Christian Alliance SC Chan Memorial College

Form 4 History

Why did the reform movements in China fail (1860-1911) and what were the consequences?

Copyright@Chau Shuk-lan (F.4)

There were three reform movements between 1860-1911. They were the Self-strengthening Movement, Hundred Days? Reform and Late Qing reform. They all aimed at strengthening China. However, all of them ended in failure for some reasons. Now we look into the reasons of their failure.

There were mainly six reasons: Empress Dowager Cixi's role, the opposition from conservatives, lack of careful planning, lack of capital, corruption and the rising popularity of revolutionary movement.

First, Cixi was the biggest obstacle in carrying out the reforms. Her opposition was the most important reason for the failure of the reforms. The Qing government was controlled in her hands. From the beginning, she was blind at modernization. In Self-strengthening Movement, she did not give any support to the reformers. The only thing she cared was her power in the Qing government. This attitude continued to the Hundred Days Reform. The coup d'etat took place and even increased her negative feeling towards the reform. It also enhanced her anti-foreign feeling. Even during the Late Qing Reform, she was not sincere. She was more concerned about her rule, not the strengthening of China. As she never gave her full heart to the reform, the reform movements could not succeed at last.

The second reason for the failure was the opposition from conservatives. They included civil officials, scholars and uneducated peasants who opposed the reforms. Like Cixi, the civil officials were afraid that they would lose their power when the reforms brought new system and policies . Moreover, most of them were loyal to Cixi and followed her attitude towards the reform. They thought that China did not need to carry out western reforms but upheld the confucian tradition. Besides, the scholars did not like the idea of changing or abolishing the Civil Service Examination. They had spent a life time to study the Confucian classics to take part in the Civil Service Examination. If the syllabus was changed, they would lose their chance to become officials or have to start over again. Even the uneducated peasants did not welcome foreign things since they suffered much from foreign encroachment. The opposition from different sectors of the society made the reform fail.

The lack of careful planning was another reason for the failure of the reform movements. In the Self-strengthening Movement, the reformer misunderstood the western ideas. They over-emphasized the military reform and ignored the basis of the power. Therefore, they failed to make a careful planning. In the Hundred Days? Reform, the reformers were rather progressive. They did so many things in a short time. The government officials were reluctant to carry out the new policies. The Late Qing Reform also got the same problem. The setting up of the Provincial Assembly was a careless move as it became the organ of government opposition. As a result, the reforms ended in failure.

Insufficient capital was a also background reason. In the period of 1860-1911, China's economy was not well developed. The penetration of the foreign goods worsened the situation. Therefore, the resources were limited. To make a problem worsen these limited resources were pocketed by the corrupt officials and to foreign countries as indemnity. Without enough resources, the three reform movements failed at last.

Another reason for the failure of the reform movements was corruption. Corruption was a very serious problem in the Late Qing period. It ruined the administrative system. The corrupt officials pocketed many funds that were used to carry out the reform or relieve people's grievances. They refused to carry out administrative reforms which would cut off their source of income.

The reform movements failed because of the popularity of the revolutionary movement. It became more popular after 1895. With Chinese defeats in wars, more and more people lost their faith in the Qing government and began to join the revolutionary movement particularly the overseas students. They believed that the only solution to strengthen China was to overthrow the Qing. The government could not carry out reforms well and caused more hardship to Chinese people. They encouraged more and more people to become revolutionaries. The constitutional reform after 1905 disappointed the gentry class as the Qing government delayed the opening of the parliament and instead formed the Royal Cabinet at last. They became more sympathetic to the revolutionary movement.

The above are the reasons for the failure of reform movements. The failure of reform hastened the downfall of Qing Dynasty. Now it seemed that revolution was the only solution to save China. In 1911, the Double Tenth Revolution broke out. A new generation began.

The reform movements ended in failure. They brought out some consequences that had a far-reaching effect. We can classify the results into positive ones and negative ones.

The positive consequence was that the reform helped China to be modernized. Although the three reforms all resulted in failure, they gave the chance to Chinese people to contact western ideas. Before the reform movements, China was not a modern country comparing to the western nations. People were conservative and practised some policies that were out-dated. The whole country began to change since the reform carried out. Although the modernization of China was very limited, the reform marked the beginning. The Hundred Days? Reform was a clear example. The progressive reforms helped modernize the government. Therefore one of the consequences brought out by the reform was the modernization of China in various aspects.

There were three negative consequences to the Qing government. They were the ill feeling between Manzhus and Chinese, rise of revolutionaries movements and the downfall of Qing Dynasty.

First, the growing ill feeling between Manzhus and Chinese was one of the consequences. Chinese officials were in charge of both Self-strengthening Movement and Hundred Days? Reform. The Manzhus believed that Chinese caused all troubles and tried to increase their power. In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the government attempted to centralize power again. This alienated the Chinese who at last turned against the Manzhus in 1911.

The rise of revolutionary movement was an important consequence. Most of the people believed that that reform was the solution to strengthen China. However, reform failed and people lost their faith in the Qing government. A great number of people believed that as long as the Manzhus were holding the control of the government, China would not be strong. It seemed that a revolution was necessary. More people such as the liberal minded students and military officers turned to the side of revolutionaries. So the revolutionary movement grew.

Lastly, it led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty indirectly. I have mentioned above that revolution seemed to be the solution to strengthen China after the reform failed. Many people including the conservative Constitutionalists lost their faith in the Qing government. They became more sympathetic to revolution. At last the Qing government fell in 1911 as even Yuan Shikai turned to the side of the revolutionaries.

In sum, the three reforms failed to turn China to a strong country like Japan duw to a number of reasons. The failure of these reforms contributed to the downfall of the Qing Dyansty in 1911 as many Chinese people no longer supported the Manzhus.