After the Opium War, if the Qing government carried out political reforms, could it become a powerful country?

1840 The Opium War opened the curtain of China's century-old humiliating history. Britain and France made people of insight in the Qing Dynasty realize that China is no longer a kingdom, and the advanced science and technology in the West has already gone ahead of us. The broadsword and spear in the hands of Qing soldiers are just a joke in front of the flintlock array of Britain and France.

If the Qing government was keenly aware of the seriousness of the problem, made great efforts to learn from the West and carried out political reforms, it could have become a powerful country at that time.

1840, the political reform was much less obstructed by external interference. First of all, let's see what the great powers were doing at that time. During the twenty years from 1840 to 1860, only Britain and France were able to invade and interfere in China by force. The essence of capitalism in Britain and France is to import industrial products from China and expand the commodity sales market, and does not want to destroy or cede territory. For example, the Qing government launched an all-round founding of the country to attract investment, sent a delegation of enlightened officials to study and inspect the West, carried out top-down capitalist reform in China, and established model enterprises, which were supported by the government. I believe Britain and France would like to see it come true.

At that time, Germany and Italy were not yet unified, and Russia was still a capitalist serfdom country, focusing on the west and fighting Ottoman Turkey. The North and the South of the United States are caught in a bitter battle over slavery, and civil war breaks out at any time, except China. Japan was also the master of the closed-door Tokugawa shogunate, but it was a small country at that time and was insignificant.

In the absence of external interference, the dual political model of monarch and parliament is implemented, and the power of the emperor is safeguarded to the maximum extent while decentralization is carried out. This top-down capitalist political model compromises the rights and interests of the royal family and the people, which can not only win the support of the people who have no rights before, but also be stopped by the overwhelming pressure of the royal family. Although not as good as democracy and constitutional monarchy, it is suitable for the transition from feudal monarchy to capitalist democracy. Germany is backward,

Militarily, on the premise of not abolishing the Eight Banners green camp, we should form a new army and a military academy, and conduct comprehensive and formal military training in steps, guns, riding, engineering, posture and navy. At that time, the western military was still in the battle mode of queuing shooting, and the gap between the east and the west was not big, so it was not difficult to catch up. By the time of the Westernization Movement, the western military industry had reached the point of installing injection guns, and its technical level had fallen behind.

Based on the idea of learning from foreigners to control foreigners, we bought warships from Britain, gradually established state-owned steel, military and shipbuilding enterprises in China, sent overseas students and hired foreign instructors to form a modern navy. With modern Lu Haijun, we can suppress domestic rebellions and peasant uprisings and escort them during the political reform. Both Daoguang and Emperor Xianfeng can shout, "What are you afraid of? There are soldiers. "

Culturally, new schools should be set up to study the Four Books and Five Classics, and at the same time, western natural sciences should be added to enrich the examination items of the imperial examination system, so as to avoid the sudden abolition of the imperial examination and the loss of the support of traditional scholars, leading to the dating of talents. Wei Yuan can write "The Map of the Sea and the Country", which shows that China intellectuals have access to certain western knowledge. After the founding of New China, more western missionaries and intellectuals will enter our country, and the Qing government can also send overseas students for further study. During the Meiji Restoration, Japan sent a large number of overseas students.

After the rationalization of economic, political, military and cultural reforms, the Qing government could be thoroughly remoulded, and not only could it get rid of the tragic fate of being trampled on by others in modern times, but China, with a population of 400 million at that time, might become the first power in Asia and even the world. China has been short of talents. If the Qing government is determined to reform the country, China will be stubborn in another 20 or 30 years, and there will be no subsequent Sino-Japanese War and Eight-Nation Alliance invasion.

But if it's a if after all, if it's a if after all, the selfishness and short-sightedness of the Qing government made China lose its blockbuster opportunity and their own wealth. Fortunately, the people of China are thriving and national rejuvenation is just around the corner. Long live China!