Lesson 4: The Foreign Affairs Movement

The Rise of the Foreign Affairs Movement

After the Second Opium War, some enlightened officials within the ruling group of the Qing Dynasty advocated the use of advanced Western technology to strengthen the army and enrich the country and maintain the rule of the Qing Dynasty. These officials were called the "foreign affairs faction". The foreign affairs faction was represented by Prince Gong Yixin in the central government and by Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, Zhang Zhidong and others in the local government. From the 1860s to the mid-1990s, they started a foreign affairs movement aimed at "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth".

Establishment of Modern Military and Civilian Enterprises

From the 1860s onward, the foreign affairs faction developed modern military industries under the slogan of "self-improvement" and founded a number of modern military industries, such as the Anqing Inner Armament Institute, the Jiangnan General Bureau of Manufacturing and the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau. In order to meet the needs of foreign affairs, the foreign affairs faction also set up new schools to train translators and military personnel, set up translation libraries to translate foreign scientific and technological books, and sent foreign students to study abroad.

From the 1870s onward, while continuing to develop military industry, the foreign affairs faction put forward the idea of "seeking wealth" and started some modern civil enterprises to supplement the military industry. Some of the more important ones were the Ship Merchants Bureau, Kaiping Coal Mine, Hanyang Iron Works, Hubei Weaving Works, etc.

Establishing a new type of navy and army

From the 1860s, the foreign affairs faction began to set up new-style foreign gun teams, eliminating traditional weapons and adopting Western-style soldier training, so that the weapons and tactics of the Qing army gradually changed.

From the 1870s, the foreign affairs faction began to carry out large-scale modern naval defense construction and prepare for the construction of a new type of navy. In 1885, the Qing government established the Navy Yamen to coordinate the command.

The foreign affairs movement is the first modernization movement in Chinese history. After more than 30 years of construction, China's modernized military industry, civilian enterprises and transportation industry gradually developed, which objectively promoted the emergence of Chinese national capitalism and played a role in resisting the invasion of foreign capital, but because the fundamental purpose of the foreign affairs movement was to maintain and consolidate the rule of the Qing government, coupled with its internal corruption and the squeeze of foreign powers, it did not put China on the road to wealth and power. The foreign affairs movement, however, did not put China on the road to wealth and power because its fundamental purpose was to maintain and consolidate the Qing government.（458words）