Westernization movement, also known as self-improvement movement. It was a self-help movement by the Westernization School in the late Qing Dynasty from 1960s to 1990s, with the slogan of "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth", which introduced western military equipment, machine production and science and technology to save the rule of the Qing Dynasty.

The relationship between Wei Yuan and Westernization Movement is a connecting link between the preceding and the following, which made China begin to modernize. Wei Yuan's reform thought laid the ideological and theoretical foundation for the Westernization Movement. Wei Yuan put forward the viewpoint of "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" in the annals of the sea country. This theory broke through China's traditional and outdated thought, broke the feudal theory of "the ancestral system remains unchanged" and promoted people's ideological emancipation. This idea of learning from the west was absorbed and used for reference by the later Westernization School, which eventually constituted the Westernization Thought.

Westernization Movement is the embodiment of Wei Yuan Thought in practice. Wei Yuan proposed that China should support the construction of industrial bases and vigorously develop military industry. At the same time, it should learn advanced military science and technology from the west, learn from western guns and ships and become its own things, and then use these things to safeguard its independence and sovereignty.

After more than ten years, the Westernization Movement practiced the political ideas put forward by Wei Yuan. From 1865 to 1890, the directors of the Westernization School, such as Li Hongzhang, Zuo and Zhang Zhidong, successively established 2 1 arms manufacturing bureaus, such as Jiangnan General Manufacturing Bureau, Hubei Gun Depot, Shandong Machinery Bureau and Fuzhou Shipping Bureau, on the land of China, and also hired foreigners from the west as designers to manufacture various guns and weapons.

Influence on modern economy

In the process of establishing military industry in Westernization, the most difficult problems are capital, raw materials and transportation. After establishing military enterprises with the slogan of "self-improvement", the Westernization School began to establish private enterprises with the slogan of "seeking wealth", focusing on a series of cooperation with military enterprises in mining, smelting, shipping and railway. Under the advocacy of the Westernization School, many politicians who are proud of doing Westernization have profoundly shaken the concept of "emphasizing agriculture and restraining commerce" in Chinese civilization for thousands of years, promoted the development of economy and capitalism in modern China, and significantly increased the capitalist economic component in the social economy that attached importance to the emergence and development of enterprises and national capitalism in modern China. This is a great event.

Influence on modern politics

The feudalism and decay of the founders of the Westernization Movement led to the failure of the Westernization Movement. The failure of the Westernization Movement made other people of insight see the defects of the Westernization Movement and promoted the modernization process of China.