China's historical changes from two Opium Wars: China's historical changes from two Opium Wars. After the first shot of the Opium War, China society entered a tortuous and humiliating modernization process. After the two world wars, the broad masses of the people began an arduous struggle in the fiery social reality. Anti-imperialism and feudalism have a long way to go. With the deepening of foreign capitalism's invasion of China, it almost penetrated into all levels of society, and the expanding rights of western colonialists in China brought endless wars to ancient China. In what major ways did these two wars affect China? China's social reform has embarked on that road? This paper focuses on these. Key words: Opium War, Second Opium War, natural economy, Westernization Movement, one or two wars within Shanhaiguan Pass, and two wars with the same fate. The beginning of China's modern history was marked by the Opium War that took place in the twenty to twenty-two years of Qing Daoguang (1840- 1842), and it was also a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society and old democracy in China. Before the First Opium War, the opium smuggling trade of China and even the British Empire in colonies around the world made the British Empire, which suffered from the capitalist economic crisis of 1825 and 1837, taste a lot of benefits, and silver flowed into the British Empire's treasury continuously. As Solon said, "Richness leads to satiety, and satiety leads to violence", and the British Empire can't wait to point its finger at the territory of China. At the same time, the deficit of the national treasury seriously affected the income of the Qing empire. Coupled with the abandonment of armaments and coastal defense, political corruption and the decline of social system, the Qing government ordered opium to be banned more than once, but the British colonialists arbitrarily broke the ban and continued the evil opium trade by means of bribery and smuggling. As Marx pointed out: "The direct consequence of China people's moral resistance is that the imperial authorities, customs officials and all officials are morally corrupted by the British. It eroded the heart of China's bureaucracy and destroyed the corrupt function of the patriarchal fortress, that is, it was smuggled into the empire from the British barge moored in Huangpu together with opium boxes. [1] "1839, Lin Zexu and Humen put out opium. The British colonialists were angry. 1840 In February, Britain officially launched the war of aggression against China, and the Opium War officially broke out. At this time, the decay of the Qing court, the compromise of the ruling class, Lin Zexu and other ministers who advocated defending the enemy were successively dismissed for investigation, the major passes were successively lost, and the major coastal cities were captured. The invaders who built ships and guns kept the war burning in this country with a history of 5,000 years of civilization for two years and two months. Finally, on August 29th, 1842, China ceded its land for compensation and signed a contract of humiliating its rights and country. Since then, China society has been transformed into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and the people of China 100 have been in dire straits for more than a decade! When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising, which represented the interests of the broad masses of peasants, reached its climax, Britain and France joined forces with the United States and Russia as accomplices to launch the second opium war against China, so as to expand the benefits gained in the first opium war. Ancient China once again picked up a pen and wrote the word "humiliation" in the great book of world history. 1857 65438+in February, the British and French invaders captured Guangzhou; 1In May, 858, the invading army captured Dagu and Tianjin. At this time, the barrel of the invading army pointed directly at the gorgeous but decadent Forbidden City! Once again, the decadent Qing Dynasty was defeated without a fight. 1858 On June 26th and 27th, the Qing court concluded the Tianjin Treaty in Britain and France respectively. China and France were constantly making trouble, and the corrupt and cowardly Qing government responded innocently. Marx said, "In this way, the people did not violate the treaty, but defeated the invasion. Did the corrupt Qing government and the cowardly people of China defeat the invasion? 1860, 10 On June 6th, the British and French allied forces occupied Yuanmingyuan. The greed of human nature made them rob Yuanmingyuan and set it on fire. The fire burned for three days and nights, turning the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens" into piles of residual tiles. Gordon, a British colonialist who participated in the burning, admitted: "In this way, we destroyed the most precious wealth in the world in the most barbaric way. 1860 10 month, in memory of the prince? As a representative, the Qing government delegation signed the Beijing Treaty with the British and French aggressors, thus ending the Second Opium War. The degree of semi-colonialism in China has further deepened. The two Opium Wars pushed this ancient country, which was riddled with holes and diseases, into the abyss of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Millions of people in China are facing a fate-exchanging guns and blood for national sovereignty and national freedom! Second, the influence of the two wars on the historical process of China. After two long wars, the prologue of China's shameful modern history began with the sound of gunfire and the shouts of sonar. China people are dying, and westerners are shouting! Western colonists came to China with all kinds of fruits of capitalism, which influenced the development of China's history in all directions. Changes in customs management system and policy (1) Changes in customs management system and policy, two wars broke the door of China by force, so we should talk about customs changes in Qing Dynasty first. The early Qing government basically adopted a closed-door policy and strictly controlled foreign trade. Facing the Western envoys, the mighty Emperor Qianlong once boasted: "China is rich in natural resources and everything. Originally, it did not borrow foreign goods to make up for its own needs, especially because the tea and silk Jin produced in China are necessary for western countries and China, and they are merciful. " What was the result? Only after two generations of emperors, the western colonialists not only opened the door of China by force, but also violently deprived China of its customs autonomy. The tariff was set by the British and mortgaged to them. The chief executive of China Customs is British. The representative of the British Empire not only "occupied" the greatest rights of China Customs, but also sought the greatest interests for Britain. Western colonialists further controlled the power of the Qing customs by means of force and luring officials, which provided convenience for them to dump industrial products and plunder raw materials and primary products. (2) the self-improvement movement of the Qing government (Westernization Movement) 2. The Qing government's self-improvement movement (Westernization