However, Ming and Qing dynasties took this as their capital and dreamed of going to China, but they didn't know that the West was quietly rising. The gunfire of 1840 knocked on the door of China, and the invaders entered the door of China and invaded without restraint. They launched two Opium Wars, the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China, and a series of wars, such as cutting land, opening commercial ports, demanding war reparations and obtaining customs judicial sovereignty.
After the Opium War, treaty of nanking, the first unequal treaty in China's history, was born. With the loss of China's territorial sovereignty, judicial sovereignty and tariff sovereignty, China is no longer an independent sovereign country, and the nature of China society has completely changed. Since then, China has become a real semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. What followed was the change of the main contradiction in China society. The contradiction between the landlord class and the peasant class has become the contradiction between the Chinese nation and imperialism, feudalism and the masses of the people, and the contradiction between the Chinese nation and imperialism has increasingly become the main contradiction, which makes the struggle for national independence, people's liberation, national prosperity and people's prosperity two major historical tasks of China.
With the opening of trading ports, capital imperialism began to export goods and capital, and China's self-sufficient natural economic system was severely impacted and gradually disintegrated. Foreign capitalist market economy began to infiltrate, gradually bringing China's economy into the capitalist market economy system, making China's economy a vassal of capitalist imperialism, and China's economy began to be semi-colonized.
China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, politics and economy have caused the greatest harm to the ruling class not the Japanese people, but the broad masses of Japanese people. Due to the disintegration of natural economy, they can't live on the land they depend on. The rulers colluded with foreign invaders and plundered people's wealth, which made the people of China suffer greatly. For example, in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Japanese army massacred in Lushun, which made the people of China in dire straits. This is China's greatest misfortune.
The wheel of history always goes forward. Although the invasion of capitalist imperialism left an indelible scar on everyone in China, their aggression objectively promoted the awakening of national consciousness, and at the same time spread advanced capitalism to China and promoted the modernization of China's history.
The failure of the Opium War educated the people of China from the negative side and greatly promoted the thinking, exploration and rise of the people of China. Advanced China people began to see the world with their eyes wide open. Recognizing the backwardness of China, they put forward the slogans of "learning from the West" and "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" and led the broad masses of people with lofty ideals in China to advance.
Since the Opium War, the officials and people of China have suffered a lot under the foreign guns of capital and imperialism, so the advanced elements of the landlord class first began to practice the slogan of "learning from foreigners to control foreigners". They bought guns from western capitals and imperialist countries, established military industries, sent overseas students to learn advanced science and technology and achieved certain results. If the most advanced smokeless powder in the world was invented in the late 1980s, it would be here.
In the later period of Westernization Movement, on the one hand, due to the shortage of funds for establishing military industries, on the other hand, stimulated by foreign profits, civilian industries, such as Hanyang Iron Works founded by Zhang Zhidong, began to be established, which made China's industry develop to a certain extent. At the same time, it resisted the import of foreign goods and capital to a certain extent, accelerated the disintegration of China's natural economy, and modernized China's industry and even the whole economy.
With the development of civil industry, the national capitalist economy has also developed, and the national bourgeoisie has also grown. They are different from westernization. While learning advanced technology, they also learned the advanced democratic political system in the West. They began to make a difference in politics, so Kang, Liang and others promoted constitutional monarchy and finally launched the Reform Movement of 1898. Although the movement failed, it was an enlightenment trend of thought. With the further development of capitalism and the further expansion of the bourgeoisie, the national bourgeoisie led by Sun Yat-sen finally overthrew the rule of the Qing Dynasty and established a capitalist democratic republic. Therefore, the aggression of capitalism and imperialism objectively promoted China's political modernization.
The failure of the Opium War objectively preserved the awakening of national consciousness, but the defeat of China in the Sino-Japanese War did give the Japanese a sense of national crisis. Kang Liang and other Uighurs of the new school started an encouraging debate with the old school to promote western learning. The victory of the Revolution of 1911 made democracy and ideas deeply rooted in people's hearts, and formed the democratic concept that "those who dare to pretend to be imperial will be attacked by the world".
Looking back on modern China, I wonder whether the invasion of capitalist imperialism only brought suffering and disaster to China. No, it also brought modern civilization to China. In other words, the invasion of capitalist imperialism forced China to modernize at great sacrifice.