"Learn from foreigners to control foreigners"

The Westernization Movement was actually a self-help movement and a self-improvement movement in the late Qing Dynasty. It was a self-help movement carried out by the Westernization School in the late Qing Dynasty in 19, 60-90 to safeguard the rule of the Qing Dynasty and introduce western military equipment, machine production and science and technology. The slogan of the Westernization Movement was "self-improvement" in the early stage and "seeking wealth" in the later stage. After the failure of the two Opium Wars and the blow of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, some bureaucrats in the Qing Dynasty began to realize the power of the West. Although the Westernization Movement for more than 30 years did not make China rich and strong, the Westernization Movement introduced advanced western science and technology, which led to the emergence of the first batch of modern enterprises in China and objectively promoted the emergence and development of Chinese national capitalism.

Westernization school:

In the Westernization Movement, the central representative of the Westernization School is Prince Gong, and the local representatives are Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Zeng Guofan, Zuo and other Hunan-Huai groups, as well as Chonghou, Shen Baozhen, Liu Kunyi, Tang and Zhang Jian. They advocate learning from western sounds, light, electricity, culture, ships, trains, machines, guns, newspapers and schools, under the banner of "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth". People think that if China wants to be rich and strong, it must learn from the natural science and even social politics of the western bourgeoisie. Therefore, we advocate the development of "western learning", the promotion of "westernization", the establishment of military factories, the production of new weapons, and the establishment of a new army in order to achieve the goal of "self-improvement."

In order to solve the problems of raw materials, capital and transportation of military industry, and then vigorously set up civil industry, mining industry and transportation industry, in order to achieve the purpose of seeking wealth and resisting foreign capitalist aggression and expansion.