With a POD after the opium wars, Industrialize China, Plus points if you have qing dynasty survive
AHC: Industrialize and modernize Qing China
- Thread starter Slime_blob
- Start date
Emperor Dowager Cixi slips on a banana and dies - the Hundred Days' Reform manages to slowly modernize Qing China, to the point where by 1933, it's military is advanced enough to make conquest by Japan unpalatable. World Wars happen and in the second one China sends some troops to Europe for show and is recognized a Great Power in the war's aftermath and gains a UNSC Seat as OTL. China remains neutral during the Cold War if loosely US-aligned, and becomes the world's largest economy just at the end of the first millennium.
Earlier self streghtnening movement after the first opium wars, the Qing decided to westernize now, instead of the second one, bc they are hummiliated and Lin Zexu just infuleced the emperor more, to modernize as they just got their but kicked easily. And this also made the emperor that reforms are needed so they did that, invites europeans to help them westernize and modernize their country, Imports guns, machines and other stuff to industrialize, and modernize. So they did that now they just reformed the government to make it efficient and less corrupt and westernize and industrialize the country by 1900
The best bet would be to ditch the Confucian edict that taxes be kept artificially low. Part of what gave the Taiping a fighting chance against the rest of the country was that they were able to raise taxes to fund their military and police state.