Essay On Self Strengtheners

Initially, the self-strengtheners had goals that wanted to reform the country 's military by incorporating western techniques within. The self-strengtheners were the Chinese commanders of the armies during the Taiping rebellion, which prior to this was not an ability the Manchu military leaders willing to give up. However, due to the Rebellions of the 19th century, the Manchus had no other choice but to grant these military leadership powers to the select few. These Chinese military leaderswere able to make their own armies and charge taxes to fund these armies. Funding from taxes were used to modernize their military through arsenals. These Chinese armies were not used effectively and that point is proven by Japan 's attack in the late 19th century. The goals of these Chinese …show more content…
Diplomatic missions were sent out for the first time. The first of the diplomatic envoys was Guo Songtao in 1877, who saw much of the British industrial heartland and wrote letters about it. In one such letter, Guo writes to Li Hongzhang, a self-strengthener, about Britain 's Great Leap Forward: from the beginning of England 's rise, it has been only several decades; while China was weak and declining, they covered a distance of 70,000 li in a wink of an eye ... Chinese Scholars and officials are presumptuous in their sanctuary and are trying to obstruct the changes of the universe; they can never succeed (Dorothy Ko quoted in Schoppa, 92)
This was a reaction by Guo against the conservatives as they were actively trying to go against modernization. However, Guo was not well received by the Qing court and had to retire for fear of his life but his mission to Britain allowed for more Chinese missions by 1879 (Schoppa). Although diplomacy reforms had some effect they were still downplayed by the ultraconservative