Both the physical presence of the colonial powers and the theoretical challenge that they presented tended to break down the existing order without offering the prospect of a new one. The Western powers, including Japan, created a new context that precluded the traditional methods by which dynastic power was replaced. The existence of aggressive Western powers that were in nature different from the barbarians of the past, denied China the opportunity to experience an interregnum. A China in disarray might mean the loss of the concept of China as an entity. On the other hand, the foreign presence permitted a totally bankrupt central government to remain in power.
The final collapse of the Qing may have been staved off for some time by the involvement of the very colonial powers that had helped to weaken it. This argument can be made either on the basis of foreign policy decisions made at individual points in time (e.g. the choice that the foreign powers made to back the Qing and not the Taiping rebels in the 1860s) or on the basis of the continuing need for a government with which to deal and the subsequent infusions of loans and aid that helped to prop up an increasingly irrelevant Dynasty. It served both the Manchu hierarchy and the foreign powers to retain the Qing in power. The Qing, like any government, was ultimately concerned with its own survival, and the foreign powers needed a reliable government in Beijing so that there would be someone to conduct foreign relations, and to balance off the influence exerted by one another. In a deteriorating environment, the Qing still seemed to present the best shot at stability, and therefore it had the continued protection of colonial powers.
By 1911 even the combined Qing and foreign interests were not enough: a combination of internal strife, a succession of military defeats and, in the end, a total loss of legitimacy combined to bring the Dynasty to its end.
