When it comes to the history of the development of the Qing Dynasty, it is most appropriate to describe it with the four words of "from prosperity to decline". In the early stage, the foundation was laid by the prosperity of Kangqian, but in the late stage, not only was it invaded by Western powers, but Cixi's excessive extravagance also made the people at the bottom miserable, and many people did not have enough to eat. In such a situation of internal and external troubles, the Great Qing perished.
So, did the Qing Dynasty really perish because of backward weapons? In fact, when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, the Qing army arsenal was opened by them, and the scene inside made the coalition forces look dumbfounded, and they couldn't help but wonder in their hearts: Was it the Qing army that was releasing water before? Obviously, there are so many advanced weapons, why don't you take them out and fight them? In fact, the number of weapons in the arsenal is huge, and there are several advanced weapons with first-class combat effectiveness, which are actually lying in the warehouse and have no trace of use.
The first is the Krupp cannon. After witnessing the German army defeat the French army with this cannon, Li Hongzhang admired this weapon very much, and when he visited Germany, he negotiated with many parties and finally purchased more than 300 cannons. Moreover, he also selected several outstanding young people to go to Germany for military training related to artillery. It can be said that Li Hongzhang has great hopes for the Krupp cannon. Unfortunately, after being shipped back home, the number of times it was used was countless.
The second is the Maxim heavy machine gun. This firearm, the world's first machine gun that can continuously shoot at high speed, is more suitable for Army combat than previous guns that required manual reloading. In one battle, with these four heavy machine guns alone, the British army of more than fifty men beat the more than 5,000 McTabilies on the opposite side and fled. Before this heavy machine gun was officially sent to the battlefield, the Qing government introduced a small part of it for imitation, but in 1893, because of ammunition problems, it stopped manufacturing.
The third weapon is the Norden Fly multi-barrel arrangement machine gun. In fact, it is essentially a machine gun, but from the appearance, it has many barrels arranged in parallel, and the strike fire is very fierce. This firearm was also imported from foreign countries and began to produce large-scale imitations. In the Qing government's war with France in 1883, this machine gun came in handy, repelling many French troops.
However, obviously we have so many advanced weapons, why did the Qing Dynasty eventually collapse? Although the Qing army had excellent equipment, it was not proficient in use, and it was inferior to the well-trained Western powers on the battlefield, which was the first reason; under Cixi's squandering and various land-cutting indemnities treaties, the Qing army did not have sufficient funds to supply ammunition, and these world-class weapons could only be helplessly placed in the arsenal to accumulate ashes, which was the second reason.
From the perspective of the Sino-French war, the Qing army obviously repelled the French army, but because of the fear of retaliation from the French army in the later stages, the Qing government took the results of the victory as a bargaining chip, and signed an unequal treaty with France; at the same time, the national strength was weak and Cixi's pride was long gone, even in the face of the Western powers, it would unconsciously retreat, which is the third reason why the Qing army was defeated without a war.