1/27/2010

Opium War 鴉片戰爭

Beginning of “Modern China”

- Chinese periodization of “modern China”

o Before the Opium War, China viewed itself as the center of the world
o Its view of itself changed after the war
- Problem of “stagnant China”
o The implication of “modern China” after Opium war is that China was stagnant
before encountering the western world
- Underlying truth of fundamental change

McCartney Mission, 1793

- Seeks additional ports

- Sets up an ambassador in Beijing
o Wanted to set up a full scale diplomatic relations with China
- Set up system of trading to make trading more efficient
- Qing tributary forms (禮儀之爭)
o Kowtow issue
- Qianlong emperor’s response
o No to all request
o Condescending

McCartney’s entry into China seemed like any other tributary states going into to pay tribute,
but that was not McCartney’s intention. McCartney refused to 叩頭 to Qianlong.

Understanding the Chinese response

- Qianlong Emperor’s achievements

o “Foreign affairs” success in North and West China
o Domestic peace(over 100 years of peace)
o Prosperity and growth (government had surplus)
o Strong and efficient bureaucratic state
- Different objectives of Qing and British state

Opium

- Early medicinal use

- Prohibitions from 1729
- Growth in trade
- Mechanism
o Grew Opium in Bengal
 o Smuggled to China from Lintin Island

Impacts

- Problems created by rising addiction

o Economic (reverse flow of silver: China to the outside world)
o People stopped working
- Silver drain
o 1800-1810: $26 million into China
o 1830s: $38 million out of China
- What can you do?
o Legalization debate
o Lin Zexu (林則徐)
 Wants to attack the supply of Opium
 Confiscate Opium and destroy opium by burning
 Diminish the need of Opium of Chinese people (rehab centers)
 Ask people to watch each other (mothers to watch their sons)

The Opium War

- Britain had to justify and find a better cause to launch the war
o Peter Parker says that the Chinese were too arrogant, and thus needed to
launch the war to punish the Chinese and so that they would submit to God.
o Another perspective of the Parliament was to “promote free trade,” because
Britain has just gone through the Industrial revolution
- Commissioner Lin’s seizure of opium
- English easy military victory
o Nemesis
- Treaty of Nanjing
o Indemnity
o Open 5 “treaty ports”
o Ceded Hong Kong
o Fixed tariff
o Extraterritoriality: foreigners in China are not subject to Chinese laws

Second Opium War, 1856-1860

- Frustrations of “China market”

- Lord Palmerston’s threat (1850)
o “Chinese are children and needed to be beaten”
- Reasons for the Second Opium War
o Boat registered in Hong Kong was expired, so was caught by the Chinese
o French missionary who died in China
Causes and Lessons

- Causes
o British expansion
 Industrial Revolution
 Confidence from Napoleonic Wars
 Commerce and “civilization”
o Chinese self-sufficiency
 Trade and opium
- Lessons
o Understanding the Chinese (non) response