Movement) Since the 1960s, the invasion forces led by Britain directly controlled the feudal regime in China. The Qing government existed in name only and really became the court of foreigners. A group of bureaucrats who advocate learning western military and technology and "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" have emerged, that is, the Westernization School. They carried out various westernization activities in order to maintain the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty and expand the influence of bureaucratic capital. Bureaucratic warlords headed by Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang established a number of new military industries in the 1960s and 1970s, and advocated strengthening the country. Anqing internal ordnance institute, Shanghai external artillery bureau, Jiangnan manufacturing general bureau, Nanyang, Beiyang and Fujian navies and other government-run military industries. However, most of these enterprises are inefficient, the quality of products is poor, the government funds are insufficient, and they are not suitable for society. Finally, Zeng and Li were taken to the grave of history. Later, from the early 1970s, the Westernization School turned from military industry to a series of civilian enterprises, supplying raw materials, fuel and transportation needed by military industry. That is, "seeking wealth." Among them, 1872 founded China Merchants Steamship in Shanghai, 1876 organized Kaiping Mining Bureau, General Administration of Telegraph, Hanyang Iron Works, Shanghai Woven Layout, etc. "The new enterprises run by the Westernization Group are all bureaucratic commercial enterprises, and they are also the economic system on which the comprador bureaucrats of Beiyang Department depend. The Westernization School set up these enterprises in an attempt to borrow some things from western capitalism to maintain feudal rule and enhance the strength and wealth of the group. These capitalist enterprises actually contain the original form of bureaucratic capitalism. " When the Second World War broke out, the western powers had no time to take care of the colony of China. China's capitalism has grown slowly in this tiny gap, and China's capitalist development has ushered in a short spring. The natural economy under the impact of western capitalism (III) The natural economy under the impact of western capitalism, which combines small farmers with cottage industries, has lasted for more than 2,000 years in China, occupying an absolute dominant position in the whole economic sector of the country. After the Opium War, with the change of social conditions, Chinese traditional agriculture showed a new development trend. On the one hand, due to various social factors, the traditional agricultural production mode is declining; On the other hand, under the impact of foreign capital invasion, it gradually embarked on the road of semi-colonization. After 1840, frequent wars at home and abroad not only exhausted the national treasury, but also abandoned a large area of cultivated land. The long-term backwardness of farming technology accelerated its decline and the small-scale peasant economy developed slowly. After the first Opium War, the natural economy initially resisted the commodity aggression of foreign capitalism, but it had little effect in a short time. After the failure of the Second Opium War and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolution, the rights and interests of all countries expanded and aggression intensified. The old feudal economy could not resist the powerful emerging capitalism and began the process of general disintegration. Feudal small-scale peasant economy no longer occupies an absolute advantage. The concrete manifestation of its disintegration is: 1, and small-scale production and large-scale machine production are difficult to compete. Cheap foreign machine-made textiles have replaced the ancient looms, and China's natural economy, which has been dominated by farming and textiles for more than two thousand years, has disintegrated. The rural economy after disintegration has obvious semi-colonial nature. 2. Development of commercialization of agricultural products. After the Second Opium War, the corrupt Qing government completely lost its ability to ban smoking, but encouraged farmers to grow poppies to increase taxes. The emergence and export of tea, mulberry and other commodity agriculture have deepened the commercialization of grain. After the Opium War, the extensive expansion of cash crops occupied the original cultivated land of food crops, which led to a large increase in the demand for foreign food. After the Opium War, especially during the 1970s to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, under the dumping of foreign capital, the handicrafts combined with agriculture, especially cotton textile handicrafts, began to disintegrate, and farmers had to rely on the market for their daily necessities and means of production and become buyers of the world market. On the other hand, under the plundering of foreign capitalist raw materials, the commercialization of agricultural products in China has also expanded rapidly, and farmers have become raw material suppliers in the world market. China's agricultural economy went to semi-colonial and semi-feudal, and China was really involved in the whirlpool of capitalism. Other aspects (4) Other aspects, which were emphatically analyzed above, had a long-term and profound impact on the history of China after the two Opium Wars. Let's describe several other aspects that still exist under the plunder of foreign capitalism. (1) The Westernization Movement, the bud of modern national capitalism, established modern enterprises, and at the same time, a number of commercial enterprises appeared in China society, such as: 1866 Shanghai Changfa Machine Factory, 1873 Jichanglong Silk Reeling Factory and 1878 Tianjin Yilaimou Machine Factory. These enterprises constitute the origin of modern national capitalism. (II) The emergence of the proletariat The emergence of modern industry in China made China produce the first batch of modern industrial workers, who formed the early China proletariat. With the deepening of foreign capitalist aggression and the emergence and development of capitalism in China, China's bourgeoisie (national bourgeoisie) came into being. (III) Social Ideological Emancipation In addition, after the Opium War, the reformists of the landlord class imitated and learned the western thought of resisting aggression, and gradually developed into a reform trend of thought after the emergence of the national bourgeoisie in China, which promoted the ideological liberation of China society to a certain extent. V. Conclusion 1949 10 1 year 10. In October, People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded, and the people of China after the 109 war can finally live a free and peaceful life. However, the long war can't just live in our memories. We should be prepared for danger in times of peace, always remember our environment, be self-respecting and self-reliant, and never suffer such humiliation again. Let's remember history and create the future. The future of the Chinese nation is in our hands, waiting for us to inherit and carry forward!