Role Of The Opium Wars During The Shaping Of Modern China Economically, Politically, And Socially

Western imperialism in China was very significant, costed the lives of millions of people, but also helped shape China into a much stronger country than it was before, being ruled by the Qing Dynasty. Imperialism is a country extending its power and influence through the use of military force. There were two wars between the imperialists and China, the first and second Opium wars. The result of these wars was the weakening of the Qing Dynasty and led to a time of rebuilding, which was a great struggle, for China. The Europeans wanted to trade with China because of the great opportunity that they saw in the market. China’s population, which was 430 million, was seen as a fast and easy way for the Europeans to make a lot of money. The

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.

Opium is dangerous, and it will ruin people’s life once people get addicted to it. Smoking opium made most of the Chinese

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.

The long-term effects of the opium trade were economically harmful to the Chinese. In “An Argument for Legalization,” senior official and advisor to Emperor Daoguang,

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.

As a result of Britain’s presence in India, Britain “introduced Western education. This has brought an ancient and civilized nation in touch with modern thought, modern sciences, and modern life. [Britain] built an administration that is strong and efficient. [Britain] framed wise laws and have established courts of justice.” (Doc 12) Although India experienced many improvements in education and technology, China was left in a poor state. Doc 14 states that “[A chinese woman’s] husband sold everything [they] had.”, and this was the case for many Chinese people. Since many citizens were addicts, they were willing to sell everything they owned for money. As a result of opium, China had a growing poor rural population. There was also inflation and heavy taxes which didn’t help

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,

That is, until they were introduced to opium. They got hooked fast and it became extremely high in demand, in fact, opium became the most traded commodity in the world. China started out getting it from Great Britain, who was producing their opium in India. Soon though, the United States became the second largest opium providers to China; however, it was produced in Turkey and it was lower quality. Merchants in the U.S. used the money they made from selling opium to build railroads, universities such as Princeton, and small towns like Salem, Mass. Opium became such a large problem in China, that they declared it illegal. Because it was difficult to stop the trade of opium, China set up the “Canton System” which was made up of 6 rules. The first rule was that trade of opium was not allowed. The second rule was that trade in China could only take place in Canton. The third rule was that trade in China could only occur 6 months out of the year. The fourth rule was that merchants could not bring women with them to trade, decreasing their chances of staying. The fifth rule was that foreigners could not learn Chinese, and vice versa. This created a trade language, pidgin language. The last rule was that foreigners could only deal with Hong merchants. The Canton System was not very effective, as Europeans started smuggling opium. Commissioner Lin tried writing a letter to the queen to stop

Over the period of 1792 to 1990, England and China's relationship drastically changed because of the trading of opium. China didn’t want to trade opium, but it would mess up England's economy if they were no longer trading opium. China also started to feel the need to westernize, unlike before. China’s need for westernization released tension between the two powers, causing a change in their relationship. China and England's relationship was continous from trade. Even though it was unbalanced in the beginning, it was never cut off. During this time period, in other parts of the world, industrialization was starting to take place. England was one of the leading countries in this age of Industrialization. England used their advanced technology

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].

The Treat of Nanking was established in 1842 to end the first Opium War between Britain and China. This affected the Chinese by forcing them to open up more trade to other countries and lowered tariffs. This was considered the “unequal treaty” by the Chinese as they lost the war.

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

As early as 1793 the Qing Dynasty began to have trouble with their trades. When China began to work with the British for trade it became an exploitive exchange from the British. Western trade was limited to the Southern port of Canton (Guangzhou).This was known as the Canton trade system period (1757-1842). The Chinese government issued trading licenses exclusively to authorized merchants. These merchants would be the only ones allowed to deal with Western traders. This system helped keep trade with foreign countries running smoothly and, by extension, helped to eliminate the possibility of external threats. In Britain's case, as the demand for tea rose and the production of manufactured goods increased during the Industrial Revolution, it wanted to develop and increase trading opportunities and to establish diplomatic relations with China. This led to Macartney's famous British mission to China in 1793. China began to enforce rules that were as fickle as wind, England decided to send lord Macartney as an Ambassador to Emperor Qianlong to negotiate safer and

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”.