In the second half of the 19th century, capitalism developed rapidly, and scientific and technological progress triggered the second industrial revolution, which promoted the expansion of capitalism and the transformation to a monopoly stage. The United States, Germany, Britain, France and other advanced countries have risen, while Russia and Japan have caught up. The global trend is to change the old system and productive forces and develop capitalism. At the end of the 19th century, the major capitalist countries entered the stage of imperialism and began to invade and expand into the backward regions within the scope of the century. China has also been carved up by the great powers and is facing a serious crisis.
Against this historical background, the people represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, through Emperor Guangxu, advocated learning from the West, advocating science and culture, and launched a bourgeois reform movement to reform the political and educational systems and develop agriculture, industry, and commerce. However, this reform movement lasted only 100 days before it failed. The bourgeoisie's desire to save the country through moderate reforms eventually came to naught.
Against the backdrop of the times, it can be said that the reform was a doomed innovation.
In China at the end of the 19th century, despite social unrest, the intellectual and scholarly classes were very conservative in their attitude towards change. Although the reformers harbored the desire to save the country, they did far from doing enough in terms of ideological mobilization. They did not go deep into the grassroots and did not fully communicate with the general public, resulting in limited public understanding and support for the reform of the law.
At that time, there was a general tendency among the conservative Chinese people to attach too much importance to tradition and to reject the new.
The Restorationists' hope that foreigners would help China change the law contrasted sharply with the widespread xenophobia of the people, adding obstacles to the progressive movement to learn from the West. The vigorous 100-day Restoration did not bring any practical benefits to the common people, and none of the measures taken to change the law involved the land issue that the peasants were most concerned about, and some of the new policy measures even harmed the interests of the common people. Because the reformers failed to enlighten the people, it was difficult for the common people to understand the relationship between anti-imperialism and anti-aggression and learning from the West to save the country.
The reformers failed to make full use of the power of the people in pushing for reform, nor did they effectively control the development of opposition forces. They have not fully communicated with the general public, resulting in limited public understanding and support for the reform. At the same time, the reformers did not build up their own mass base and did not form a broad united front to support the reform. This puts them at a disadvantage in the fight against opposition forces.
In the process of reforming the law, the opposition continued to grow and exert tremendous pressure on the reformers. The reformers did not take effective measures to curb the opposition, nor did they enlist the support of enough centrist forces. This puts them in a gradual disadvantage in the fight against the opposition.
At that time, the Qing ** had a very conservative attitude towards the reform of the law, and lacked a clear reform plan and action. ** Hesitant and slow to act in the process of changing the law, and even obstructing and suppressing some of the reform measures of the reformers.
While the attitude of the Qing Dynasty wavered and the opposition became increasingly powerful, the reformers did not have their own armed forces to maintain and ensure the implementation of the new policy, which eventually led to the failure of the reform.
* The failure of economic policy was also one of the main reasons for the eventual failure of the reform movement. Although the economic policies of the time helped to maintain social stability, they also led to massive unemployment and economic recession. This has led many people to blame the ** and become dissatisfied with those in power.
Under the combined influence of many unfavorable conditions, this short-lived "100-day Restoration" was finally like a flash in the pan, and after blooming a little light in the history of the late Qing Dynasty, it quickly returned to bleakness. However, it also promoted the emancipation of the social mind at that time, and played an important role in promoting the development of ideology and culture and promoting the progress of modern Chinese society.