Trade & Exchange - THE OPIUM WARS

Opium and China

Carried a significant purpose in trade and exchange in the 18th and 19th century’s. In the 19th century, opium was part of an international trade that included its uses for medicinal and recreational purposes. It was a source of huge proft for european merchants alike.

The europeans were interested in china due to european mercantilism starting in the 16th century (1501-1600)

China in the mid 17th century (1640’s)

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, (1801-1900) china had been ruled by a succession of royal dynasties for 3500 years.

From the 1640’s, the new ruling dynasty was the manchu or Qing dynasty - sought peace and stability while maintaining the agrarian economy of china. China was wealthy and fostered population explosions in the mid 19th century.

MANCHU/QING dynasty - attitudes towards the west (causes)

By the end of the 18th century, (1701-1800), opium had been banned across Europe, parts of Asia including China due to its addictive and harmful effects on human health – especially when used for recreational purposes. This meant Chinese law did not allow for the product to be sold within Chinese borders, whether it be in bars or opium dens – it would be deemed illegal.

Under the manchu dynasty, attitudes towards the europeans altered dramatically. They did not wish to develop contacts in the west and hoped to resist any contact with European methods or merchants. This was the consequence of European insincerity and disrespectful behaviour by merchants within China towards chinese people, laws and culture. 

Thence, china adopted a ‘closed door’ or isolationist policy wherein european nations interested in the commodities produced on a mass scale by china (mainly tea and silk) could not efficiently, cheaply obtain them, as they remained within China with strict regulation

OPIUM TRADE - against the governing isolationist policies & Manchu laws (causes)

Britain wished to correct the silver outflow and end a trade imbalance that was both dangerous and expensive for the economy/imperial ideologies for ‘free trade’ by exporting narcotics (performing narcotics trade) that were grown by the British Raj over India – specifically Bengal. 

It was the attempt by the EIC to use profits from the opium trade to finance its purchases of Chinese tea and silk (2 MAIN COMMODITIES) that led to the shipping of increasingly large illegal quantities of opium to China despite the laws in place and largely detrimental impacts of opium (already recognised by the Chinese empire), on chinese society

This put an end to the TRADE IMBALANCE that existed in the Sino-British trade system and the needed mass market for their manufactured goods. 

Lin zexu

In 1839, chinese official Lin Zexu confiscated and destroys 20,000 chests of opium in Canton, believing it was threatening China’s sovereignty and well being of its people.

(BRITAIN IS ANGERED & DEMANDS CONCESSIONS IN THE FORM OF WAR)

Opium War of 1839 (1)

1839-1842

• Superior British navy defeats China with navy vessels (Nemesis destroyed Chinese junk ships);

RESULT:

• the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) extracted major concessions and the 1ST OF UNEQUAL TREATIES:

  • cedes Hong Kong to Britain

  • opens five ports to trade

  • grants extraterritorial rights to Britons (short term impact of destruction of china’s sovereignty)

  • forces indemnity payment of $21 million.

  • Grants Britain equal treatment in political scenarios. Chinese

THE BEGINNING OF “The century of humiliation”

The arrow Incident

1856 -

It involved the boarding of a British-registered ship named the Arrow by Chinese authorities, who accused its crew of piracy and smuggling.

An act of power by China, it angered britain and furthered british frustration since the Treaty of Nanjing.

The Second Opium War

1856-1860

Sought full rights to trade in all of China, growing dissatisfaction with the terms of the treaty of nanjing as well as the catalytic events involving: 

• France - angered by the murder of a french missionary, in 1856, spreading a ‘prohibited faith’ in the Guangxi province by chinese officials. 

• His death was used by France as a pretext for participation in the second opium war.

Not satisfied with the outcome of the First Opium War, the British sought even more concessions in the Second Opium War in 1856: To "add insult to injury,” - CONTROL

CONCESSIONS:

• Treaty of Tientsin and

• Convention of Peking legalise opium

• permit missionaries

• grant Kowloon to Britain (Protecting hong kong province, full control over harbour making it easier to import opium. 

Taiping Rebellion,

1850–64

Major civil war, facilitated by the societal conditions under the ereign of the qing empire:

• Furthered by British humiliation that exposed the Qing government's weakness and exacerbated the social and economic problems that fueled the rebellion.

• The rebellion's leader, Hong Xiuquan, also drew on a pre-existing peasant discontent fueled by famine, poverty, ethnic tensions, and a widespread rejection of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty's authority.  

CAUSES (GENERAL LIST)

• Industrial gunboat superiority

• britain’s imperial and economical attitudes/techniques of '“free trade” wherein military force would be used to open up markets when they weren't naturally accessible to British goods and investors.

• Qing China’s resistance towards western economic and political control

  • lin zexu’s concessions and destroying of opium vessels (obstruction) due to his belief that the opium trade was destroying chinese society and facilitating the loss of chinese sovereignty. 

• European mercantilism and economical need for a trade balance (chinese investment in british goods)

IMPACT (LONG-TERM)

In the following years, china suffered:

• the “Century of Humiliation” (1839–1949): foreign control of Chinese economy and territory through inequal treaties.(POLITICAL)

• massive, inreperable social damage from opium addiction and foreign conflicts (SOCIAL)

• rise of Western spheres of influence in ports and cities that remained till the late 20th century - hong kong as a british colony (ECONOMIC+POLITICAL)