Advantages And Disadvantages Of China In The 19th Century

Also, citizens became addicted, and the drug eventually killed thousands of people. China’s actions angered Britain politicians even though opium was illegal in Britain as well. But was a result, war started between the two countries. In 1842, the treaty of Nanking ended the war. It was the first unequal treaty with Britain and it said that Chinese had to give up Hong Kong to Britain for ninty-nine years, the British would live in China by extraterritoriality at four ports, distribution of opium would continue and Christain missionaries will be set up throughout China. When China couldn’t meet the ridiculous requirements of the treaty, the second Opium War began in 1956. As a result, Britain won again by the Treaty of Tientsin. The treaty asked to open more ports to outer nations, let foreign leaders into the capital Beijing, and legalized the distribution and use of opium. Their situation was dangerously bad.

China has 5000 years of history which experienced wars, collapses, failures and successes. The Opium War in the year 1839 and 1856 marked the changing point of China’s trade policy with foreigners, especially with British in opium and tea. China changed from getting tributes to being forced to sign the Nanjing Treaty and Tianjing Treaty with British and French. Due to China’s over confidence and unwelcome attitude toward foreigners and opium, it caused the British to declare the Opium War to China which made Chinese suffer for many years, but at the same time it also forced China to open its doors to the foreigners.

While westerners in China pushed to claim rights and generally oppose Chinese reformers who worked to better China, Chinese government and society faced internal problems. Being a main target for imperialism, China faced much western influence. One of the events that marked the beginning of intense western influence was the case concerning the Opium Wars. A main imperialistic power, Great Britain, began trading China opium, a heavily addictive drug, in exchange for tea and silk. At first, it seemed like a positive idea – the Chinese

China remains a current world super power that has been around for thousands of years. It was one of the first civilizations ever created and it has evolved into an enormous country. China is a large territory, but only 10% of the land can be farmed on. This continues to be a tremendous problem, especially with the large population that mostly lives in rural areas. In the past China was seen as a fragile nation that was still stuck in the past, although after the Four Humiliations this began to change. The Four Humiliations were a group of events that forced China to modernize due to the losses it faced. After the last of the four humiliations and the fall of the dynasty era during 1911, China began to catch up to the westernized world by modernizing their government, military, and education. The Chinese

Opium came from opium poppy seeds, which were grown and sold under British ruling in India. The British East India Company developed a monopoly which took place in effectively growing opium and making profits and/or trading it with the Chinese in exchange for their premium good such as silk, porcelain, and tea. According to Memorials on the Legalization and Elimination of Opium by Xu Naiji and Yuan Yulin, they explained how the rise of opium prompted many debts and death around China. Opium became an addiction for many, from the poor to officials in government positions. Cutting off all access of trading opium would’ve started issues in the trading network, not just with Britain but with the Western countries as well. Instead of passing laws to completely ban opium, they reverted to only permitting the barbarian merchants to import opium to pay duty as a medication. This made it unacceptable for money to be involved with the product. According to Xu Naiji, smokers of opium were lazy, with no purpose in life and if they were caught smoking it, the only punishment was getting the opium confiscated. However, if any officer, scholar, or soldier were found smoking opium, the would be immediately dismissed from public employ. Yuan Yulin, a minister, believes that the expansion of opium is the government’s fault, being that they cannot decipher right from wrong; he thought it was unfair that prohibition of smoking opium only applied to the officers of the government, scholars, and military but not the common people. The British capitalized on the effects of opium, because many of China’s population were going to put forth their money, goods, etc. for

China is the only country currently in its “Golden Age” in my opinion & here’s why. China has diverse languages and dialects and local cultural inequalities, which make it even more overwhelming to obtain first-hand knowledge of China’s market. Everyone wants to be an American but why when China is beating the USA on the global economic stage. China is the world's most populated country and it shows because, China currently has the world's fastest-growing economy. Only 3.3% of China’s total population are unemployed. China is one of the biggest communist countries of all time, and that's what makes them successful. Mao Zedong became China’s leader in 1949 and helped name China the People's Republic. This is when China became a communist country and started being ruled by the Communist Party of China. China city of Hong Kong is the second smartest city in the world and is continuously growing. When we go shopping for Clothes, Toys or even dishes you are

