If Kangqian is the prosperity of the Great Qing, then the Great Qing after Guangxu is simply a history of humiliation.
Since Cixi came to power, for half a century, the great Qing Dynasty has been humiliated by Western countries over and over again, if Kangxi has a spirit in heaven, will it be lifted by this unscrupulous descendant?
In this half-century full of "legend", Cixi managed less and less land in the hands of the Qing Dynasty, and signed more and more unequal treaties with various countries.
Especially in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, the Great Qing Dynasty was bullied by the small oriental countries next door and did not even dare to come out of the atmosphere, and what made the whole country beat their chests was the "Maguan Treaty" proposed by the Japanese. Whoever made the Qing Dynasty weak and incompetent at that time should be slaughtered.
But since the signing of the treaty, many European powers have had the illusion that the Qing Dynasty is a soft persimmon, and anyone can pinch it. Among them, there is such a country, seeing that the neighbors fished a lot in the Qing Dynasty, so they crossed the ocean and wanted to share a piece of the pie, but they never expected that this gold was not fished, and they also touched a nose of ash. Which country is this?
In 1896, italy's defeat at the Battle of Adua forced Italy to abandon its expansion in Africa and turn to China, which was being partitioned.
At that time, Sanmen Bay in Zhejiang was not only of high military value, but also because of its geographical advantages, superior port conditions, and abundant resources, which made Italy, which was suffering in Ethiopia, feel extremely excited, was this not "God closed a door for me, but opened a window for me on the other side"? So Italy decided to build its own naval base here.
Then, in 1899, the Italian minister to China submitted a note to the Qing Prime Minister's Office Yamen, claiming to be one of the European powers, hoping that the Qing Dynasty would be interesting and obediently hand over Sanmen Bay, otherwise it would be served by force.
I thought that as soon as the routine of painting a scoop according to the gourd and Britain and Germany came out, the Qing Dynasty would be frightened and quickly offer it with both hands, but this time the Qing Dynasty ignored it, and did not even look at it, and directly refused to accept it.
This has angered Italy, who has just suffered in Africa, and now even the Qing Dynasty rejects me? So Italy immediately decided to send three warships to Sanmen Bay to demonstrate, saying that this was an ultimatum to the Qing government.
When Cixi looked at it, she couldn't help but sneer, "You Italy, which is far away in the sky, only have three ships in my Qing territory, do you dare to shout at me?" ”
In fact, italy in the First World War in Africa, the achievements have long been spread across the ocean to the ears of various countries, and they have been chased and beaten by the indigenous people, and they have been beaten away twice.
After becoming a joke, I still want to take advantage of Daqing.
The so-called skinny camel is bigger than the horse, Italy is not the Roman Empire after all, it is not good at fighting, it must be a rookie king.
This kind of record has made the Qing Dynasty a bit despised, and Italy dares to provoke it? A handful of loess will not be given!
So the Qing government issued an order to prepare for war, and then the Qing army along the coast of Zhejiang began to assemble. Knowing the movements of the Qing army, the Italian foreign minister began to realize that it seemed to be playing big, and the Great Qing did not play cards according to the routine at all.
At that time, Italy was actually still in a turbulent period, it was not prepared for any war at all, and the European powers gave it great pressure in terms of diplomacy, and the Qing Dynasty was unwilling to compromise.
So the Italian Foreign Ministry hastened to tell the Qing government that it had no intention of capturing Sanmen Bay, but just wanted to build a coal refueling station in the coastal area. In the end, Italy recalled the warships, ending this ridiculous dispute, which was a rare diplomatic victory in the late Qing Dynasty.
So was Italy's compromise only because of the Hardline Attitude of the Qing Dynasty? In fact, it is not, but Italy is too difficult to pick a time to demonstrate.
Among the old European powers, Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and France have basically established large colonies, and it is very embarrassing that there is no Italy in this rank.
It is recorded that Italy was only proclaimed in 1861 and unified the whole territory in 1871 after several wars. In other words, at the beginning of Italy's great overseas colonial dream, everyone's next-door neighbor was already a colonial power.
Although Italy was the birthplace of the Roman Empire, the Italians had nothing to do with the Romans, but this did not prevent it from having a big imperial dream.
In 1887, Italy suddenly suffered an industrial crisis, and the agricultural crisis was intertwined, and then the economic crisis almost reached its peak.
Then Italy felt that it could not pay money at home, so why not grab a little? In 1896, Italy, which was self-consciously clever, vigorously invaded the poor African country of Ethiopia, but no one expected that italy, which had the advantage, would be defeated!
Well, if you can't defeat the poor countries, the East, which is being divided, will certainly be able to take it, but it has crossed the ocean and passed, and the result has been planted again.
Britain, which had begun to acquiesce in Italy's demonization, did not have a harmonious relationship with Italy. At that time, almost none of the many European powers supported Italy.
France, which was in conflict with it in North Africa, was the first to raise its hand against it, while Russia, which was allied with France, naturally did not say a word about supporting the position of France as an ally. Because of the territorial dispute, Germany and Austria-Hungary did not want to deal with Italy.
On the whole, Italy's actions were not supported by the great powers, but were opposed one after another. How can a small country that stands alone seize a large country that has not yet completely fallen?
Obviously, the victory of this diplomacy was not that the national strength of the late Qing Dynasty was still there, if the military strength was abundant, the Opium War would not have happened, and if the dispute could be settled with a tough attitude, then there would be no loss of power and humiliation of the country after the First Sino-Japanese War.
Italy's failure was purely accidental, and the victory of the late Qing Dynasty was not at all glorious.
However, the rulers of the Great Qing Dynasty did not want to introspect themselves, and then launched the so-called salvation movement, and this is only "self-help", the national disaster at present only sees its own interests, not only tigers and tails, but also blindly blind, ignoring the people, and even trying to rely on the help of foreign powers, this kind of joint outsiders to do their own things, may also be able to do in the late Qing Dynasty.