The Opium Wars Britain Invades China Essay Sample free essay sample

â€Å"Opium teaches merely one thing. which is that aside from physical agony. there is nil existent. † In the 1800’s British was a steamroller and China were egotistic. China remained wholly isolated from most of the universe in every facet including foreign trade. which was limited to the metropolis of Canton. Despite holding stiff authorities ordinances foreign trade bit by bit grew someplace between the 18Thursdayand 19Thursdaycentury. But as trade flourished the Western powers found themselves at an increasing trade shortage with China. This happened for the simple ground that China was a self sufficient economic system and hence had small or no involvement in western goods. Finally in the twelvemonth 1820 the West penetrated Chinese markets with one good they didn’t possess of course. opium. ( Malraux. 1965 ) Between the old ages 1829 and 1855 smuggling of the drug opium expanded throughout China’s South Coast. At the morning of 1820 9708 thoraxs of opium were smuggled but within a decennary grew to 35445 thoraxs about 400 % addition. At the morning of 1830 opium was strongly associated with China. Approximate every adult male below the age of 40 consumed opium. including bulk of the ground forces. All societal categories were affected the upper category to the provincials. Somewhere about the late 1930’s there were 12 million nuts in China. Due to this high rate of smuggling the antecedently held trade shortage by the Western states was now converted into a trade excess. China was greatly set back. The economic system was crippled by this pestilence. China on the other manus could non export plenty silk and tea to cut down the increasing shortage. To battle this Chinese authorities had to get down exporting their much valued Ag ; by 1836 the Chinese authorities exported about 4. 5 million worth of Ag. While by the twelvemonth 1839 opium tobacco users spent about 100 million taels whereas the authorities gross was merely 40 million taels. This drained and weakened the Chinese economic system. ( James. 1992 ) Such annihilating conditions needed redress and in 1838 Lin Tse-hsu was called upon to the Imperial Palace and assigned him to the obliteration of opium in China. Lin accepted the assignment cognizing he faced an acclivitous undertaking. Opium addicts grew to border 2 million and the concentration remained near the port metropolis on Canton where aliens smuggled immense sums of opium. Although the usage of opium had been banned since 1800 but black markets flourished and were hard to restrict. One of his first moves was to take over naval forces and collar all known opium traders. He besides set up intervention centres for nuts trusting to bring around this complaint. Over the months he enforced Torahs and collected half a million lb of opium and destroyed it but the British still went out of their manner to withstand Chinese Torahs and went down the Canton port to a Portuguese controlled port of Macao. This is the same topographic point where William John Napier tried to convert Chi nese functionaries to reconsider but without success. But even Lin Tse-hsu was unable to hold a permanent impact on curtailing the British. On March 27. 1839 Charles Elliot. British Superintendent of Trade ordered all bargainers to manus over the opium and go on trade ; they besides signed an understanding to avoid trade in opium under the decease punishment. In add-on Lin-Tse-hue issued a memorial to Queen Victoria oppugning the ethical motives of their authorities. No response from the British authorities or the merchandisers but in 1840 the British Indian Army arrived and during the struggle their high quality was rather apparent. Devasted China sued for peace where the British greatly benefitted with extortionate privileges. This wasn’t the terminal of the so called Opium War. in 1956 Chinese functionaries boarded a provateer’s vas registered under the British. and with a license of a twelvemonth the Chinese functionaries accused theArrowof drug smuggling. The British functionaries retaliated by impeaching the Chinese of disfiguring the British flag while review. The 2nd opium war started when the British attacked Guangzhou Gallic forces joined in and many other states got involved diplomatically. The Treaty of Tainjin was eventually agreed to after a twosome of old ages reluctantly. In 1859 perturbation erupted as China refused the puting up of the British Embassy in Beijing. where the British set fire to the summer castle after considerable robbery. Brused and battered at the Convention of Peking in 1860. seting and stop to the war and yielding to British demands of legalising opium. After all that had happened in the early 1900’s the Chinese authorities fought hard to cut down if non eliminate the usage of opium. The primary trouble faced by the Chinese authorities was that the indulgence and ingestion of this drug was by all categories of the society. Bing the national stimulation. the authorities lost gross which had to do up by infliction of other revenue enhancements and that opium proved to be more profitable than cultivation o f necessary cereals. ( Opium in China. neodymium ) The opium war had assorted long-run deductions. First the economic deductions. with the gap of the five ports to British trade flourished. These ports were centrally located in the most developed parts of China ; export of tea was up to 7500000 kilograms and silk up to 2000 bales in 1843. With addition in demand for silk and tea husbandmans shifted businesss and nutrient monetary values were driven up. With more ports opened local coolies and boaters lost occupations. Freight trafficking increased but every bit much to counterbalance the loss in occupations. The hiking in trade activities resulted in pecuniary crisis. the volume of trade cased a deficit of Spanish dollar and aggravated it to appreciate out of proportion. and so the Mexican Dollar was introduced. The crisis magnified with the gap of China’s economic system due to internal crisis. The Chinese Cu hard currency depreciated due to faulty disposal and deficit of Cu supply. With fiscal system capitulating paper money was eventually introduced in 1853. The most badly affected was the fabric industry. with imports of cheaper machines the monetary value of merchandises went down. Resulting in lower criterions of life. doing a cardinal alteration to the economic system of China. Although. China was doing a move towards a market economic system. Foreign exposure speeded up the procedure. but left China ill equipped to vie in foreign and domestic markets. On one manus such alteration undermined China’s autonomy. the urban and rural handcraft industries while on the other manus it bought great development chances. ( James. 