The Opium War was the beginning of China's modern history and the beginning of Chinese began to re-understand the world.
After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, it closed the country and did not communicate with all countries in the world, and Yelang was arrogant, so he was self-contained, and eventually gradually fell behind and declined.
In qianlong's later years, the British envoy Ma Garni came to the Qing Dynasty with the most advanced British scientific and technological products at that time, and he thought that these things would interest the Qianlong Emperor, but Qianlong was not interested in these things, but why Ma Garni did not kneel for him.
The Chinese and British sides clashed over etiquette, and finally dispersed unhappily, this British visit to China could have promoted the development of the Qing Dynasty, but was blocked by the number of feudal ceremonies.
It was not until after the Opium War that the Qing Dynasty began to understand the world, and it turned out that the world had already undergone earth-shaking changes. However, in the early days of the Opium War, a lamentable thing happened.
DaoGuang heard that the British were preparing to go to war against the Qing Dynasty, and he was very confused because he did not know much about Britain. So he asked a few Britons for basic information about Britain and had a general understanding of Britain.
When the British said that their queen was a 21-year-old girl, Daoguang's eyes lit up and he was interested. Sure enough, the topic that men are interested in still can't get around women.
Daoguang knew that the Queen of England was only 21 years old, and her big eyes were full of a lot of doubts. He asked the foreigner three questions in a row, the first question was that she was only 21 years old, how did the courtiers support her as queen?
The second question is whether she is a girl's family, can she control the group of courtiers?
The third problem is that the queen is only 21 years old, she is not married, if not, Daoguang is willing to marry the queen, forever linked, to promote friendly exchanges between the two countries.
When the foreigners heard these three questions asked by Daoguang, they all wanted to laugh, and they answered to Daoguang one by one, which solved Daoguang's doubts.
From the questions daoguang asked, we can see at least two points: the first light knows nothing about the world, at least not about Britain, and as an emperor, he does not know anything about the affairs of the world, can such a person rule the country?
The second light focuses on women, not on national affairs, and it can be seen that he is also an emperor without vision, and it is really the misfortune of the country for such a person to be an emperor.
The emperor of the Qing Dynasty knew nothing about the world, did not know where the gap between the Qing Dynasty and the world was, and was blindly arrogant, so it was no wonder that the Qing Dynasty would die.
Keep pace with the times, keep up with the pace of the times, so that you will not fall behind, in order to be more powerful!
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Opium War, Qing Shilu, etc