The Westernization Movement, also known as the self-improvement movement, was a national reform movement initiated by officials of the Westernization School of the Qing government in the 1960s and 1990s, with the slogan of "learning from foreigners and constantly striving for self-improvement", the aim of "striving for wealth" and the theoretical basis of "learning from the middle school as a teacher and using western learning". This movement started at the end of 186 1 (the tenth year of Xianfeng) and ended at 1895, which lasted about 35 years.

According to different goals, the Westernization Movement can be divided into two stages: the early stage and the late stage. After the British and French allied forces were defeated twice and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising, two camps of "Westernization School" and "Old School" were formed in the upper level of the Qing court, and the Westernization School played a game of honoring the prince in the central government. Represented by Li Hongzhang, Zeng Guofan, Zuo and Zhang Zhidong.

Extended data:

Westernization Movement was the first large-scale imitation/implementation of western-style industrialization in modern China. It is a top-down reform movement on the premise of maintaining feudal imperial power. After the18th century, the Westernization Movement introduced a large number of western scientific and technological achievements, introduced and translated a large number of western works and documents, trained the first batch of children studying abroad, and opened the door to western learning.

Drawing lessons from the modern enterprise system, a large number of industrial and chemical enterprises have been established, paving the way for China's industrial development and modernization in the future. As a direct result of the Westernization Movement, 1895- 1895 wiped out the Sino-Japanese War in Lu Haijun in the Qing Dynasty, which brought darkness to the Westernization Movement, dealt a heavy blow to all classes in the Qing Dynasty and laid the foundation. The following100th reform influenced China people to be born at the end of19th century.

After the failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Qing government signed the treaty of shimonoseki, recognized North Korea's independence, and ceded Taiwan Province Province, Penghu and Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, which aggravated the ruling crisis of the Qing government. Japan's first military victory over China in the history of China profoundly aroused the national consciousness of the Japanese people and had a far-reaching impact on the culture, ideology, political trend and national prosperity of the two countries.