Westernized Mining Factories In Southwest Of China (from 1860s To 1890s)

The Westernization Movement in China, from 1860s to 1890s, had spread to relatively remote, backward and closed regions in southwest of our country. There are a few factories in the southwestern region, such as Sichuan Machinery Bureau or Guizhou Qingxi Iron Works, can be considered the first modern enterprises in Southwest of China. However, due to disadvantage factors in the southwest region, such as geographical conditions, traffic conditions, production conditions, economic conditions, consciousness concepts, etc, had made the southwestern region of the Westernization Enterprises more backward and difficult compared to the eastern region. But, to some extent, they created a precedent for modern industry in Southwest China, advanced science and technology, and transferred modern management concepts from the southeast coast and the ocean to the southwest, which boosted the development of modern enterprise and modernization of southwest region. This paper, which utilize the mining industry in Southwest China's Westernization Companies as a whole to study the background, the process, characteristics, and combine with the actual conditions in southwest, and sum up the significance,failure factors, and the meanings to the development of Southwest China.