What are the main contradictions in China society after the Opium War?

After the Opium War, the main contradiction in China society was the contradiction between imperialism and the Chinese nation.

The failure of the Opium War and the signing of a series of unequal treaties fundamentally changed the social nature of China. Foreign capitalism ceded Hong Kong Island from China, paid compensation of 2 1 10,000 silver dollars, opened five ports of Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai for trade, and a series of privileges such as negotiated tariff rights, consular jurisdiction and one-sided MFN treatment, which seriously damaged China's independent sovereignty. After the treaty of nanking was signed, the United States and France came one after another, taking the opportunity to claim privileges and forcing the Qing government to sign a series of unequal treaties. The Opium War marked the beginning of China's modern history. Since then, China has suffered more and more, and the people of China are facing more complicated and tortuous struggles.

The Qing government began to become a tool for the foreign powers to rule China step by step. As China's territorial, territorial sea, judicial, customs and trade sovereignty began to be seriously damaged, China gradually became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country from an independent country.

The victory or defeat of the Opium War reflected the huge gap between the East and the West in science and technology at that time, which broke the dream of the Qing government to "fall from the sky". Domestic troubles and foreign invasion followed one after another, and the feudal society was in danger, which prompted a group of feudal intellectuals with keen political vision to further explore and find a good way to get rid of the social predicament and crisis in China. They rely on traditional Confucian classics, take rectifying the current situation and saving the world as their own responsibility, and advocate internal rectification of official management and reform of shortcomings; Advocating learning western learning and resisting aggression, thus gradually forming a social trend of thought among the landlord class. Many learned people, such as Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan, began to pay attention to the progress of western science and technology and write books to introduce western things. However, the vast majority of people, including the imperial court, did not change their views on the West because of the Opium War, let alone learn from the "foreigners" who have always been despised. The defeat of the Qing court did not make it reform, but continued to implement a conservative policy of closing the country to the outside world, which led to the emergence of self-improvement and national salvation movements such as the Westernization Movement after the Second Opium War.