Self strengthening movement
The self- strengthening movement ( Chinese 自強 運動 / 自强 运动 , Pinyin zìqiáng yùndòng also Movement of Westernization , Chinese 洋務 運動 / 洋务 运动 , Pinyin yángwù yùndòng ) was a project of the Qing government between the Second Opium War and the Sino-Japanese War through learning from abroad To fix China's weaknesses and prevent foreign domination. The results of this movement could not prevent foreign powers from expanding their interests in China. However, it set in motion a cultural opening to the world, the effects of which were profound and lasting. The main leaders of the self-strengthening movement were Prince Gong , Li Hongzhang , Zuo Zongtang, and Shen Baozhen .
Wei Yuan was the first in 1846, in an analysis of the lost First Opium War , who demanded that China should strengthen itself and acquire the technical means of the barbarians in order to rule the barbarians and to make China rich and powerful. During the Taiping Uprising , the imperial troops suffered defeat due to the better arming of the insurgents with foreign military equipment. From 1854 high provincial officials such as Zeng Guofan , Hu Lingyi , Li Hongzhang , Peng Yulin or Zuo Zongtang also equipped their armies with foreign weapons. After initial reluctance, the imperial court, above all Prince Gong , implemented a program from January 1861 that aimed at technical modernization. This program included the creation of an office for foreign affairs ( Zongli Yamen , founded on January 20, 1861) and the training of soldiers on the European model. Arsenals and arms factories were established in all provincial capitals, each employing 1,000 to 2,000 workers and being managed by an imperial official. Three foreign language schools were founded, namely in Beijing ( Tongwen Guan , 1862), Shanghai (1863) and Guangzhou (1864). Her most important task was to translate scientific works from abroad into the Chinese language . In 1872 the first Chinese students went to the United States to study. At the same time as the technical modernization, the first public companies with Chinese capital were established. Companies such as China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company , several mines, textile factories and telegraph operators emerged. In today's Wuhan , an iron processing industry with 7000 workers was built under Zhang Zhidong , and the first railway lines were built.
Proposals to make scientific knowledge part of the official exams , however, were rejected by the imperial court. It was wanted that Confucian values and traditional patterns of administration should continue to rule the state. This attitude of the Qing government repeatedly hampered the self-empowerment projects. A press also emerged in which officials or diplomats such as Feng Guifen , Guo Songdao , Xue Fucheng Huang Zunxian , Zheng Guanying or Wang Tao often had their say. They declared that self-empowerment not only requires the adoption of technology, but also the adoption of foreign scientific and political culture.
After the Japanese landing on Taiwan, defense policy became even more of a focus. Also Xinjiang had against an impending invasion of Russia and the Dungan Revolt be defended. The efforts to build up our own fleet were successful in that the material backlog could be made up. However, the defeat in the Sino-French War between 1883 and 1885 showed that the effectiveness of the Chinese armed forces suffered from serious organizational deficiencies. The defeat in the war against the former tribute payer Japan in 1894/1895 was caused less by material than by organizational inferiority. This defeat also marked the end of the self-strengthening movement. However, China was on the way to participating in the world market, to modern capitalism and to cultural opening. These tendencies could no longer be reversed.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Marianne Bastid-Bruguière : Self -strengthening movement . In: Brunhild Staiger (Ed.): The great China Lexicon: history, geography, society, politics, economy, education, science, culture . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-534-14988-2 , pp. 662-664 .