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Conclusion of first opium war
The influence of the opium war on Britain
Anglo Chinese Opium War
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The First Opium War or the Anglo-Chinese War fought in 1839 to 1842 between Britain and China was the product of a century long imbalance between the two country’s trades and had long lasting impacts on China. Britain was a nation addicted to tea, a delicacy that could only be grown in China and the silver they spent on it began to drain the treasury. The counterattack for Britain was opium. The ill effects of the drug soon became apparent, as addiction problems worsened; officials in both China and Britain began to debate the morality of the opium trade. As one historian wrote, ‘Opium entered China on the back of a camel and it ended up breaking the back of an entire nation.’ The Emperor of China attempted to ban the use of the drug causing the First Opium War. The War took a devastating toll on China; economically, socially and politically, due to the signing of the Treaty of Nanking. While some impacts were beneficial for the war allowed China to take its first steps in its long journey to membership in the international society, others were more damaging as the war was also the trigger to many rebellions that followed, most notably the Taiping Rebellion.
The immediate economic impact on China was the Treaty of Nanking, signed by both the Chinese and British officials and consisted of thirteen articles. Article VII stated that China was to pay for all the reparations, twenty-one million silver dollars in total (six million for the opium that was confiscated by Lin Zexu (imperial commissioner of Guangdong) in 1839, three million for the debts owed to the British merchants by the merchants in Canton and a further twelve million in war reparations). The twenty-one million were to be paid in three instalments and an interest of ...
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...Another. Edition. Robson Books Ltd.
The Taiping Rebellion 1850-1871 Tai Ping TianGuo. 2014. The Taiping Rebellion 1850-1871 Tai Ping TianGuo. [ONLINE] Available at: http://taipingrebellion.com/. [Accessed 03 April 2014].
Immanuel C.Y. Hsu, 1995. The Rise of Modern China.5Rev Ed Edition. Oxford University Press, USA.
Jonathan D. Spence, 1991. The Search for Modern China.1st Paperback Edition. W. W. Norton & Company.
Jonathan D. Spence, 1991. The Search for Modern China.1st Paperback Edition. W. W. Norton & Company.
Immanuel C.Y. Hsu, 1995. The Rise of Modern China.5Rev Ed Edition. Oxford University Press, USA.
Viewer - The Opium War with Julia Lovell. 2014. Viewer - The Opium War with Julia Lovell. [ONLINE]Available at:http://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php/option=com_altcaster/task=viewaltcast/template=/altcast_code=249dffc17c/ipod=y. [Accessed 03 April 2014].
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.”
Schoenhals, Michael. China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969: Not a Dinner Party. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996. Print.
Osborne, Evan. "China's First Liberal." Independent Review 16.4 (2012): 533+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
In paragraphs 3-5 of the letter, Lin addresses the issue that caused him to initially reach out to the ruler of Britain; the smuggling and selling of opium in China through British merchants. The selling and smoking of opium has caused great harm to the Chinese people in the eyes of the Chinese emperor, therefor Commissioner Lin Zexu has been sent to put an end to it. He explains the punishment for the Chinese who smoke and sell opium and notes that the emperor will extended the same punishment to British merchants who continue to sell this drug to the Chinese people. Lin manage to confiscate a large amount of opium through the help of the British superintendent of trade, Charles Elliot. With Charles Elliot being in cooperation with Lin Zexu, it serves as a warning because the Qing dynasty had created new regulations; being if any Britain was found selling opium, he would receive the same punishment as would a Chinese. In order to carry them out, he needed this help o...
Evidence from contemporary newspapers and other sources suggest that by the mid nineteenth-century England was beginning to realize the depth of its opium problem. Opium had been introduced by the Arabs around the sixteenth-century, England began to seriously trade it around the late seventeenth- century. English citizens, by this time, through its exploits, were using the drug for medical reasons. However, most of these new cures all used opium in some form. No matter in which, form it was used, opium had only one effect. It gave a feeling of euphoria. From the opium pill to the plaster or its alkaloids it was a highly addictive drug, a new drug free from government constrains and open to public sale. In the early years opium was merely another piece of cargo to be traded.
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.
Fairbank, John King. The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1986.
The start of this war was when China wanted to end all trades with the British that contained any opium.
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
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.
Goodrich, L. Carrington (1959). A Short History Of The Chinese People. New York: Harper &
Hoobler, Dorothy, Thomas Hoobler, and Michael Kort, comps. China: Regional Studies Series. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Globe Fearon, 1993. 174-177.
Douglas Reynolds, China, 1898-1912: The Xinzheng Revolution and Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Wei-Wei Zhang. (2004). The Implications of the Rise of China. Foresight, Vol. 6 Iss: 4, P. 223 – 226.