Cancerous, horrific, unethical, and greed delineate imperialism. An Imperialist views other nations inferior and attempts to spread their superior notions onto other countries and their people. The Opium Wars remain a paragon example of the evil associated with this perspective. Battles centralized around the drug opium, an addictive narcotic derived from the poppy seed. Initially, people took the substance to fulfill medical needs, but over the years society began to smoke opium casually (Gibson, Anne). It spread around the world through trade as Britain utilized the drug to initiate the Opium Wars. Consequently, the First Opium War portrayed Britain using brutal force to manipulate a weaker country into their control despite China’s economic needs. After the first war, a twenty-year gap caused tensions to bubble up again and the second war began, which continued the problems of the first war (Goldfinger, Shandra). Horrific battles destroyed China, yielding adversities to haunt both countries perpetually. Although The Opium Wars symbolize a momentous time in Chinese History, the topic remains a sensitive issue towards the Chinese people due to the Westerner’s immoral actions; through imperialistic force, Britain led unjustified attacks on China to satisfy their economic needs despite moral obligations.
Analogous to heroine, Opium’s destructive power ruined lives and in some cases, ended them. Not only did this toxic substance decrease the quality of business, work and civil services, it ultimately lowered a nation’s standard of living. China witnessed all of these adversities along with 12 million citizens becoming addicted to the drug (Allingham, Phillip). Facing no other choice, China needed to ban Opium. Of course, people st...
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...untry, both politically and economically. It depicted the Chinese as weak compared to the Western Imperialists, which formed sensitivity among the Chinese people, not just for Opium, but pertaining to the entire west. The West ignored every moral obligation, including diplomacy. Britain did not care about the needs or wants about China. They only wanted to satisfy their monetary needs signifying the country’s decadence. A trade deficit does not justify the perpetual adversities coinciding with the wars. This war depicted the negatives of Imperialism while highlighting the value of free trade. Although the wars ended, the horrific actions shall remain ingrained in the Chinese mindset and for that reason the Opium Wars will remain a sensitive issue. People will always remember how the “foreign devils” hurt China for purely imperialistic reasons (Allingham, Phillip).
One of the most important aspects of imperialism is the take over of government. The English accomplished this in several ways. Some of the “Unfair Treaties” forced the Chinese to allow the English ships into their ports and to allow them to have a major role in the trade market. The English wanted tea, porcelain, and silk from china. The Chinese however didn’t want to gods the English offered in return. The English began trading opium in return for the goods. Although it was illegal, many of the money hungry merchants excepted the opium in return for the things that were valuable to the English. Because of this, the first Anglo-Chinese war erupted. China underestimated the power of England and was defeated. At the end of the war, they were forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing (1842). The treaty was one of the first treaties known as the “Unfair Treaties.” Under this treaty, china gave up the island of Hong Kong, abolished the licensed monopoly system of trade, granted English nationals exemption from Chinese laws, and agreed to give England whatever trading concessions that were granted to other countries then and later.
The Chinese would run the opium trade; cocaine would come from South America. The impact of this conspiracy, she asserted, could as of now been seen in the city of Edmonton, where Murphy was a police court officer (Mark Bourrie, 2015). In her book through various illustrations she mentioned about the “The Ring Victims.” Through her book “The Black Candle” she likewise specified that how the white race especially white girls and women were trapped by Chinamen in order to secure their services administration as sellers of opiates (Kulba, 85). She further discussed that it is not true that girls go to Chinamen because of the drug habit they learnt and request to satisfy their drug needs (Kulba, 85). Yet, “they are trapped and hunted like a game stalked to windwand and trapped by the Chinamen in order that she may be bent to his criminal purpose such as Libidinous desire” (233). Emily Murphy, in her book “the Black Candle” opposite to page 30 there is a photo of a white woman with an opium pipe; the caption stated as “An open-eyed insensate in the dread Valley of the Shadow of the Drug,” (Murphy, 1922). Below, another picture demonstrates the natural progression of The Ring’s victims: a completely dressed white lady leans back with shirtless black man (Kalunta-Crumpton, 333). The subtitle pursues: "When she procures the propensity, she doesn 't comprehend what lies before her; later she couldn 't care less." Opposite page 49, there’s a picture of a dark-skinned man and white woman, postured together, with opium paraphernalia in front of them. The caption says: “Once a woman has started on the trail of the poppy, the sledding is very easy and downgrade all the way.” The Ring was said to have its claws into Saskatoon, Calgary, Montreal and other Canadian cities where young women —
At the end of the eighteenth century, China’s goods were much desired by Britain. However, the Chinese saw Europeans as savages and did not want to trade with them. During trade, there was an imbalance in China’s favor, because the Europeans were forced to buy Chinese goods using silver. The Western Imperialists began to grow opium poppies from in India, and then smuggle them into China. China soon became addicted to the drug and spent most of it’s money on the purchase of it from the Europeans and Americans. This shifted the balance of power to be in Europe’s favor.
