Speaking of Qing Dynasty , many people were full of criticism because the later period of this dynasty brought serious disasters to the country, causing China to be beaten by the world for more than a hundred consecutive years. But is this really the case?
In fact, I want to say that this is true, but the demise of the Qing Dynasty did not slide into the abyss step by step because of what people often say about corruption, incompetence and cowardice. Many people even often use Han Dynasty to make fun of the Qing Dynasty. For example, the Han Dynasty's "Those who offend me China will be punished even if they are far away" was changed by netizens to "Those who offend me Qing will be compensated even if they are far away." It is simply because the Qing Dynasty failed every foreign war, and then either ceded land or compensated. What exactly caused
? . Kangxi and Qianlong prosperous times . It didn’t take long for me to become a cede land compensation everywhere?
If you trace it back, you will find that the culprit is a series of consequences caused by the Qing Dynasty being too proud and confident, especially Emperor Qianlong.
During the Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty made China's territory reach an unprecedented vastness in history after various wars, surpassing all dynasties. Outer Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan, and Northeast China were truly under the direct jurisdiction of the central government for the first time during the Qing Dynasty. This was also the most important contribution made by the Qing Dynasty to the territory of modern China. No matter when the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, the Han people made such outrageous bad behaviors as "Ten Days of Yangzhou" and "Three Massacres of Jiading", we must also admit that the Manchus at this moment did make outstanding contributions to the Chinese territory. Sometimes I wonder that such a Manchu who was closed to the country would have such powerful means to deal with the issue of ethnic minorities in the frontier. You should know that for the past two thousand years, the Qing Dynasty had never really conquered such a comprehensive surrounding ethnic group, and the rule of the Qing Dynasty was stable. Even though the Han and Tang dynasties had ruled a small part of the border areas, they were extremely unstable and only had a short-term rule. The court and the frontier always fought each other like Tai Chi. The Qing Dynasty became a semi-colonial until the later period. Even when Empress Dowager Cixi fled to Xi'an, the five southern provinces gradually broke away from central control. They had signed non-aggression treaties with the West, and they wanted warlords to separatist. But even so, the vast areas on the border were safe and sound and loyal to the court. This is quite interesting phenomenon and worthy of in-depth research. It should be put into the previous dynasties. At this moment, the central government was weak and the border areas were already in chaos. I don’t know what magic the Manchus used to make the border areas surrender forever. The court was beaten like this. When Japan invaded Taiwan, the Taiwanese people actually followed the Qing Dynasty to the death.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 There is another more important point. The letters written by the Queen of England at this moment hoped that the two countries could conduct modern cooperation and trade, but were rejected by Qianlong. Qianlong also wrote a reply to the Queen, saying that the Qing Dynasty was a country with rich resources and did not need to deal with foreign countries. What Qianlong didn't know was that at this moment, Britain had just entered the industrial revolution and immediately became a modern power.
until Humen dispelled . The Qing Dynasty has always been very strong and does not take foreigners seriously. After the Opium War , the Qing Dynasty was still very strong in treating the West. From the removal of all positions of the royal imperial envoy who signed a shameful treaty with Britain and was imprisoned and questioned, it can be seen that the emperor felt that face was the most important, and the imperial decree used the word "pension" to foreigners rather than compensation. It can be seen that the Qing Dynasty was not as cowardly as people thought. This dynasty just did not see clearly that the world pattern was about to change greatly, and missed the best time for progress.
But it's not too late to say that. The Qing Dynasty was awakened after the Opium War and finally realized that it was not the center of the world. It turned out that the country's strength was expressed by technology.So the Qing Dynasty established the first real navy in Chinese history and spent a lot of money to purchase a large number of modern warships such as Dingyuan and Zhenyuan from the West.
What is Japan doing at this moment? Japan has just begun the Meiji Restoration , which has been reformed almost simultaneously with the Qing Dynasty. However, the result was that the Qing Dynasty had paid 230 million taels of silver and 450 million taels of silver in just a few years. These astronomical numbers look so terrifying, but yes, this is the fact, not filming. . .
