The Opium Wars and the Subjugation of China

I. Qing (Manchu) Dynasty--the final dynastic rulers in China, ruling during the period from 1644 to 1912 (with a brief reassertion of power in 1917). The Qing Dynasty originated in the Manchuria Province. The Qing followed most previous dynastic practices, except that they were more despotic and more insular. The Qing insisted on retaining all positions of power, and forbade intermarriage with Chinese.

A. Tributary Trade--the Qing Dynasty continued the Chinese practice of strictly controlling trade, insisting that trade would only take place with “barbarians” at certain ports, and would be supervised by government officials (“mandarins”).

1. The China Trade--with European contact with China, great attraction developed for Chinese trade goods: silk, porcelain, and tea--and trade was only allowed to take place at Canton. England was the last of the European powers to begin trading with China, but quickly became one the the country’s largest trading partners, particularly in regards to the trade in tea, which transformed English social practices.

2. The Chinese Trade Deficit--with Chinese officials controlling the trade relationship, the English were forced to trade silver for Chinese trade goods. Desperate for another commodity to trade for these goods (and worried about the amount of silver flowing out of the country), they turned to a plant that grew in India, and had provided powerful pain relief in Asia for hundreds of years.



3. The Opium Trade--opium was not unknown in China, but to the advent of the opium trade fostered by Britain, it was not used recreationally.

a) Effect of opium use--used recreationally, opium produces a state of euphoria, relieving stress, pain, stunting hunger pangs. Continued use creates the need to use larger and larger doses to reach these pleasurable states, however--and once addicted, opium users have a great deal of incentive to continue use of the drug.

b) Non-medicinal use of opium spread from China to parts of the rest of Asia (including back to India--and to parts of Europe, particularly France), particularly as economic conditions in China deteriorated and the Chinese diaspora took place.

c) Chinese attempts to halt trade--Chinese officials, greased with bribes paid by British opium merchants, had long allowed the opium trade to flourish. By the late 1830s, however, with an estimated 2 million opium addicts located in its port cities, Chinese government officials became alarmed and moved to act against the further importation of the drug. The seizure and destruction of a large quantity of opium “provoked” Great Britain into declaring war on China, in what became known as the Opium War.

B. The First Opium War (1839-1842)--Britain’s declaration of war did not concern China, since most members of the Qing court viewed them as an “inferior” race, interested only in acquiring wealth.

1. British technology--part of China’s lack of concern over these incidents was the fact that 7,000 miles of ocean lay between the two countries. However, that fact that Britain had made great leaps in naval technology, and could bring huge amounts of fire power to attack Chinese forts along the coast, and allowed them to even penetrate the interior of the county up navigable rivers.



2. Treaty of Nanjing--the first of the “unequal” treaties, granted Britain not only the right to continue trading opium for tea, but received the rights of ownership for a swampy island off the coast of China they had used for their base of operations while the war was being fought (Hong Kong--just given back to China in 2000, when their “lease” ran out), the right of access to other Chinese ports, the right of extra-territorality (that is, British citizens were exempt from the law of the land in China)--as well as demanding that the Chinese compensate the British for the cost of the war. These concessions to one European power soon had to be granted to other European powers, as well.

3. The Benefits of “Free Trade”--this “war” was about free trade--the right of Britain to freely trade a destructive substance to China for tea, so that British fears of impoverishment from the amount of silver flowing out of the country could be salved.

a) Tea and British society--tea has been portrayed as a “luxury” good in most accounts, but its use in Britain transcended the restrictions we usually think of when thinking about the people using luxury good. Tea was consumed by all levels of British society by the time of the First Opium War, including industrial workers, who regularly received “breaks” at work (in the morning at 10:00, and the afternoon at 4:00) to consume tea (along with another “luxury” item--sugar)

C. Second Opium War--China, in the midst of attempting to put down the Tai-p'eng Rebellion, boarded a ship called the Arrow suspected of smuggling and piracy. The British, claiming the fact that the ship had been registered in Hong Kong and therefore exempt from Chinese scrutiny under the Nanjing Treaty. Although distracted by the Sepoy Mutiny in India, the British launched the Second Opium War (or the Arrow War, as it is also known) in 1857, with assistance from the French, marching to Beijing and burning the Summer Palace and extracting further concessions and indemnities from the Chinese.

D. Tai-p’eng Rebellion--the internal weaknesses exposed by the First Opium War came to fruition in a popular rebellion led by a former school teacher (and former convert to Christianity) by the name of Hung Hsiu-ch’uan, who preached a doctrine of strict equality between people (particularly men and women), equal division of land, communal ownership of goods, and an end to social distinctions.

1. Rebels sense of purpose--and discipline led them to defeat those Chinese forces sent against them--initially. Success led many in command to develop a taste for the trappings of royalty; combined with the British and French aid to the Qing Dynasty to put down the rebellion (which they believed would undermine the growing European control of the country), led to the rebellion’s defeat in 1864--leaving the Qing in power for another 50 years.