In conclusion, the 1839 “Letter to Queen Victoria” by Lin Zexu argued that Opium is a source of evil and pain and appealed to the Queen of Great Britain to abolish sale and smuggling of opium in China. Zexu did this through exemplifying the past trading relationship of China and Great Britain, also by moral persuasion, and last by means of warnings and

Lin Zexu was the imperial commissioner who was originally assigned to stop the opium trade in Canton. He was fiercely opposed to the exchange of opium and his actions were considered to be a major catalyst for the start of the Opium War. The emperor wrote to Zexu, “You have caused this war by your excessive zeal” (Document 6).

China and British perspectives on the opium trade were contradistinctive and ultimately became the foundations of the Opium Wars in 1839-42 and 1856-60. The clash of opinions were not based around the narcotic opium itself but stemmed from a misunderstanding of cultures, conflicting economic behaviours and different ethical ideologies.

The increase of production and use of opium created many problems for China. An issue that resulted of the opium trade was the illegal opium trade with Britain. While most goods and products were legally traded, opium had increased in the illegal market. Previously China’s emperor had written to Britain’s monarchy about the encroachment of their demand of goods and land within China. The emperor Qianlong, in his letter, states that “porcelain which the Celestial Empire produces are absolute necessities to European nations and to yourselves” (Document 1). This shows that European countries often wanted the products of China. It also provoked the illegal trade of opium a very valued

In 1729 China banned the distribution of opium. This ban was not heavily enforced. At this time Britain began growing opium as a cash crop. In 1773 Britain imported 1,000 chests of opium to China. The Chinese people became addicted. In 1832 Britain imported another 20,000 chests of opium to China. Then in 1836 China closed all main ports as an attempt to keep opium out of the country. Chinese officials then openly burned large amounts of confiscated opium. This sparked The First Opium War. This war lasted 4 years and ended with the Treaty of Nanjing which opened all of China’s ports and made Hong Kong a British colony. This was beneficial to Britain because they made money importing opium to China, as well as forcing China into a war that Britain knew that they could win and gain land from.

In the early eighteen hundreds, Britain and other European countries demanded more and more Chinese commodities, especially tea and silk. However, only the port in Canton was opened to foreign countries, and Chinese would not take any other form of payments besides silver. The desire to make China into a free market that foreigners have more access to and the increasing, though illegal, European opium import to China eventually created tension between the European countries, especially Britain, and the Chinese government (Allingham Par. 1-2). The two battles fought and won by European powers were known as the Opium Wars. China’s politics, economy, and intellects were both positively and negatively

The appointment of Lin Tse-hsu as Imperial Commissioner at Canton was the catalyst that changed the trajectory of Chinese-British relations. Tse-hsu immediately began to shut down the opium trade at its source by exposing and punishing corrupt officials and seizing opium supplies without compensation. He wrote a letter to Queen Victoria requesting Britain forego further opium imports to China, citing Britain's banning of its use and trade within its own borders (Hooker). The Queen's refusal enraged Tse-hsu and he threatened to end trade with Britain altogether. Britain responded by using their superior military might to compel them to keep trade channels open and to remove the many trade restrictions currently in place, thus beginning the first opium war. It is important to note that the opium trade was merely the final straw amongst a heap of British-Chinese tensions. With a decisive victory in 1842, the Chinese were forced to sign the Treaty of Nanking, which significantly reduced their autonomy and awarded the British favorable trading conditions. However, by 1856, the British felt China was not abiding by the terms of the treaty and launched another campaign, the second opium war, that ended in 1860, and reduced China to something more

Of course Lin had been a man of morale’s and didn’t take suspect that an entire government would have been supporting an illegal activity. However it was obvious that war was the inevitable outcome following this incident, thus the begging of the Opium Wars. The British then sent a small fleet of ships from India, which would occupy Shanghai, and penetrated deeper into China

The Opium Wars were a series of three wars between the Chinese and the British; primarily fought in regard to the illegal trade of opium in China during the 19th century. They manifested the conflicting natures of both nations and demonstrated China’s misconceptions of its own superiority. The Opium Wars resulted in the humiliating defeat of the Chinese to a country they considered to be “barbarians”.