In our impression, it is almost useless to eliminate corruption and cowardice late. But many people don't know that it was a world power in the early Qing Dynasty. They had their own economic system, and the continuous stability of the small-scale peasant economy made the whole Qing Dynasty self-sufficient. At the beginning, the economy of the Qing dynasty was among the best in the world. Some experts once said, don't be cheated by the Qing government. So why does a big country with developed economy suddenly become poor? In fact, most of the original production resources are in the hands of the landlord class. Even if farmers have land, the grain they produce or the money they sell every year should be given to the landlords who own the land. It is this kind of operation that has seriously hit the enthusiasm of farmers and led to a serious economic downturn. In movies and TV series, we can almost see many boxers who claim to be invulnerable. It is such a group of humble people who fight with their own cold weapons and the hot weapons of the great powers. The Boxer Rebellion was originally a mysterious folk organization, and its original purpose was to fight against the Qing Dynasty and regain sight. Later, after the invasion of China by foreign powers, the Boxer Rebellion began to support the Qing Dynasty against foreign enemies.
Reasons for the decline in the late Qing Dynasty
So why did the Qing dynasty move from a world power to backwardness in a short time? Mainly self-righteous, decadent and incompetent, stupid and conservative, small-scale peasant economy, Bai Lianhua Uprising.
As we all know, before the late Qing dynasty closed its doors to the outside world, it was still a world power. Then why close the door? Because the Qing Dynasty at that time was too self-righteous, Qianlong once said, "China is rich in natural products and everything, and did not borrow foreign goods to exchange needed goods." This is the origin of the famous "vast territory and abundant resources". The rulers of the Qing dynasty thought that the Qing dynasty was rich in products and there was no need to exchange needed goods with other countries. Therefore, the closed-door Qing government is still dreaming a self-righteous dream like a frog in the well, which leads to the country staying in the primitive stage. Finally, other backward countries have developed, but the Qing government has been living in its own fantasy dream.
In addition to closing the door to the outside world, the Qing dynasty always focused on agriculture, which was underdeveloped at that time and could not meet the economic development. Because of the emphasis on agricultural development, other industries have made slow progress. Why didn't the Qing economy go up? Small-scale peasant economy existed for a long time in ancient China. At that time, people's habits of small-scale peasant economy inhibited the germination and development of capitalism. In the later period, under the condition of social productive forces, the upper class in the late Qing Dynasty spent a lot of money, and the children of the Banners were greedy for pleasure for a long time, and stopped their self-development, so that later, the countries were attacked, and the Qing Dynasty had no backhand force.
Everyone has seen the An Baili Uprising in textbooks. Why is Anbaili Uprising associated with the decline of Qing Dynasty? Didn't they win? That's right! Win is win, but at that time, in order to stop the An Baili uprising, they almost took out their own money. That uprising can be considered as the biggest in history. At that time, according to statistics, there were at least 400,000 peasants in the uprising. In order to stop the white lotus religion, the Qing government used the whole country's troops, and it is no exaggeration to say that the state treasury is empty. At that time, 200 million silver was invested in succession around the Qing Dynasty, which was one of the reasons for the decline of the Qing Dynasty.
Can't the million-strong army of the Qing Dynasty defeat 50,000 foreign powers?
The invasion of foreign powers at that time was also a struggle. Someone tipped off Britain before the invasion. At that time, the late Qing Dynasty was already in a state of great waste, so was its national strength. Then why should their million-strong army be played at the palm of their hands in front of 50 thousand foreign powers? In fact, there were millions of troops in the late Qing Dynasty, but after hundreds of years of peace, the army gradually despised daily training, which led to the low combat effectiveness of the millions of troops. And most of the soldiers in the army come from bandits and bandits. At that time, scholars disdained being soldiers. If people own land, they will not join the army easily. Only hooligans and bandits who have no worries about food and clothing are willing to be soldiers, let alone expect them to have a loyal ambition to serve the country. At that time, the military pay system was adopted. It can be said objectively that if you give me money, I will listen to you. But later, because of the Anbailian uprising, the national treasury was almost exhausted, and the economy at that time was always at the bottom. It is precisely because of these two points that many troops can't afford to pay wages.
One more thing, almost half of the million-strong army at that time were green camp and the children of the Eight Banners. You know, the children of the Eight Banners and green camp in the late Qing Dynasty have no fighting capacity. It is almost impossible to expect that half of the million-strong army is stationed all over the country. In fact, the Qing government at that time also issued orders to Yuan Shikai, Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong to resist foreign powers. At that time, Yuan Shikai made no movement, but refused in the name of fighting bandits. Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong also refused on the grounds of mutual protection between North and South. At that time, the Beijing garrison was under the command of the pro-government, and it didn't have much fighting capacity, but it all disappeared in the end.
Eight-Nation Alliance's unbridled invasion of China was entirely due to the domestic situation at that time. Coupled with the corruption and incompetence of Empress Dowager Cixi, it directly contributed to the demise of the Qing Dynasty.
Does Cixi really choose to submit to humiliation rather than resist?
Cixi is not unwilling to resist, but forced to do so. In fact, not all Cixi at that time were so annoying. Why do you say that? Because Cixi also wanted to declare war on the powers with the help of the Boxer Rebellion, and later agreed that the Boxer Rebellion would be stationed in Beijing, a large-scale Boxer Rebellion destroyed the idea that the powers would carve up China.
So there is a war in the north and an alliance in the southeast to protect themselves. Cixi also ordered Li Hongzhang, Yuan Shikai, Zhang Zhidong and others to resist foreign powers, but no one wanted to stand up. Until the end, the million-strong army of the Qing Dynasty was only 70,000 to 80,000.