The Opium Wars, despite being a small footnote in history books, is a complex war that heavily based itself on the concept of trade. It involved two different nations, China and Britain, and how both sides bickered and argued over trade to the brink of war. China, with clear power in its trade over Europe, implemented a new trade system which restricted the flow of goods from Europe to a single port named Guangzhou or better known as Canton. Worst, the Chinese would only accept opium as a form of payment for goods. For Britain, this would be an economic nightmare since they survived two major wars (American Revolution and Napoleonic) and was running a major trade deficit from buying Chinese goods with silver. To mitigate their losses, the British switched to opium as a form of payment which the Chinese took (illegally though). The Qing government, after some …show more content…
In retaliation, the British resorted to war with the Chinese to 1) open more ports due to failed negotiations, 2) allow opium to flow unrestricted as a commodity in the country, and 3) to get the Qing to compensate for the lost opium that was destroyed by their advisor Lin Zexu. Before the Opium Wars, Britain and China have been engaged in regular trade as early as in the 1700s. However, in 1757, the Qing declared that all western traders must trade only in the Canton port. This act is intentional though being that the Chinese had started to view the westerners as a destabilizing factor in China due to the Flint Affair. The Flint Affair, involving an employee directly addressing his grievances to the Emperor, was partially responsible for the implementation of the Canton system. Because of Flint’s actions, the Chinese became suspicious that traders from western countries could choose to break the rules set by the Canton system and do as they may. This is supported by an earlier decree from Emperor Kangxi in which he
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.
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
To pay for the tea from China, the East India Company grew opium in India and sold it for silver in China. After a Chinese attempt to stop this, the Opium War broke out.
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
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
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
The Opium War was a major part of China’s history. There were many economic issues, (the high cost of importing opium), political issues (disobedience of Chinese ban on opium imports) and consequences of the British victory (Britain’s greater power over China) that precipitated the Opium war, but the British victory had the greatest impact on China because the extension of British power reduced China’s autonomy and made them more dependent on Europe. The high cost of importing opium had major consequences that weakened the Chinese economy and was a leading cause for the Opium War. Document A is a record of the British Imports and Exports at the Port of Canton.
The increase of production and use of opium created many problems for China. An issue that resulted of the opium trade was the illegal opium trade with Britain. While most goods and products were legally traded, opium had increased in the illegal market. Previously China’s emperor had written to Britain’s monarchy about the encroachment of their demand of goods and land within China. The emperor Qianlong, in his letter, states that “porcelain which the Celestial Empire produces are absolute necessities to European nations and to yourselves” (Document 1). This shows that European countries often wanted the products of China. It also provoked the illegal trade of opium a very valued
In 1729 China banned the distribution of opium. This ban was not heavily enforced. At this time Britain began growing opium as a cash crop. In 1773 Britain imported 1,000 chests of opium to China. The Chinese people became addicted. In 1832 Britain imported another 20,000 chests of opium to China. Then in 1836 China closed all main ports as an attempt to keep opium out of the country. Chinese officials then openly burned large amounts of confiscated opium. This sparked The First Opium War. This war lasted 4 years and ended with the Treaty of Nanjing which opened all of China’s ports and made Hong Kong a British colony. This was beneficial to Britain because they made money importing opium to China, as well as forcing China into a war that Britain knew that they could win and gain land from.
The complain made the Emperor angry as the English man broke several regulations within the command structure and this lead to decreasing the Chinese-European to only Canton. The Canton-System was basically about that the European merchants had to stay in Canton, that they had to bargain with Chinese intermediaries and that their only payment are in silver bullion. The outcome of the system was a negative trade balance for the European countries that traded with China and also a huge silver loss for them, what in the end was also the reason for the East India Company to start the trading of opium in China to compensate their loss.
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
European trade with China was historically restricted. In 1793, emperor Qianlong denied King George III's request for fewer trade restrictions by declaring, “Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance... There was therefore no need to import
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,
However, such trade limitations would not go well with England and a severe response was in order. On August 31, Commissioner Lin learned that the merchant ships anchored off Hong Kong had been joined by a twenty-eight gun British frigate. Although this news was not good, Lin, who had the use of a fleet of Chinese war