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Why did Self-Strengthening Fail
Chinese had a lack of co-ordination especially when it came to war. In 1884 the Fukien fleet fought alone in the French war because the Nanyang and the Peiyang fleet “refused to go to the rescue… under enemy attack” as according to Hsu. In the Japanese war of 1894-95 the Nanyang fleet “maintained neutrality while the Peiyang fleet alone fought the Japanese navy.” The Chinese also had a lack of control over some provinces. There was weakening of central power and an incline of power in the provinces. This was due to the rebellions that took place during the time of self-strengthening such as the Nian rebellion (1853-68), the Muslim rebellion (1855-73) and the Taiping Rebellion (1950-64).
The self-strengthening movement failed due to many reasons. One of the most important is the attitude that the Chinese had towards modernization. Their Confucian based system disallowed much room to grow: only few steps of modernization were accepted within the Chinese society.