Opium Wars British Imperialism

However, opium became such an addictive substance in South China that all the money from South China’s treasury was given to the British East India Company. Because of this, the Qing wanted to prohibit the trading of opium which the British did not like, and caused a three year long war. In result, it turned the Chinese away from wanting to learn the methods of their society because they saw them as the barbarians that released fire power on them and went against their Confucianism way of life. The dynasty of China also failed because there was a lot of internal unrest that was occurring with its people and the Western imperialists. The book states, “In the ensuing Treaty of Tianjin, the Qing agreed to humiliating new concessions: legalization of the opium trade, the opening of additional ports to foreign trade, and cession of the peninsula of Kowloon to the British”(Duiker, 51). In order to try and help with this, the Qing rulers tried to do self-strengthening which was an attempt to adopt the new technologies of the Western world while still trying to keep their Confucian way of life. This reform actually lasted for decades for the Chinese foreign and domestic policy.

China also got imperialism by the British. The British were losing money because they were highly dependent upon imported tea from China, but China did not find anything valuable that British offered for trade. So Britain imported Opium. Chinese attempted to ban the importation of the highly addictive opium but ended up failing. The British declared war on China which is called Opium war.

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 Opium War from 1839 to 1842 was the beginning of Modern Chinese history. The Opium War was not about opium because the Treaty of Nanjing does not state a single thing about opium. The treaty was between China and England in 1842, stating in the first Article that there should be peace between the two countries. The Treaty of Nanjing does not include any articles about opium being a reason for the war but it includes agreements of both countries to continue trade. Opium was part of the reasons for the war but it did not cause the war. Opium can be said to provide the occasion of the war rather than the cause of the war because it was both a political and social issue that affected China and Britain’s motives that led to the outbreak of the war.

The Chinese sold many things that European markets were interested in. The British, observing the demand for opium in China, both for legitimate reasons, and by addicts, grew and sold large amounts of opium, and sold it to intermediaries for silver that would eventually sell it on to the Chinese. The balance of trade being upset, and the concern over the growing number of Chinese opium addicts, led the Chinese government to impound foreign ships, destroy cargos, and arrest merchants. Basically suppressing the trade. The British did not like China's decisions. Therefore the British responded violently, they had a couple of bloody battles, the British won numerous times , dominating Chinese armies. China tried fighting back but it made things worse. Another major event that occurred in the Opium wars is the Treaty of Nanjing. This treaty is a big event because it gave Britain a lot of advantages, like the Chinese giving full control of Hong Kong to Britain. Also giving Britain more ports where they could trade Opium, the last thing that the British was given by the Chinese in accordance to the treaty was money. This basically showed that the British won the first Opium war, due to all the privileges the British gained from the Chinese’s peace

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

During the 1750s the British invaded India and became the political leaders of Bengal to have access to Chinese tea but instead gained access to India’s opium. The Chinese refused to trade with Britain, so the British began exporting opium into China to cut the trade burden on themselves. The British smuggled opium into the Southeastern coast of China, where the desperate poor Chinese citizens did opium. The Chinese government demanded that the opium smuggling stop, but alternatively the Opium War broke out. Britain eventually won the war and took over Hong Kong, forcing China to pay up large amounts of silver. Due to Britain defeating China in the Opium War they gained silver, Hong Kong, and Southeast China. This gave the British access to market expansion, extra territory, and control over China, where the British law governed the Chinese citizens. In the 1840s through the 1850s India and China were the wealthiest countries in the world, then in the 1840s the British became in complete control over all of India allowing them to surpass Asia and other

The two Opium Wars, which took place from 1839-1860, were the starting point of modern Chinese history. To start off, the First Opium War was a major turning point for modern chinese history. Secondly, during the wars many treaties were signed to try and create peace. Finally, without these events, China would not be the major world power that it is today. Therefore, the Opium Wars were the most important part of modern world history because they changed and created the foundation of China.

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 was a huge demand for Chinese goods in their market, but they did not have enough silver to trade with the Qing dynasty. The British resorted to using Indian Opium to get what they wanted (Blogs.bu). Opium was a highly addictive drug that took the juice from the opium poppy. Chinese officials attempted to ban the very highly addictive opium, but ultimately failed. The British then declared war on China, which would become known as the Opium Wars.

Throughout China, currency was rapidly changing. At first China used paper money, but silver was the main form of payment. Silver was the main form of payment because it was easier to trade among many different countries with it. Paper money was used for a while, but the worth of it didn’t last very long and so China returned to using silver. Europe, America and China all started using silver for foreign trade. It was important for China to establish trading posts with Britain and America because of the new cultural items being brought into the country for the foreign ones. One reason for the success of silver taking over the main form of currency was the fact that large amounts of silver had been available in America and in Britain, who hadn’t started using silver as currency yet. Once the Ming Dynasty ended, silver was still used, but mostly along the coast of China.

The opium wars revealed many problems with the relationship between China and The Western Powers, especially Great Britain. For example, China had fallen behind the rest of the world economy its technology due to the use of old aged traditions, another example being that once the trading started to expand and free trading was introduced relationships strained between china and The Western Powers, this was all due to the large influx of smuggled / traded opium. When the emperor tried to ban opium from being traded / smuggled into the country the English and the French decided to start two opium wars.

The Opium War was one of the most vital events in Chinas history. This event led to the end of Chinas closed-door policy, which stated that trade, could not enter China. The Qing government failed to protect people and witnessed land being taking by the British with the use of force. After land was stolen from China by British people that caused the Chinese to become upset because they disapproved of china’s weak imperialistic government. Radicals located in China began to discuss different forms of governments that would permanently get rid of the old ideas. Many foreign invaders traveled to china usually from Britain leading to arguments such as which areas were better also known as nationalism.

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”.

The opium trade became important to the British Empire for a couple of reasons. Up until the American Revolution, the British Empire had been reliant upon the excessive taxes placed on tea to finance their imperial governments throughout the empire. Unfortunately for the British, by as early as 1784, American merchants had begun trading with China directly, which resulted in Britain having to drop their taxes from 119% to just 12% in order to compete with America. Prior to the American Revolution, Britain had maintained a balance of import and export values. Once it had lost this major source of tax revenue, Britain began leaning much more heavily on the opium trade in China to return to that balance without having to sacrifice its import of