Strengthening movement was conditioned by situations and its achievements were rather limited”. Discuss.

China was facing the Western threat and the Anglo-Chinese wars in the beginning of the 19th C. The continuous defeated by the superficial Westerners made the Chinese realized that they were weak technologically, and needed a reform to strengthen themselves militarily. They started the Self-strengthening movement in 1864. But the defeated of China by her student, Japan in the 1st Sino-Japanese War, illustrated that the self-strengthening movement was a failure.

Foreigners defeated China in both Anglo-Chinese wars. By this, China was forced to sign many unequal treaties with them, such as the Treaty of Nanjing, Treaty of Bogue and Treaty of Tianjin.  These treaties opened China completely and brought humiliation to the Chinese. There were fixed tariff, heavy indemnity, and erosion of China’s sovereignty, extraterritoriality and the most favored-nation treatment. The people was discontented and started to rise up against Qing’s rule which led to the Mid Century Rebellions. Although these rebellions were all failure, they led to the rise of Chinese leaders such as Tseng Guo-fan, Li hungzhong, Zuo-zongtong, these leaders later led the Self-Strengthening movement. Also by opening of treaty ports, helping of the Ever Victories Army and Imperial Maritime Custom Service, their contacts with the West had been increased. Qing government saw the advance technology of the foreigners and their military superiority. All of this exposed the weaknesses of the Qing government. Qing knew her backwardness in technology and was forced to have reforms in order to strengthen herself against foreign invasion so as to save the dynasty. Therefore it started the Self-Strengthening movement in 1864.

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There were a lot of reforms carried out during this strengthening period. But most of them aimed at military strengthening. The reform movement was half hearted.

For military reform, China built a lot of arsenals, such as the Kiangnan Arsenal, Nanking Arsenal, Foochow Shipyard and Tientsin Arsenal. But because lacking of co-operation among the provincial leaders, these projects were overlapping and did not function effectively. For example, during the Sino-French War 1885, the Peiyang Fleet gave no help to the Foochow Fleet. Foreign instructors and engineers were employed. Yet the Chinese were ignorant, they might not know how ...

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