Opium War Effects

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The enforcement of the British sale of Opium to the Chinese by the British East India Company triggered the start of the Opium Wars. This event can mark the earliest development of the modern higher education system in Republican China. The Opium Wars (1839-1842, 1856-1860) exposed China’s weakened role in terms of its inferior international status to oblige Western powers. China’s acquiescent surrender of numerous treaty ports, and the subsequent “unfair treaties” after the Opium Wars signaled another defeat of China where foreign agitators claimed land privileges and trading accolades. The Treaty of Nanjing (1842) that ended the First Opium War granted the British special trading advantages as their ultimate objective. The United States, …show more content…

European Imperialism that plagued China’s in the First Opium War continued to restrict China’s desire for autonomy. Though China would never be under the control of one Western nation like most other countries on the Asian and African continents, it was being carved into various spheres of influences for its coveted trading ports .The Western powers thrived upon China’s appeasement and passivity to confronting foreign aggression. Once China conceded to the demands of the French and Americans under the provisions of the “most favored nations status clause”, the British also demanded a renegotiation of the Treaty of Nanjing after it was signed twelve years before …show more content…

The British and French armies under Jean- Baptiste Louis Gros and the English armies under Lord Elgin lead the expedition in The Second Opium War. The joint ambush was successful in capturing the Dagu Forts near Tianjin in May 1858, which led to the Chinese concessions. The Treaties of Tientsin (June 1858) protected the religious toleration of Europeans in China and accepted the unmonitored preaching of Christianity within China. As Spence observes, “ travel anywhere inside China was permitted to those with valid passports, and within thirty miles of treaty ports without passports”(Spence, 1991, p. 180). The expansion of privileges for foreign missionaries was also expanded on after 1858 from the initial opening of ports in

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