Brief Information on Different Topics: Opium War, Taiping Rebellion, British Raj

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.

One of the largest groups ever to immigrate to the United States was the Chinese. In 1842 the British Empire defeated China in the first Opium War. China was forced to pay indemnities of 21 million silver dollars and open five ports to foreign commerce. As a result, peasant farmers were heavily taxed. A series of floods and crop failures in Southern China lead to poverty and famine among peasant farmers. The British were given the power to preside over the immigration of the Chinese people. Eventually 12 treaty ports were opened to Westerners and Western missionaries begin to arrive in China, paving the way for Chinese youth to receive western training abroad.

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

British merchants were disappointed after a British missionary was unable to establish further trade rights with Britain so they looked

In the 19th Century British planned to invade China for economic reasons. It had no motives to conquer the state rather entice it to accept a free trade. The country was rich in tea which was in high demand not only in Britain but all over the world. China also had porcelain and silk which the Britons envied. The intruders did not have enough silver to buy the commodities thus opted for a barter system. Consequently, a war between the two states occurred. It was fought between 1848 and 1852 with China becoming unsuccessful due advanced military competence of Britons. The signing of an agreement between them then followed, and British was additionally awarded extraterritorial rights by China. However, the imperialism in China was a positive thing to the natives because it introduced trade and much education in the region which opened up opportunities.

This was a major example of imperialism as these treaties favored foreign trade but China didn’t gain any concession from the foreigners. This in turn weakening the economic power of china and the governments control over the country weakened.

By the time the first opium war broke out, there were rebellions across the land of the Qing dynasty. One of the rebellions was the Taiping Rebellion. Prophet Hong Xiuquan leads the Taiping Rebellion. The uprising promised social reform, land redistribution, liberation for women. It also attacked Confucian values and wanted to create a simpler script for the people with goals were to make literacy more possible for everyone. Nonetheless, local landowners create a military that stops rebellions. The Manchurian government refused to enact these reforms. It created a larger gap in the division of the Manchus and

British trade with China during the Qing dynasty from 1750 - 1900 was economically harmful for the Chinese, and the Chinese Imperial government responses were political. A document showing a Chinese citizen’s view on the events and how they played out would have helped me to better understand how it affected the people of China’s

In order to seek for profit, British merchants never stopped illegal behavior in China. Even after Lin Zexue sent a letter to Queen Victoria, British merchants still continued their business regardless of the laws in China2. During the process of prohibiting the opium trade in some of Chinese coastal cities, the conflict of interests between Chinese government and British merchants had become more and more severe. According to the document, British troops started to attack the forts at Taikok and Shakok [paragraph 2, line 3 to 4], and they invaded the inner river and besieged the provincial city [paragraph 3, line 1 to 2]. Taking into account of the lives of Chinese people, the emperor made an unusual concession, hoping that British troops would abstain from creating further troubles [paragraph 3, line 7 to 9]. However, contrary to Daoguang’s expectations, the British troop continued to offend Chinese territories [paragraph 4, line 2 to 4]. In Daoguang’s view, it was their concession at the beginning that led to the invasion of the British troop. Whereas he neglected one of the important reasons of the British invasion: Britain’s desire of opening the Chinese market in search for higher profits was restricted by the Chinese laws and policies3. In response to the British invasion, Chinese government dispatched Yikin and others to defend British troops with their own troops [paragraph 5, line 1].

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

Early modern Egypt’s relationship with imperialism goes as far back as the 16th century when the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt following the Ottoman-Mamluk War. The French occupied Egypt in 1798 during Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign in the Middle East in order to protect French trade interest and to undermine British imperial interests. After Napoleon's invasion force withdrew, an Ottoman military officer named Muhammad Ali established his own independent government in Egypt by 1811. With the increasing importance of India to the European powers in the late 18th century the Suez Canal was built in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the red sea; it allowed ships to travel between Europe and South Asian without navigating around Africa. Britain's main interest was to make sure Egypt remained stable in order to protect their investment in the Suez Canal, so the British government tended to support the Ottoman Empire.

Finally, deeply rooted tensions between Britain and China began to come to the surface as the Chinese attempted to crack down on opium use and trade within its borders.

There were many problems with the system of trade in China; even before opium trading began. China, believing herself to be the most civilized and advanced country, did not feel the need to satisfy Britain, a “barbarian” country’s request for freer trade and were concerned the British wanted land. Britain however,

The Qing Dynasty led by the Manchus was in midst of a chaotic time from 1850 to 1864. The Taiping Rebellion was one of the rebellions the dynasty had to face against during this time period, however this rebellion almost caused the dynasty to collapse. One of the contributing factors that helped the Manchu led dynasty stayed in power in China was an American mercenary turned Chinese commander, Frederick Townsend Ward. Frederick T. Ward was a man of questionable motives as many historians have wrote about him, such as Ralph D. Paine and Jonathan Spence in their respective writings of Ships and Sailors of Old Salem and Ward and Gordon: Glorious Days of Looting. Paine and Spence’s readings about Frederick Townsend Ward have some contradicting