The History of~The Opium Wars

If you are one of those people, either a 20 year old adult or a kid from the 1980's, then you know about America's war on drugs. With the ATF fighting a battle to keep all of the bad drugs such as Pot, Cocaine and Heroin from crossing the borders to the USA, and you also may have seen a lot of the scary anti-drug commercials as well (and even using a particularly tasty breakfast food to prove their point).

But the USA's war on drugs doesn't even compare with what happened in China in the 19th century, it was a time when Great Britain wanted to trade with the usually xenophobic *Qing Dynasty*, and used a drug known as *Opium* to gain the Dynasty's silver.

Coming from the Poppy Seed Pod. Opium contains a chemical that (if smoked) can enhance the senses in the human brain of pleasure and reward. However, it also develops a physical addiction to it. The Opium Pod was originally used in the many empires of Modern Day India, but it has reached to other places as well.

But how did this lead to war with the Qing Dynasty? Well, this is what this page will try to explore. This is part 1 of *The History of~ The Opium Wars.*

## Prelude

As Great Britain was expanding it's empire over many areas of the world. It would eventually reach the Qing Dynasty (modern-day China) sometime in the 18th century.

However, when the British wanted to negotiate a trade agreement with the Qing Dynasty, the Qings weren't interested in trading with the west, but eventually they gave in to some form of trade with the west.

But this wouldn't be without a set of strict rules, so in 1757 the Qing Government would establish what is known as the *Canton System* (named after the port town where western traders can stay and trade with the Dynasty, which is now known as *Guangzhou*), but these rules are very strict.

For one thing, the western traders in Canton can only stay in the town for a certain amount of time a year.

They also weren't allowed to learn and/or speak the Chinese Language.

They also weren't allowed to travel anywhere else in the Qing Dynasty.

They also weren't allowed to bring their families.

But the western traders (the British in particular) wanted to trade for tea as well as Chinese Silk. But the Qing Government wanted the payments to be in silver since the Qings weren't interested in British merchandise. This presented a problem for the British because they had to import Silver from their other trade partners (including the Spanish which get their silver from Mexico and other of Spain's colonies in South America).

The British tried to re-negotiate the Canton system as well as other conditions but the Qing Government wouldn't play along.

The British bought around 27 Million £ from the Qings (which is 3 times the amount of pounds they spent on goods they bought from other countries) and around 18 Million £ was in silver which the British had to buy from other nations.

### The Opium Trade

By the 1790's, Britain's East Indian Company came in to help, they suggested that they should trade in Opium from India.

The Qing Dynasty green lights the trade of Opium, but then made it illegal in 1799. But this didn't stop the Opium trade.

In just a few decades (right around 1830) around 80-85% of people in the southeastern regions of the Qing Dynasty were addicted to the drug (and this allowed Opium Dens to sprout up like weeds all over these regions of the Dynasty).

Still, the Qing Government wasn't happy with this, but the Qing Merchants most certainly were.

In fact, the Qing Merchants were even willing to pay for the Opium in Silver, allowing the British get the silver back that they pay for other Qing Goods. Plus the fact that the British East Indian Company manufacturing the Opium from 1790 to 1835 would increase dramatically.

By 1833, the *St. Helena Act* went into effect, meaning that Britain's East Indian Company would end it's monopoly on the Qing Dynasty which would lay the ground work for free trade, as in other places in the Far East Asia. This would allow more British Entrepreneurs to sell Opium, soon the USA would also step in and trade the drug. The competition would also help keep the price of opium down. This would be an economic disaster for the Qing Dynasty.

## The Enforcer

With the Qing Dynasty becoming increasingly nervous about the Opium Trade, and to make it absolutely clear that opium was illegal. The Daoguang Emperor hired a "strong man" to help enforce this law: Lin Zexu.

Lin Zexu was sent to the Western Trade Town of Canton, and there he and his men have arrested hundreds of Qing Opium Traders, confiscated thousands of Opium Pipes, and even ambushed and raided western merchant ships and have extracted around *2.6 Million lbs.*(or *1.2 Million kg*) of Opium from those ships.

He even ordered the Opium to be filled with limesalt and then dumped into nearby seas or rivers.

This might be seen as harsh, but remember that Opium was illegal in the Qing Dynasty by this time, so Lin Zexu wasn't acting outside of his authority.

Lin Zexu even went to the extent of writing an open letter to the British Queen Victoria.