When the Korean civil war broke out, although the Eight Banners soldiers of the Qing Empire were degenerate and lost their combat capabilities, they were no longer the mighty knights who rode their horses on the battlefield when they first entered the pass. They had become social parasites and could do nothing. They only knew how to smoke big smoke and walk birds to drink tea. But the court still issued an order to move a group of Han soldiers to North Korea to quell the civil strife. At this moment, Japan also increased its troops in North Korea. The Qing Dynasty had a premonition that there would be a war between China and Japan, and the Qing Dynasty was continuing to increase its troops. It can be seen that the Qing Dynasty was not a corrupt person.
Why did Japan, a small country, dare to provoke the Qing Dynasty?
It turned out that after the Qing Dynasty purchased large Western warships, it showed off its power everywhere, often driving directly into Japanese ports, and stipulated that soldiers could go ashore to visit. The Japanese were jealous when they saw such a large warship, but they couldn't afford it. They just bought some warships slightly smaller than the Qing Dynasty to chase the Qing Dynasty. The two sides formed an arms race. Whenever the Qing Dynasty purchased an warship, , Japan would soon purchase a warship of the same level.
At this time, someone may ask, why can the Qing Dynasty warships enter and exit Japanese ports at will?
It turns out that the West and Japan also signed an unequal treaty. According to this treaty, Beiyang Navy ranked first in Asia and eighth in the world. The Qing Dynasty entered the ranks of so-called great powers and could enter Japanese ports at will.
But finally one day, the hatred in the hearts of the Japanese people was aroused. When the Beiyang Navy officers and soldiers were on the shore, an incident suddenly occurred. Eighty Beiyang soldiers were killed by the Japanese people. The court was furious and immediately signed a treaty with Japan. As a result, Japan compensated all the victims for a large amount of pensions, and the Qing Dynasty paid a small part of the pensions, and all the treatment costs of the injured were compensated by Japan.
This treaty is the only equal treaty signed by the Qing Dynasty with foreign countries. It is called the first diplomatic victory of the Qing Dynasty by the West.
But the good times didn't last long, and the next thing was miserable.
Since the navy is a very expensive military, the Qing Dynasty has begun to experience a fiscal deficit, so it does not want to continue to invest money to update the warships. Because the technology at that time had developed rapidly for the first time in human history, the Beiyang Navy's warships had lagged much behind the West in just a few years. At this time, the West had already seen warships with smaller power but very fast firing speeds. The Qing Dynasty felt that the Beiyang Navy was enough for national defense, and many surrounding countries did not even have the navy. The Qing Dynasty was already very satisfied, but what the court didn't know was that it was targeted by Japan at this moment.
Japan also has no money to buy it, but Japan is panicked because it is an island country and a small place. It has to take the path of external expansion to feel safe. Japan's plan to buy more advanced warships was rejected by the parliament many times. At this time, the emperor spoke out and wanted to take out his private property to support the purchase of warships. Under pressure, the parliament had to agree to the finances to purchase rapid-fire ships.
Some people say that Empress Dowager Cixi misappropriated military spending, which led to the Beiyang Navy's ultimately annihilated army.
In fact, Cixi planned to retire and tried to let Guangxu try to rule. After retirement, she had to live in Summer Palace , so she had to build the Summer Palace. However, the court could not provide the money, so the Ministry of Revenue asked the finances of various provinces to take out some money as filial piety money to build the Summer Palace for Cixi.
If this money was used in Beiyang, there would never be a tragedy later, but this money did build a garden. From today's perspective, Cixi is indeed too corrupt. Why don't she use this money to support national defense? But if she didn't build the Summer Palace, Beiyang would still not be able to get this money because this money does not belong to the central government.However, the court decided not to support the navy's strategy of purchasing new warships, and Cixi must have nodded.
It was not until one day that Japanese Joint Fleet tracked Beiyang Fleet for an hour, and the Beiyang Fleet also discovered the Japanese Joint Fleet, but it was an hour late. Japan had already arranged and deployed combat missions. The two sides launched the first steam-powered modern ironclad high-tech war in human history in Dadonggou, Huanghai, and it is also the largest steam-powered naval war in the world - Sino-Japanese War in No. 1895.
What causes Japan to discover the Beiyang Fleet for an hour first? Due to space reasons, we will talk about it next issue.
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