1. The Westernization School tried to use some advantages of western capitalism to maintain feudal autocracy without touching the decadent feudal system. The contradiction between this means and the foundation makes the Westernization Movement doomed to be impossible. At the same time, the Westernization Movement was obstructed and destroyed by die-hards all over the country, which increased the resistance to the development of the Westernization Movement.
2. The class limitation of Westernization School itself determines that it is not only the founder and operator of modern industry, but also its destroyer and destroyer. Their feudal yamen and bureaucratic system will inevitably lead to the failure of westernization enterprises.
One of the purposes of Westernization Movement is to resist foreign aggression. However, when conducting diplomatic activities, the Westernization School insisted on "harmony but difference" and surrendered to foreign countries. The modern enterprises they founded have the function of resisting foreign aggression and benefiting people, but they can't change the semi-colonial and semi-feudal social status of China.
4. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the goals of "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth" advertised by the Westernization School failed to be realized, and the Westernization Movement basically failed. The Westernization School advocated that middle school should be the body and western learning should be used. It hoped to maintain feudal rule with advanced technology, and the reform would not touch the feudal system. Because the reform only absorbs advanced western technology and does not learn advanced western systems, it is bound to fail.
The influence of Westernization Movement
1, its influence on modern military affairs
The Westernization School unanimously advocated learning from foreigners in order to enrich Qiang Bing, resist foreign aggression and save the national crisis. The Westernization Movement began with military self-improvement. In order to achieve military self-improvement, the Westernization School mainly focuses on three aspects: first, establishing a modern military industry; The second is to establish a modern coastal defense navy and improve the weapons, equipment and training of the army; The third is to establish a modern military academy and cultivate new talents in Lu Haijun. Under the auspices of Li Hongzhang and others, a large number of large-scale modern military industries came out one after another.
The naval yamen, established in 1885, is in charge of the navy and coastal defense, which promotes the modernization of the navy and national defense. The improvement of the fighting capacity of the Qing army and its resistance to foreign aggression delayed the historical process of China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The military self-improvement of the Westernization Movement enabled China's army to invest in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression with modern new weapons and equipment. It started the modernization process of China's army.
2. Impact on modern economy.
In the process of establishing military industry by Westernization Movement, the most difficult problems are capital, raw materials and transportation. Therefore, after the slogan of "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth", the Westernization Movement began to set up civilian enterprises, focusing on developing a series of supporting military projects such as mining, smelting, shipping and railways.
Under the advocacy of Westernization School, many dignitaries were proud of setting up Westernization, which profoundly shook the concept of "attaching importance to agriculture and neglecting commerce" in China's thousands of years of civilization since Shang Yang's political reform, promoted the development of China's modern economy and capitalism, and significantly increased the capitalist economic components in the social economy, which was of great significance to the birth and development of modern enterprises and national capitalism in China.