In modern Chinese society, there have been many great powers, and China was originally a piece of fat for these powers, and almost all the European and American countries that came to China and wanted a share of the pie took advantage, because China was really too weak, its national strength was poor, its system was backward, and its people were poor.
However, not every great power that comes to China to invade is powerful, among which there are many fake powers that fish in muddy waters, and the fake powers have come to China's territory to spread wilderness through the fox and tiger power of the real powers, but China is not a soft persimmon that any country can hold, so as to bully.
Italy, as a romantic country of art, once had a good time in Europe, who did not know the Venice of Italy, who did not know the Marco Polo of Italy, but in modern Times Italy did not have as strong a national strength as Britain, France and virtue, and the economy was average, even less than some so-called backward countries.
In any case, Italy can also catch the shuttle of the modern industrial revolution, although the development has always been unsatisfactory, but at least it can swing to scare and frighten people. The Italians' fighting power has been hacked many times because they are indeed weaker in many wars.
For example, in World War II, some people say that if only Germany itself, perhaps the war will drag on longer, it is precisely because Hitler and Mussolini are allied, Germany is dragged down by Italy's negative combat effectiveness of a hundred, every time Mussolini comes to ask Hitler to send troops to help, Germany will suffer some losses.
In fact, the reason for Italy's weak combat effectiveness is nothing more than that domestic politics is unpopular, and the people's life is also quite difficult, so there is anti-war sentiment, and the national character of the Italians is also not fond of war, but the most important thing is that Italy's economy is relatively backward in Europe.
The war against Ethiopia was a terrible failure, the conditions in Ethiopia were not necessarily much better than China's, some people joked that the Ethiopian tribes could stab the Wooden Plane of the Italians with their spears, and a battle was fought, and the Wooden Plane's fuselage was full of spears and arrows, and Italy lost it.
Chinese who are familiar with China's modern history know that Italy was one of the great powers that the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China in that year, and in addition to entering the capital to rob many cultural relics and do a lot of burning and killing, they also brought back a large amount of bills paid by China to Italy.
In the Reparations of Gengzi, Italy received 26.6 million taels of silver, which was a fairly cost-effective deal for the 85-man army they sent, spread over everyone's head, and each of the Italian armies earned more than 300,000 taels of silver for the country (one or two silver at the end of the Qing Dynasty was converted to the current yuan, about one or two in about three hundred).
Of course, Italy did not have much honor in getting this money, if it were not for the face of Britain, France and Germany in the coalition army, Italy itself would not have received a penny, thanks to several powerful bosses.
Why do you say that, in fact, there are facts to speak of. At the end of the 19th century, the Qing government reached the point where even Japan could bully it, and Italy looked at it and wanted to come and step in, but this time it was very humiliating.
In February 1899, Italy followed the example of other countries and sent three warships to the Qing government to request Sanmen Bay in Zhejiang province as a concession, in order to pass on its domestic pressure. At that time, China, which was suppressed by the great powers, was already moving toward reform, and the Beiyang Marine Division had already changed its shotgun for artillery.
At that time, the Beiyang Marine Division already had 5 heavy tonnage cruisers ordered from abroad, and the cruisers were also equipped with "two main guns of 203 mm, up to 10 secondary guns of 120 mm, and 16 small-caliber guns of 37 and 47 mm." At that time, China still had a certain understanding of Italy's strength and was very confident in the Qing government to start a war with Italy.
Even Empress Dowager Cixi, who fled at the sight of the Eight-Nation Alliance, also looked down on Italy, and even did not hesitate to go to war with Italy immediately, originally Italy threatened the Qing government not to hand over Sanmen Bay on the 4th to shell, and the result became that the Qing government could not wait to test the cattle knife and take Italy as a test product.
Italy's final performance actually disappointed the Qing government a little, withdrew the ultimatum and changed to disguised to ask other countries for reinforcements to put pressure on China, and at the same time sent more warships, but did not scare Lafayette, once it saw that China was so tough, Italy actually retreated after spending half a year.
Of course, Italy was also quite aware of its own strength later, and only by hiding behind a few powerful big brothers could it have a meal to eat, so it made a share during the invasion of China by the Eight-Power Alliance, and as a result, it got a big bargain of Gengzi's reparations, and also got the only concession in Tianjin.
Later, we all know that Gengzi's indemnity money flowed back to China in the form of education and charity, cultivated many advanced talents for modern China, and developed a lot of technology, indirectly accelerating the demise of the Qing Dynasty and the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution.
[References: "Gengzi Reparations", "Sanmen Bay Incident"]