Later, the Qing refused to accept European goods and demanded bar silver as payment. As a result, The Western powers began experiencing an outflow of silver to China. The countries, especially Britain, needed to find a way to reverse the flow of silver so the trade was even. So the British resorted to opium, a drug from the sap of the opium poppy. Originally used as medicine in western countries, opium was sold to China as a recreational dr...
Brecher, E. (n.d.). Opium Smoking Is Outlawed. Licit and Illicit Drugs. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/cu/cu6.htm
The first law against drugs was made in year 1908 in Canada called the Opium Act of 1908. In the year1850 onwards there were many Chinese immigrants coming to Canada through British Columbia .These Chinese immigrants were a cheap source of labour to Canadian government. The consumption of opium by the Chinese immigrants was another way to gain income for the Canadian government by taxes on the opium manufacturing factories in1871. In late 1800s an...
Hanes, William Travis, and Frank Sanello. Opium Wars: the Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. Naperville, IL: Source, 2002. Print.
Allingham,, Philip V. "England and China: The Opium Wars, 1839-60." The Victorian Web: An Overview. 24 June 2006. Web. 06 Apr. 2011.
Concerned authorities have focused essentially on criminalization and punishment, to find remedies to the ever-increasing prevalent drug problem. In the name of drug reducing policies, authorities endorse more corrective and expensive drug control methods and officials approve stricter new drug war policies, violating numerous human rights. Regardless of or perhaps because of these efforts, UN agencies estimate the annual revenue generated by the illegal drug industry at $US400 billion, or the equivalent of roughly eight per cent of total international trade (Riley 1998). This trade has increased organized/unorganized crime, corrupted authorities and police officials, raised violence, disrupted economic markets, increased risk of diseases an...
As the former president of Harvard University, Derek Bok wrote “The most obvious purpose of college education is to help students acquire information and knowledge by acquainting them with facts, theories, generalizations, principles, and the like. This purpose scarcely requires justification.” America needs educated citizens to help maintain the level of intelligence we have in society. Students need to be taught to their specific career and the knowledge needed in that career. Though education students are strengthened for their futures as good citizens. College is a more specialized form of the education they have received throughout their entire schooling and will need for their careers. College prepares students for the future by specializing
At the start of the semester, my oblivious state of nature associating with the Chinese culture reached an unacceptable level. Implementing a necessary change, I decided to educate myself on different cultures starting with China. I failed to ponder that such a rich, deep culture existed outside America. Encompassed by this country’s unique yet suffocating melting pot culture, my outlook believed ideas such as uniformity between American Chinese food and Authentic Chinese food. After this course, my bigot perspective widened as I witnessed diversity in the world. Before this class, when I thought of Chinese food, my connotation jumped to thoughts associated with chop suey, but as I progressed my education, my mindset gradually pondered foods like steamed buns or “New Year Cakes” with authentic Chinese food.
...ns such as these: pay $6 million for all the lost opium to Britain, pay $3 million to merchants, free all British prisoners, make island of Hong Kong as a Britain colony, British would remove all soldiers and troops from ports, open five new trading ports, and opium still had to be traded. That was one really bitter downfall for China. They basically had to pay for their own war for a total of $21 million and opium was still traded not even stopped. I think by Britain making those conditions was an act of karma for China’s part. Once the five new trading ports opened, China was confined to learn how to trade with the rest of the world. That was how China became what it was today, rich, powerful, and large. Basically, it was a slap in the face for the British.
Many societies who viewed Western culture as parasitic were forced to adapt to Western culture for survival. For China, the Americans made the Chinese dependant on them for supplying Opium. When the Chinese fought against the sale of Opium, the America's superior military defeated them and forced them into an unfair treaty. This created a Western presence in China, pushing Western laws, values, religion, and language on the Chinese.
Gregorio Lopez Mr. Locks British Lit 4/7/14 The First Opium War and its aftermath on Chinese To the normal Chinese man during the early 19th century, opium was nothing more than a luxury that only those of higher power or influence could indulge themselves in. Yet by the middle of the 19th century opium had become a commodity that everyone could have and that at the same time they seemed to need. Even though it was now such a big part of the normal chinese culture, it did not benefit the people nor Chinese culture, it did not benefit the people or the government. The only benefit it did seem to have was towards the British.
When we are young, we all have our own unique dreams and aspirations for what we wish to do when we are “older.” As we grow older, we begin to realize that some of our dreams are unattainable, while others are able to achieve their dreams. Whether one is the first person or the latter, we are spoon-fed the idea of attending college. We all hear how college is our “gateway to success,” and how “our entire lives depend on college.” Pressures bear down on high school students, telling them that they must attend college to be capable of anything in life. But people do not realize the detriments that are also associated with attending college. Students should not be pushed to attend colleges as there could be several factors that play in a student’s