Opium War

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.

English needed the tea from China which was one reason caused British to negotiate with the Chinese to open more trade opportunity to the outsiders, and the denial of exporting tea to the British caused the later Opium War.

Imperialism is like a kingpin putting his hardest working, most experienced partners in a territory that they have sole control over, with the main job of making the money to bring back to the kingpin, getting their “cut” thereafter. It was the same for the British. Imperialism was vastly growing in the new British Empire. New Imperialism gave rise in East Asia and Africa with the new trade networks and new products and goods that were made to be profitable. According to Abina and the Important Men, palm oil became a new “golden” standard for the British. It was a necessity to how machines in factories worked post-Industrialization era. As for East Asia, opium became extremely profitable, although it put many of the population(s) at extreme

In the text, “Letter to Queen Victoria”, written by Lin Zexu in 1839, he implores the Queen of Great Britain, Queen Victoria, to stop her subjects from selling opium to the Chinese public. Zexu does so by exemplifying the past relationship of China and Britain, by moral persuasion, and by warnings and threats. However, Lin Zexu’s assumption of calling British subjects as Barbarian and compliant to Chinese rule ineffectively persuades.

By 1839, war was imminent. The opium trade had caused the reversal of the silver deficit, now putting an economic strain on China, while Britain’s economy flourished from the profit they were making off the drug. Because it was being illegally imported, all of the money was going directly to Britain instead of to the Chinese government in the form of taxes. This caused a severe economic decline in China as unemployment rose, agriculture declined, and funding for public improvements diminished.

In the beginning of the 19th century the British began to trade opium, an illegal drug, for tea with China which caused, “...the first Opium War...which resulted in a Chinese defeat and the expansion of British trading privileges...”This discrepancy in the trading relationship between the Chinese and the British caused China’s to forfeit their trading territory to the British. The outcome of the Opium War was a setback for the Chinese. Places where the Chinese previously conducted business was no longer available. Economical wars were not uncommon: “During the mercantilist period…a military...would deter attacks by other countries and aid its own territorial expansion.” The focus of many governments became to protect their economy by constantly gaining more territory to increase business. The change of China’s trade routes could have negatively affected the economy. If the Chinese economy were to weaken it could affect the economies of other countries that China interacted with. The Columbian Exchange, a network of trade routes throughout the world, caused the environment to change as, “ ...Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and turnips...raveled west across the Atlantic, and New World crops...traveled east to Europe.” The exchanging of crops between the New World and the Old World, two different geographical areas,

China viewed itself as an autarkic agricultural economic system and whilst Britain purchased large amounts of Chinese tea, silk and porcelain the Chinese held the European manufactured products at very little value. This monopolistic system of

Documen F is a collection of excerpts from the Treaty of Nanking, which is the document that ended the first Opium War. This document contains various benefits for the British such as the ceding of Hong Kong and the payment of six million dollars for the deaths of British soldiers during the war. This document expresses the actions of the British to extend further control over China by acquiring from them a major port and a significant sum of money. The Treaty of Nanking is one of many “unequal treaties” that the British employed to provide favorable conditions for themselves. Document G is written by Feng Kuei-Fen and articulates his discontent of British power over China.

Specifically, the Treaty of Nanjing, which was signed by China and Britain after the first Opium War in 1842, gave more rights to British traders within China: “The Emperor of China agrees to… permit [British traders] to carry on their mercantile transactions with whatever persons they please,”. British traders now had the ability to trade directly with the public, a privilege that China had long denied foreign countries. These new rights made it easier for British merchants to trade opium, and increased its prevalence in the population. Not only that, British traders used their new rights to gain a strong foothold in the Chinese economy. The Treaty of Nanjing ensured that Britain would have a powerful influence within China and could do whatever they wanted. But in 1906, Britain ended the opium trade when China proposed a 10-year plan to completely eradicate opium. The Chinese government had kept the issue alive since 1900 by negotiating smaller treaties to block opium trading, but it wasn’t until 1905 that British lawmakers seriously considered China’s demands for an end to the trade. By 1900 Britain was making less and less money from the opium trade, with opium imports into China having peaked in the late 19th century. The overwhelming power of the opium trade had created an imbalance in

The aim of this investigation is to find the extent to which the British and Chinese trade of opium into China caused the corruption and eventual downfall of the Qing dynasty. The main body of this investigation focuses on the corruption and failure of the Chinese government in controlling British incursions, which caused its citizens to rebel and thus began the downfall of the Qing Dynasty. The introductions of opium to China and the effects it had on China will be assessed in accordance to origin, value, purpose, and limitation. The British and Chinese trade in relation to opium and its role of corruption in the Qing Dynasty will be analyzed also.

The Qing dynasty (1916-1912) is the last imperial dynasty of China, it was consider as the most powerful country during the “golden age” ruled by Kang Xi and Qian Long, and it has over 400 million population and has the 1st ranked GDP in the world at the moment. The Qing has the supreme power at the time and has the significant influence in East Asian. However, the collapse of the Qing Dynasty made a humiliate history of China. The Qing dynasty doesn't fall suddenly, and the collapse of Qing is not just simply because domestic revolution and alien invasion. The failure of the Qing government is worthy to study, we need to take a deep step and explore the root cause of the collapse of Qing.

McNeil is also critical of Landes’ preoccupation in the happenings of Europe alone, while remaining dismissive of all economic and technological accomplishments of China after 1 000 A.D. While Landes dismisses the economic demise of China as a “weird pattern of isolated initiatives and Sisyphean discontinuities,” McNeil instead portrays the rapid innovations of the Sung era, and how they were damaged and disrupted by Mongol conquests and contained within the Ming dynasty, thereby showing that Europe did not surpass Europe in achievement due to their own pre-eminence.

2. Albert M. Craig, William A. Graham, Donald Kagan, Steven Ozment, Frank M. Turner. “China‘s First Empire”. The Heritage of World Civilizations. 1: 1152 (2007, 2005, 2002) Pearson Education, Inc. New

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

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,