Opium Wars

Western imperialism in China was very significant, costed the lives of millions of people, but also helped shape China into a much stronger country than it was before, being ruled by the Qing Dynasty. Imperialism is a country extending its power and influence through the use of military force. There were two wars between the imperialists and China, the first and second Opium wars. The result of these wars was the weakening of the Qing Dynasty and led to a time of rebuilding, which was a great struggle, for China. The Europeans wanted to trade with China because of the great opportunity that they saw in the market. China’s population, which was 430 million, was seen as a fast and easy way for the Europeans to make a lot of money. The

Before the arrival of western powers, China was very stable, agricultural, and ethnocentric. They had many factories that produced silk, cotton, and porcelain with their natural resources: salt, tin, silver, and iron mines. They had no interest of trade or interaction with foreigners. From the early eighteenth century, European and American Imperialism spread throughout China with a goal to extend their nation’s power. China was one of many territories that undertook the changes of New Imperialism. By 1912, the country was governed by outside nations: Great Britain (mostly), Russia, Germany, France, and Japan. Their influence on China resulted malignantly on the country’s economy, political ties, and lifestyle; in spite of the few

One of the largest groups ever to immigrate to the United States was the Chinese. In 1842 the British Empire defeated China in the first Opium War. China was forced to pay indemnities of 21 million silver dollars and open five ports to foreign commerce. As a result, peasant farmers were heavily taxed. A series of floods and crop failures in Southern China lead to poverty and famine among peasant farmers. The British were given the power to preside over the immigration of the Chinese people. Eventually 12 treaty ports were opened to Westerners and Western missionaries begin to arrive in China, paving the way for Chinese youth to receive western training abroad.

China has 5000 years of history which experienced wars, collapses, failures and successes. The Opium War in the year 1839 and 1856 marked the changing point of China’s trade policy with foreigners, especially with British in opium and tea. China changed from getting tributes to being forced to sign the Nanjing Treaty and Tianjing Treaty with British and French. Due to China’s over confidence and unwelcome attitude toward foreigners and opium, it caused the British to declare the Opium War to China which made Chinese suffer for many years, but at the same time it also forced China to open its doors to the foreigners.

The First Opium War The First Opium War was a pivotal event important to Chinese history as it impacted China’s economy, exposed Chinese diplomacy and politics, and led to Chinese inferiority. China’s defeat in the Opium War not only heavily damaged its reputation and prestige, but also revealed its many flaws in diplomatic relations, military technology, and economic policies. The unfair negotiations of the Treaty of Nanjing marked a turning point in Chinese history, as European powers exerted foreign dominance over the country, which impacted China economic and political history. Chinese history was significantly affected after the First Opium War, since the Treaty of Nanjing had a huge economic impact to China’s ideas of commerce and trade.

In the beginning of the 19th century the British began to trade opium, an illegal drug, for tea with China which caused, “...the first Opium War...which resulted in a Chinese defeat and the expansion of British trading privileges...”This discrepancy in the trading relationship between the Chinese and the British caused China’s to forfeit their trading territory to the British. The outcome of the Opium War was a setback for the Chinese. Places where the Chinese previously conducted business was no longer available. Economical wars were not uncommon: “During the mercantilist period…a military...would deter attacks by other countries and aid its own territorial expansion.” The focus of many governments became to protect their economy by constantly gaining more territory to increase business. The change of China’s trade routes could have negatively affected the economy. If the Chinese economy were to weaken it could affect the economies of other countries that China interacted with. The Columbian Exchange, a network of trade routes throughout the world, caused the environment to change as, “ ...Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and turnips...raveled west across the Atlantic, and New World crops...traveled east to Europe.” The exchanging of crops between the New World and the Old World, two different geographical areas,

Over the period of 1792 to 1990, England and China's relationship drastically changed because of the trading of opium. China didn’t want to trade opium, but it would mess up England's economy if they were no longer trading opium. China also started to feel the need to westernize, unlike before. China’s need for westernization released tension between the two powers, causing a change in their relationship. China and England's relationship was continous from trade. Even though it was unbalanced in the beginning, it was never cut off. During this time period, in other parts of the world, industrialization was starting to take place. England was one of the leading countries in this age of Industrialization. England used their advanced technology

During both the 18th and 19th century, the British Imperialism in China was very economic. Western countries, mostly Great Britain, exported opium grown in India and sold it to China. The British used the profits from the sale of opium to purchase such Chinese luxury goods as porcelain, silk, and tea, which were in great demand in the West. (britannica.com/topic/opium-trade)

The rise of nationalism in the late 1700s through the early 1800s was frowned upon by the Chinese. It brought democracy, opium trade which eventually led to the opium wars, and the fight over who territories in Shanghai. The British were looking to trade for silver. They offered China lots of silver, for their tea. Britain had essentially scammed the Chinese and instead of paying them the silver they were promised, they payed them with large quantities of opium from the British-Owned India. China didn’t like this, but many of China’s citizens became addicted to the drug of opium. The Chinese were now furious and filled with hate towards western culture. This led to a rise of nationalism within China for its citizens to rebel against this foreign

While the wester hemisphere was experiencing drastic changes like colonies attaining their independence and turning into more modern nations, many adversities were taking place throughout nations in the eastern hemisphere. China was one of those nations. China was a nation known for isolating itself from outside influence, especially from the Europeans. Soon the Europeans began to grow jealous of China 's bounty of enticing goods and resources such as porcelain, tea and silk. China on the other hand did not have any need for European goods. In pursuit to put a halt to the trade imbalance between the two nations, Britain started to smuggle opium into China. The reason behind this was because the Chinese had no need for Britain 's goods but

Finally, deeply rooted tensions between Britain and China began to come to the surface as the Chinese attempted to crack down on opium use and trade within its borders.

I am writing to inform you about the events that occurred over in China. There has been a great demand in Britain recently for tea and porcelain, but the sellers in China only want to be paid in silver. Instead of using up England’s supply of silver, our merchants are importing opium into China. They are demanding to be paid for it in silver and then they use that silver to buy the Chinese products. Some corrupt Chinese officials keep allowing this exchange to occur, even though the use and sale of opium was banned here in the year 1723.

To mitigate their losses, the British switched to opium as a form of payment which the Chinese took (illegally though). The Qing government, after some

The relationships between China and the West has been, throughout centuries, one of the most fluctuating due to the arrogance found on both sides. Emperor Qianlong states his relationship with Europe as ‘one-sided' (Emperor Qianlong Mandate to King George III), based on how Qianlong boldly says that the west needed China's products while china, itself, claimed that they already had everything. This was to say if it did not benefit China in any way or form requests for further trade or import/export was not instated or acted upon by the Emperor. Still, they did allow the trading of China's manufactured goods, such as silk, tea, and porcelain, for silver (England and China: the Opium Wars, 1839-60 June 2006) at the city of Macao and of Canton,

The chinses did not accept the foreigners and they viewed them as barbarians and they didn’t want them anywhere near them but that didn’t stop the British because they started sell opium (a drug) and they made people addicted to it so they kept buying more while they were making a profit, and even after it was made illegal the British bribed guards to bring in even more opium and while that was happing the Chinese got a new detective who’s mission was to get rid of opium, his name was Lin Zexu he was an honest man who was un-bribable and after he destroyed all of the opium, and after that the emperor told the queen that he never wants opium near china, so he closed the shipping ports and blocked them with Junkers but the British brought gun