1992 ) Second. the societal. political and ideological effects of the opium war caused China to recognize and detect many societal and political thoughts. Concepts of capitalist economy and democracy. and international diplomatic ties were all made known. It became empirical to larn from the West. to contend with the West. Chinese besides set up a foreign ministry of a kind to analyze technological promotions and modernness of warfare. Factories to provide for the depleted and old fashioned ground forcess were besides set up. With western intercession capitalist economy flourished ensuing in new industries shooting all over. Sadly these industries were run by administrative officials. They ran these industries as if for non-profit intents and created monopolies which prevented economic growing. Social economic China flourished but modern endeavors failed. still exciting growing of China capitalist economy. The War exposed many of the government’s weaknesses. The husbandmans had to sh oulder all the brunt and the economic system collapsed it encouraged many motions. With societal pandemonium prevalent. accommodating western patterns weren’t plenty. Private enterprises needed to last without authorities intercession. Besides the demand of a parliamentary system was emphasized. ( James. 1992 ) A war of any kind can take a batch of a state. The societal and economic deductions are seeable but the foundations are shattered to do wretchedness for the coevalss to come. The opium war was a consequence of the infliction of British domination on other weak states disregarding all ethical and moral evidences in carry oning their traffics. The opium war exposed China to the West. they believed their county was Heavenly Middle Kingdom and the emperor was considered to be the Son of Heaven. The war made China recognize its insufficiencies in societal and political Fieldss and take false impressions sing their domination. The pacts signed gifted the British and others to sully China. The exposure to capitalist economy did infact weaken China’s economic system but in the terminal helped them germinate and accommodate to new and efficient patterns. The war helped capitalist economy grow in China. ( Ryan. 2004 ) The opium war greatly weakened the authorities and accompanied with a prostration in economic system ensuing in high degrees on unemployment and poorness over the state. All these factors disruptedthe repose in the state. societal agitation every bit good as mutiny further weakened the foundations of the antecedently self-sufficing economic system. The war had such a annihilating impact that the seniors. functionaries and intellectuals of the state were forced to revise and plan new societal and political system for the state. Adaptation was called for ; functionaries realized that in order for China to recover past awards they had to larn from the West. Intellectuals began to analyze western states. On the other manus the authorities imported assorted modern engineerings to vie in assorted industries in both foreign and domestic industries. The impression of democratic regulation was being earnestly considered. It is to this extent did China hold to alter. This was opened China. It put China at the clemency of the West. The war made the Chinese recognize what a weak state they were. and the demand to beef up to forestall future disagreements feelings of patriotism and anti-western sentiments erupted. These issues play an of import portion in Chinese modern history. In the late 1600’s Chinese imported poppy seeds for medical interventions little did they cognize these seeds would make to loss of life and revamping of the whole economic system through war and devastation. Both the opium wars caused he sad death degree Fahrenheit Qing’s dynasty. China’s last imperial dynasty. Most would reason that the war bought foreword a much needed encouragement to modernness. the Chinese will ever see them as a dark page in history. greedy and barbarous battle. Mentions Boy. A. ( 2006 May 10 ) . Opium Wars. Retrieved February 27. 2008. from Scriptovia Web site: hypertext transfer protocol: //scriptovia. com/document-landing. aspx? DocID=383 Carl A. Trocki. Opium. Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium Trade. 1750-1950 ( London: Routledge. 1999 Chrastina. Paul ( 1920 ) . Opium Wars. Retrieved February 27. 2008. from Old News Web site: hypertext transfer protocol: //www. oldnewspublishing. com/opium. htm Dale. Ryan ( 2004 ) . Global Problems. Global Responses. Retrieved February 29. 2008. from the national Association of Christian Recovery Web site: hypertext transfer protocol: //www. nacronline. com/dox/library/daler/global. shtml James. P ( 1992 ) . Opium Wars and Opening of China. Retrieved February 27. 2008. from Homestead Web site: hypertext transfer protocol: //historyliterature. homestead. com/files/extended. html # Abstract Malraux. A. ( 1965 ) . Andre Malraux quotes. Retrieved February 27. 2008. from Think exist Web site: hypertext transfer protocol: //en. thinkexist. com/quotes/andre_malraux/ USDHEW. Nida. ( 1978 ) . Opium in China ( 1700-1860 ) . Retrieved February 27. 2008. from APACHE Web site: hypertext transfer protocol: //mojo. calyx. net/~schaffer/heroin/opichin1. hypertext markup language