Preparations for the Macartney Mission s visit to China, and what kind of impact the Macartney Missi

Macartney: The Tragedy That Opened China's Modern HistoryTimothy Lee: Started China's Modernization.

1. Significance.

For China, China has lost a good opportunity to get in touch with modern industrial civilization, understand the world, and change its closed state.

For Britain and Europe, the main reason is that they have changed their attitude towards China. Through the memories and accounts of the Magalny mission after returning to England, they showed a different China to the British and even Europeans.

2. Introduction to the event.

The Macartney mission's visit to China refers to 1793 (the 58th year of Qianlong), when the British wanted to open up the Chinese market through negotiations with the highest authorities of the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, he collected intelligence and sent George Macartney and others to visit China.

However, due to the completely different political and economic structures of China and the United Kingdom, in order to safeguard their own social systems and historical traditions, the two sides have adopted a stubborn attitude of resistance against each other in their respective interests. Therefore, the conflict between the two sides inevitably broke out in this diplomatic activity. And as a result, the failure of diplomatic negotiations.

3. Historical background.

In the 17th century, Britain established the capitalist system through a bourgeois revolution. In the 60s of the 18th century, the industrial revolution occurred in Britain, capitalism was in the ascending stage, and with the development of the commodity economy, Britain urgently needed to open up new markets and vast raw material production areas. "Therefore, when Britain sent an envoy to China, it was naturally for commercial purposes.

In fact, the situation of trade between China and Britain should indeed be changed, since the day the British first opened up their markets in China, and since the beginning of the relations between the two countries, nothing has helped to improve the position of the British in China, while the situation of other European merchants in China is much better than that of the British. "Because of this, the British ** hope to establish diplomatic relations with China through the Magarny mission, improve the relations between China and the United Kingdom and the current ** system, and expand trade between the two sides.

I believe that Magalny's visit to China is to fight an outpost war for the British to launch a war of aggression in the future, the main purpose is to open up the Chinese market, and the secondary purpose is to collect intelligence, survey shipping lanes, and reconnoiter the military, so as to pave the way for launching a war of aggression in the future!

Macartney's visit to China should have been in 1793, the 58th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty. The king of England at that time was George III.

The main purpose was to pave the way for capital to open up the market, and to test the reality of the authorities by contacting the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty, and to take the opportunity to collect political, economic, cultural, and military intelligence.

The ending was unhappy and did not achieve anything. Because China and Britain have completely different political systems and historical traditions, and neither side is willing to accept each other's values, the breakdown of diplomatic negotiations is inevitable. As for Macartney's refusal to bow down three times, it is only a minor detail, not a core issue.

Since then, the impression of China in Britain and even in Europe has changed completely, and Macartney has even described the Qing Dynasty as a big broken ship. Qianlong, on the other hand, was both contemptuous and wary of Britain, and the policy of closing the country to the outside world was an instinctive self-preservation. Objectively, China missed the opportunity to understand the modern industrial revolution, but experienced it again in the Opium War half a century later.

George Macartney (1737-1806), born into a large landowner family in County Anthol, Northern Ireland, graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1759 and then went on to study at Temple University in London under Earl Henry Fawkes.

He was also a famous British politician in modern times, who led a delegation to China in 1793 in the name of congratulating the Qianlong Emperor on his birthday, and wanted to open the Chinese market through negotiations, but returned without success. This is a major event in the history of Sino-Western exchanges.

In the fifty-eighth year of Qianlong (1793).

The purpose was to establish equal diplomatic relations with the Qing and to trade freely.

As a result, Lord Qianlong refused all the demands made by the British envoy.

This was in the 22nd year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, and the original meaning was to follow the Qing Dynasty, but the result was that the Qing Dynasty felt that it could be self-sufficient, and finally closed itself off.

The Macartney Mission was one of the first official British delegations to China. Macartney (1737-1806), former minister to Russia and governor of Bangladesh, was ambassador plenipotentiary. In September 1792 (the 57th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty), he led a delegation of 90 scientists, writers, medical officers and guards, carrying 600 boxes of gifts such as astronomical instruments, models of vehicles and ships, textile supplies and pictures, and set sail from the port of Portsmouth.

The mission carried a letter and credentials from the British King congratulating Emperor Qianlong on his 83rd birthday. The British mission put forward demands to the Qing Dynasty for "improving" the conditions and exchanging permanent envoys.