Hundred Days' Reform in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894–1895, not long after the First (1839–1842) and Second (1856–1860) Opium Wars; this blow came as a major shock to the Chinese, because Japan had been regarded as a tributary state, was much smaller than China, and was regarded as inferior. China also fought France in the Sino-French War from 1884 to 1885. Moreover, the defeat of China by Japan led to a scramble for "privileges" in China by other foreign powers, notably by the German Empire and Russia, further awakening the conservatives. Before the First Sino-Japanese War, China engaged in technological modernization only,
An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China commercial success of his illustrations of the Macartney Mission. With the increasing demand of tea in Britain the pressure on trade and economy grew, causing British accounts on China to be more critical and less appreciative. Fellow crewmembers of the Macartney Mission such as Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet published later reports on the Embassy describing the experience as overall negative. This can partly be explained as a reaction to the British frustration with the trading relation to China. The Serjeant-Major Samuel Holmes published his account on the Macartney Mission with the same publisher W. Bulmer & Co in 1798