Essay about The Opium War and Great Britain's Influences In China

After the war, internal conflicts emerged. In 1899, the Boxer Rebellion started with the opposition to foreign spheres of influence. They were angry about the missionaries, and legalization of opium. The Boxers massacred Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox missionaries everywhere and their leader called for a brutal anti Christian policy. But soon, the Great Powers came in the way and defeated them. This event only made the spheres more powerful. Then in 1901, the Boxer Protocol was announced and its intent was to execute

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.

The Chinese had many reasons to fear and ultimately reject the Westerners. The first anti-Christian movement was in 1616-1621 in Nanjing. This revolt was started by Shen

In 1902, the United States government dissented that Russian infringement in Manchuria after the Boxer Rebellion was a violation of the Open Door Policy. The point

Much like in Japan when Matthew Perry of the United States came in and insisted in having Japan open up its ports to diplomatic and commercial relations with the US, and since the shogun felt he had no other option, he complied with Perry’s order. As the westerners had their way with both east Asian nations, the threat of western industrialization became a reality, and due to the amount of hunger and economic depression in their societies, their people began to crave industrialization seeing the amount of success in the western societies that were industrialized. There began to be an increased amount of rebellion, and a fight for change in these two nations, but the results that came from these rebellions and the main argument for these rebellions differed.

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

The first cause for the Boxer Rebellion, was the anti-foreign stance in China. As a result of suffering humiliating defeats in both the first, and second Opium wars, China was forced to grant concessions to foreigners. Furthermore, they had to sign the “unequal treaties” which allowed the West to gain a significant amount of control over China. This left the Chinese population poverty-stricken, and angry at foreign powers. The economy became disrupted by the arrival of modernity and industrialism. According to historian David Silbey “Many Chinese worked in industries that were disrupted by the arrival of the railroad and the telegraph. There was a sense that China’s balance had been thrown out of whack by these modern innovations, and only by destroying the innovations and the foreigners who brought them could the balance be restored.”. The Chinese regarded the West as “foreign devils”, and wished to retain sovereignty and independence. They were extremely nationalistic. Mark Twain addressed the boxer rebellion in 1900.

Following the Sino-Japanese war from 1894 through 1895, the Chinese government was severely weakened. This meant that China was unable to protect itself from European countries and Japan staking claim throughout the country because although fragile post war, China was a heavily populated nation and offered a desirable market that the rest of the world wanted. During the late 1800’s many countries were in a rush to expand their colonies and claim territories all over the world. The Korean peninsula was controlled by Japan. The British, Dutch, Belgians, and French had a heavy presence in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The United States acquired possessions in Latin America and the Asian Pacific. There was a worldwide race to gain control of China. After taking possession of the Philippines, America, under President McKinley, became increasingly concerned that the heavy presence of other nations and the subsequent dividing up of China would severely affect American interests by restricting or preventing access to the Chinese market.

Cuba, due to the sinking of the U.S. Maine was taken over, and is now regulated by the U.S. government as a result of the Spanish-American War, while China was forced to keep an Open Door Policy, which caused the Boxer Rebellion. After World War Two, America became the leading world power, the foreign policy opened up with the creation of the United Nations, Marshall Plan, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. During the Cold War, the main objective was to prevent the spread of Communism; however, afterwards global peace became the main objective ("War…”).

In 1900, a few internal events taken place in China threatened the idea of the Open Door Policy. Boxer Rebellion was one of these events. It was an anti-foreign, anti- colonial, and anti- Christian movement that was initiated by the Militia United in Righteousness. It was associated with Christian missionary activity and motivated by proto-nationalist sentiments and opposed western

Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and William Taft all had similar foreign policies. Roosevelt’s plan played a massive role in the success of the United States during this crucial time in history. Roosevelt knew china and other Asian countries had something great to offer. Soon after end of the Boxer Rebellion, which was an violent anti-foreign, anti-christian, and anti-colonial uprising, Roosevelt established the Open Door Policy. Roosevelt strongly believed America was much more advanced and superior in regards to economic and political affairs, his presidency aimed for foreign strength and recognition by building the Panama Canal and the building of a military force. The Open Door

     Another country that had imperialistic rule was China. The British forced the Chinese to trade with them. As the result of the Opium War, which China lost, they had to accept extraterritoriality. In 1894, Japanese pressure on China led to war. Japan crushed China and western powers moved quickly to carve out spheres of influences on the Chinese coast. Imperial powers accepted the idea of an Open Door Policy, where trade was open to everyone. Negative effects China had were that there land was carved up, they most many rights and people due to wars. Poverty and misery increased, while no nationalism occurred. Chinese

The opium problem in China during the nineteenth century was primarily viewed as an issue created by foreign traders bringing opium into their empire. Zhu Zun and Xu Naiji wrote memoranda in 1863 elucidating their diverging view to the government on how to combat the issue of opium use and trade. Xu advocated for the relaxing of anti-opium laws as a means of reducing illegal smuggling, while Zhu contends that more stringent enforcement of anti-opium laws is the preferable policy, which Commissioner Lin supports in his edict to foreign traders.

The nineteenth century was a turbulent time of western imperialism and a major Asian power shift. European powers and the United States had a destabilizing effect on the region and the choices Japan and China made in response their imposing expansion was a major contributor to the trajectory of their respective futures. Social factors, such as the differences in national and religious unity, also played a role in the how the two nations emerged from the Age of Imperialism.

After all, Hawaii transformed into America which had greatly sealed power that recovered their crisis. From their prior knowledge in proceeding trade commerce with foreign, China is one the best nations that had rich natural resources and they want fulfill their satisfactions from U.S industries. An expansionist, Reverend Josiah Strong addressed people to recognize that, ” We all know that China is one of the greatest markets of the world, with a population of 400,000,000 that must be fed and clothed.” (Document 15). Great productions from both countries are indispensable in trading from their needs. The United States must step over their boundaries in the Philippines which is their neighbor in gaining access to their country. Serving the Philippines is the importance of supporting their desires to reach their destination. American had endure hardships by fighting for Cuba’s independence over Spain, when their victories came into reality Spain had given Guam, the Philippines Islands, and Puerto Rico to the America’s hands. Americans need to settle the Philippines in supporting them to facilitating China’s market as a “stepping stone” that will provide coal stations, naval bases, cable relay stations, and others that would keep the China’s door open (Israel). The Open Door Policy allowed the United States to have access trade and developments which they will gain prosperity. Goods that are being exports and imports