Self-Strengthening Movement

1861-01-01 - 1895-12-31

The Self-Strengthening Movement, also known as the Westernization or Western Affairs Movement (c. 1861-1895), was a period of reforms initiated during the late Qing dynasty. It followed the military disasters of the Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion, which exposed weaknesses in Qing military and administrative systems. The reforms built arsenals, schools, munitions factories, shipping, telegraph lines, and railways, reviving the dynasty for another half-century. The movement's successes ended abruptly with China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895.