Opium and the Opium Wars

The Western Traders

• Community of traders in Guangzhou

• Trade tea and silk through a monopoly

• The trade expands rapidly in 1830s

• Traders want– End to the monopoly– To be allowed to trade in other ports– A fixed rate of tax

Lin Zexu

• Proposed ending opium trade to solve currency problems

• Understood the Western traders as pirates

• 1839 arrived in Guangdong– Destroyed opium– Imprisoned traders in their compound to make

them promise not to trade opium again

→ CRISIS

The Opium War 1840

• British fleet sent from India

• British troops beseiged Guangzhou then paid off

• British fleet sailed up the coast and threatened Tianjin

→Treaty of Nanjing

The Treaty of Nanjing 1842

• End of the Cohong monopoly

• Open 5 more ports to foreign trade

• New system of fixed tax rates

• Hong Kong ceded to Britain

• The Qing made a large payment to the British

Problems after the Treaty of Nanjing

• The Chinese saw it as a rebellion that had been pacified

• The British saw it as a war they had won

• Factional disputes at court about what to do

• Trouble in Guangzhou because some people had lost out from the treaty

→ The Second Opium War

The Treaty of Tianjin 1858

• Ten more ports opened to foreign trade

• Foreigners allowed to travel in China

• Chinese internal customs duties fixed for foreigners

• Extraterritoriality ie foreign law used for foreigners

• Foreign diplomats allowed to reside in Beijing

Educational images of the Opium War from the People’s Republic of China’s Southern Daily (Nanfang ribao) in 2004

Interpretations

1. Imperialism• J.A. Hobson and Vladimir Lenin• Argument very influential in 1910s and 20s

2. Impact of the West– John K. Fairbank– China as the centre of the world

3. Spread of psychoactive substances

Opium and the Spread of Psycho-active Substances

• Listed from 8th C as a medical drug

• Recreational consumption spread from the Philippines in the 17th C

• Large scale imports tied to British consumption of tea