Hit by two Opium Wars and Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the rulers of Qing Dynasty felt the deepening crisis. From 1860s to 1890s, high officials of Qing government, represented by Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, General Tos's and Zhang Zhidong, advocated learning and adopting advanced technology from the West in order to save the dynasty by promoting industrial production with "the pursuit of mightiness and prosperity". This is called "Westernized Movement" by historians.

Westernized Movement went through three stages:

The first stage was formative stage, dating from early 1860s to early 1870s and marked by "the pursuit of mightiness", hence the setup of modern military industies, including Anqing Weapon Factory, Jiangnan Machinery Factory, Jinling Machinary Factory, Fuzhou Shipyard, Tainjin Machinery Factory and Xi'an Machinery Factory.

Second stage was the booming tage, dating from early 1870s to mid-1880s and marked by the shift of focus from military to civilian industries for "the pursuit of prosperity", hence the setup of Shipping Merchandise Office and Machinery Textile Office.

Third stage was the declining stage, dating from mid-1880s to mid-1890s and marked by the focus on coastal defense, hence the founding of Northern Fleet. The overwhelming defeat of Chinese Northern Fleet in Sino-Japanese War of 1894 sounded the death knell of Westernized Movement, which lasted over 30 years.

Westernized Movement took place in the fields of economy, military, culture, education, politics and foreign affairs. It did not bring China into prosperity. Yet, it did introduce modern science and technology from the West and contribute in a small way to the development of capitalism in China. It became the enzyme for the collapse of feudalism and also helped to contain the expansion of foreign economic power in China.