However, the rulers of the Qing dynasty still didn't realize that the Qing dynasty had fallen behind the west. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty only regarded the Opium War as a "partial defeat", and earning a foreign trade surplus was like setting up thirteen banks in Guangzhou. At this time, the Qing government still didn't wake up from the dream of having children in the United States, thinking that the victory of barbarians was nothing more than relying on "strange skills and cunning."
Although some people of insight in China saw the changes in the world and wrote many times to learn advanced western culture, the ruling class in the Qing Dynasty was decadent and numb. They don't want to change, they are addicted to the dream of going to the country and the United States all day, and they despise Britain extremely.
After the opening of Sino-British trading ports, Britain did not achieve the expected results, because although the Qing Dynasty had lagged behind the West, its GDP still ranked first in the world. Sino-British trade in the Qing dynasty maintained a trade surplus, but the Qing dynasty earned a lot of British silver through silk and tea. The British government thought that there were too few trading ports and Britain got too few rights and interests, so it joined forces with France to launch the anti-Qing war again, which was called the Second Opium War in history.
Speaking of the Second Opium War, I have to mention the Battle of Baliqiao. In the Battle of Baliqiao, 25,000 Qing troops fought against 8,000 British and French troops. As a result, the British and French Coalition forces only sacrificed 2 people and injured 29 people, while the Qing army sacrificed tens of thousands of people and the wounded were countless. In this World War I, the last elite of the Qing Dynasty was completely annihilated. Emperor Xianfeng fled hastily and Beijing fell. Angry British and French allied forces looted Beijing and burned Yuanmingyuan. Emperor Xianfeng soon died in embarrassment.
The fiasco of the Second Opium War made the Qing government lose face, and the dream of the country and the United States in China was finally awakened. Some people of insight in the Qing government demanded reform and learned advanced western technology, but they were still resisted by some old-fashioned die-hards. They thought that the law of ancestors could not be changed. In the end, the Westernization School had to compromise and put forward that "middle school should be the mainstay and western learning should be used", which means that under the existing system and system, only western technology should be learned without reform.
The Westernization Movement was not strongly supported by the Qing government. Empress Dowager Cixi still holds a wait-and-see attitude, relying on the enthusiasm of local officials. The Westernization Movement was represented by Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and Zuo. The Westernization Movement introduced western advanced technology, founded a large number of new products in the new era, such as ships, railways, telegrams, mining, textiles, armaments and new schools, and sent a large number of international students to study in Europe and America. A series of measures of the Westernization Movement were indeed. However, the Westernization Movement was severely resisted by 10,000 conservative groups, resulting in the Westernization Movement being run only by the government, and private capital was not allowed to enter. In addition, bureaucracy is serious, production relations are rigid and corruption is serious. The most important thing is that the Westernization Movement can't break the backward feudal social relations of production at all, because the capitalist way of life must have a corresponding social system, without which social productive forces can't be liberated at all. The Westernization Movement only adopted the advanced technology of the West, and did not change the productive forces.
Therefore, the Manchu rulers were arrogant and stubborn from beginning to end, unwilling to learn advanced western technology and accept advanced civilization, while the Westernization Movement only wanted to upgrade its weapons and equipment to protect itself, not to strengthen itself.