*"We find that your nation is around 60 or 70 thousand Li (the Chinese equivalent of Miles) from the Qing Dynasty. Yet there are barbarian ships that strive to come here to trade with us for the purpose to make a profit. The Wealth of our Dynasty is used to profit these Barbarians. That is to say that, the great profit made by these barbarians is all taken from the rightful share of our Dynasty. By what right do they in return use this poisonous drug to injure the people of our land? Eventhough the barbarians may not necessarily intend to do them harm, yet in coveting profit to an extreme, they have no regard in harming others. So, I have to ask, where is your conscience?"*

The Queen would never receive this open letter.

Instead this letter was published in a British newspaper called "The times of London" and the British Merchants that read it were none too pleased.

### Tensions Mount

This would lead to numerous breakouts of violence in Kowloon (on Hong Kong Island), causing deep tensions between western traders to trade opium and the Qing Dynasty.

All the while, Lin Zexu refuses to back down. He even threatened the western traders that they must obey the laws of the Dynasty, or face the penalty of death.

In early 1839, *Charlies Elliot* who is the Superintendent of Trades to the Qing Dynasty had formally declared trading with the Dynasty over and recalled all merchant ships.

## Battle of the Chuenpi

A few months later, a ship called the Royal Saxon defies the restriction of trade to the Qing Dynasty (despite the crew had never traded Opium) came into Canton to trade. Elliot ordered for the Pearl River to be blockaded and then the ships fired warning shots at the Royal Saxon. That is when Chinese Junks came in to protect the Royal Saxon, this would spark what would be known as the Battle of the Chuenpi on November 3, 1839. The Royal Saxon was able to flee to the Portuguese Port town of Macau. However, British War Ships sunk 4 Chinese Junks and killed 15 Chinese crewmen. Thus beginning the First opium War.

## The War: Round 1

It wouldn't be until around the summer of 1840 when the British would go on the offensive as they have a massive fleet to go up against the Qing army. Outclassing the Chinese Fleet, they captured the town of Dinghai just a few weeks later, but had to evacuate in the fall due to disease. By 1841, the British Fleet split up, one part went up the Pearl River, the British achieved victory in another battle of Chuenpi and by the Spring of 1841, the British were able to re-take the port town of Canton.

After re-taking Canton. The British Fleet would then go up the southeast coast of the Qing Dynasty and by the summer, they would find their way to the Yangtze River (China's sacred river) and in August, the British would reach the city of Nanking (or Nanjing), and with this the Qings would surrender.

## Aftermath

Negotiations would come underway shortly after the surrendering of the Qing Dynasty.

The British would force the Qings to sign the *Treaty of Nanking* which would get rid of the old Canton system. Meaning western traders would stay as long as they want, can learn and speak in Chinese. They would open more trading towns along with Canton, they would also open up places such as Xiamen, Fuzhou*,* Ningbaoand eventually *Shanghai*(though they were still not allowed to go anywhere else in the Qing Dynasty) and they were allowed to bring their families along too.

The Qings also had to pay the British around 30 Million Silver dollars for not just war reparations but also for the actions of Lin Zexu, and the British were to occupyZhoushan as well as the Island of Gulangyu until the Qings payed up.

The British were also allow to have all of Hong Kong, (not just the island). The British also made the Qings sign what is known as the Treaty of the Bogue which is to have the Dynasty recognize Britain's "Favored Nation" status and the British also got what is called "Extraterritoriality" which means that the British weren't obliged to obey the laws of the Qing court.

But the west wasn't done with signing treaties with the Qing Dynasty. The USA and France also wanted to negotiate treaties with the Qings. The Americans negotiated the Treaty of Wangxia where the Americans got everything the Brits got and the right for US merchants to learn and speak Chinese, and the French: The treaty of Wompoa which gave the French everything the Brits got too.

The Qing Dynasty's defeat in the First Opium War would also see the Manchu Rulers lose a substantial amount of legitimacy that they had in China. The people would now begin to resent the Manchu rulers (as they were unpopular with the majority of the Chinese people, including the Hans, the ethnic people of China). This would cause a series of rebellions and uprisings to go all over the Qing Dynasty such as the *White Lotus Rebellion* and especially the *Taiping Rebellion* (which you can click here to read about that).

Unfortunately though, these treaties did not solve the problems that the west had with the Qing Dynasty. Because nearly 20 years later we would have another war over the trading agreements with the west and the Qing Dynasty. This is where I will end part 1 of the History of The Opium Wars. You can check out Part 2 by clicking on that link. Plus, don't forget to check out my other pages in here as well as the Games and Movies wikis too. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.