Kapiolani
Community College Horizons 2002
Kapiolani
Community College
Horizons 2002
by Yi-Jia Chen
INTRODUCTION
The British opium trade in China started the world’s very first drug war, in the 19th century. Known as the Opium War, many people also refer to it as the Anglo-Chinese War. Opium is a preparation made from the juice of poppy seedpods, and used to produce heroin. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/AO836733.html. The drug was mainly produced in and shipped from the East Indies to China by British merchants. This addictive drug had gotten many Chinese badly hooked by the early 1800s.
In the 15th century, when opium was first introduced to China, it was used as medicine to treat diseases such as dysentery, cholera, as well as diarrhea. http://serendipity.magnet.ch/wod/hongkong. .html. It was not until 1700 that the British introduced China to the process of mixing opium with tobacco so that it could be smoked. During the 18th century, Chinese green tea became very popular, and high in demand among Europeans and Americans. Chinese porcelain, as well as Chinese silk, were also very popular in the Western countries. http://www.borndigital.com/opie.tal.com/opie.ht).
The British merchants’ incentive for importing opium from India to China was to balance out their tea trade with China, and to stop the silver and gold from draining in what could have been a one-sided trade. The British had to use gold and silver because China was a self-sufficient country and the Chinese did not want or need anything from Great Britain or any other foreign countries. http://www.hyperhistory.com/online n2/civil n2/histscript 6 n2/opium.html. When the British couldn’t find any other products to export to China, they decided to bring in opium mixed with tobacco to promote opium smoking.
With nearly 2 million pounds of opium being sold in China each year, opium weakened a large amount of the Chinese population. In the 19th century, 10 percent of the Chinese population was smoking opium. This also affected China economically, due to the large amount of resources, especially silver, flowing out of the country to pay for the opium. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/teachingaids/china/modern/opium.htm. When the Chinese government first discovered opium smoking in the country in 1729, government promoted policies to prohibit the sale of opium for smoking, and shut down and banned opium-smoking houses. At the time, it became a very serious offense to sell opium for smoking purposes. It was classified in the same category as robbery and murder. The punishment was either banishment or execution. http://serendipity.magnet.ch/wod/hongkong.html. Although the harsh punishments helped rid cities of local dealers and treat drug addicts, they did not stop British merchants from bringing in more opium to China. Because many Chinese government officials were corrupt and accepted bribes from British officials, they also became a part of the illegal opium trade.
When the Chinese government discovered the British smuggling opium into China to sell, it was alarmed. However, it was not until 1838 that further efforts to restrict the opium trade were taken. That was when Emperor Daoguang appointed Lin Tse-Hsua, an imperial commissioner, to lead an anti-opium campaign. Lin wrote a letter to Queen Victoria of England arguing that if the opium was so harmful in its effects that Britain had made opium trading and consumption illegal in England, then why was England exporting such harmful products to other countries (http://www.wsu.edu:8080/-dee/CHING/OPIUM.HTM.)? Although the letter to Queen Victoria was very well composed, it was never delivered into the hands of the queen. The letter not only failed to inform the queen that England was promoting the sale of opium in China, but it angered British officials in China who felt that it challenged their power. According to one source, “This letter probably could have brought an end to the opium trade if the British hadn’t been nursing grievances against China with Lin’s take-no-prisoners enforcement of Chinese laws combined with the outrage the British had against his decapitation of the opium trade (http://www.wsu.edu:8080/-dee/CHING/OPIUM.HTM).” Not willing to give up on his anti-opium campaign, Lin then threatened England by saying that if the trade of opium did not stop, he would then sever trade relations with the British, as well as begin efforts to expel the British population from China. After many years of failures for the anti-opium campaign, Lin, in 1839, finally went to Canton, which was then the main port for foreign trade. There, he found a British warehouse full of opium. He confiscated its content and publicly destroyed more than 20,000 chests of the opium seized from British merchants by mixing them with salt and lemon before throwing them into the ocean (http://www.hyperhistory.com/online n2/civil n2/histscript6 n2/opium.html). Not deterred by Lin’s actions, the British continued to sell opium in China by smuggling in opium in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Great Britain. http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/34714.html.
Having the Chinese government officials destroy and seize large amounts of opium, in addition to the threats of ending all trades with Great Britain and expelling Englishmen from China, did not help the foreign relations between China and Great Britain. When the Chinese government attempted to turn back English merchant vessels in late 1839, which encouraged the British to consider war as the next possible strategy. Soon thereafter, British merchants made an appeal to their government. Ultimately, Great Britain demanded that China put an end to the anti-opium campaign. But Lin refused to end it. In 1840, British gunboats arrived and attacked China, destroying many coastal cities. This was known as the First Opium War. It was also the very first drug war in the history of the world. China, being unaware of the British attack, was unprepared for the attack and unprepared to deal with the advanced technologies of the British. China was behind when it came to the use of modern weapons.
China was eventually defeated by Great Britain, and was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, and the British supplementary Treaty of the Bogue in 1843, which indicted Lin and held the Chinese government responsible for the compensation of the amount of opium that was destroyed during the anti-opium campaign. The Treaty of Nanjing concluded the Opium War and further opened up many ports in China, such as Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai, to British trade as well as residence. http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/34714.html. Soon, many other Western nations were beginning to sign similar treaties with China to allow foreign trade and residence. “The Treaty also fixed the customs duties on imports at such a low level that China was prevented from protecting her new industries from competition of cheap imports,”one source commented. http://www.hyperhistory.com/online n2/civil n2/histscript 6 n2/opium.html.
Under this Treaty, China also ceded Hong Kong to the British for up to 155 years, until 1997. The Treaty of Nanjing marked the beginning of foreign commercial and residential privileges in China. It was the f irst in a series of “unequal treaties” which gave foreigners special rights in China and set the stage for exploitation of the Chinese economy and resources. The British treaty was soon followed by American and French treaties. http://www.hyperhistory.com/online n2/civil n2/histscript 6 n2/opium.html. Decades after the First Opium War ended, the Second Opium War started in 1856. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/AO836733.html.
The trigger to the Second Opium War was the dispute over the former treaties and the boarding of the British ship Arrow. The Second Opium War is also known as the Lorcha Arrow War. Besides England, France, Russia, and the United States were involved in the war that lasted until 1858. The Second Opium War ended with the Treaty of Tianjin. The British forced China to sign this treaty by burning up the imperial summer palace, also known as the Yuan Ming Yuan. http://www.encyclopedia.com/printablenew/34714.html. Under the Treaty of Tianjin, China had to open up 11 more ports to foreign trade. Additionally, China had to permit foreign legations in Beijing, sanction Christian missionary activity, and legalize the import of opium. The Beijing conventions of 1860, by which China was forced to reaffirm the terms of the Treaty of Tianjin and make additional concessions, concluded the hostilities. http://www.encyclopedia.com/printablenew/34714.html.
The Opium Wars resulted in the victimization of China by foreign powers for decades to follow. It was not until 1949 and the victory of Mao Zedong and communism that the unequal treaties signed between the Chinese government and the foreign powers were abolished. It was also after 1949 that China took back all the ports, except for Hong Kong. Hong Kong remained a British territory until 1997.
Contents |
Acknowledgements |
Index |
Home |