The Opium Wars were a series of conflicts between China and Western nations, particularly Britain, over trade. The wars resulted in China being forced to open its borders to trade and accept unfavorable treaties, leading to lasting humiliation and contributing to the fall of the Qing Dynasty. The conflict arose from Western nations’ desire to trade goods instead of silver, and Britain’s smuggling of opium into China to acquire silver. The Chinese government’s attempts to stop the opium trade led to the First Opium War, which Britain won, gaining Hong Kong and favorable trading terms. The Second Opium War followed, resulting in China being forced to open more ports to European trade and pay reparations.
The Opium Wars were a series of skirmishes between China and several Western nations, especially England. These wars are also sometimes collectively referred to as the Anglo-Chinese War. The end result of the Opium Wars was the forced opening of China to trade and the lasting humiliation of the Chinese government and the Chinese people. Many scholars of Chinese history have suggested that the events of the Opium Wars simmered in the Chinese consciousness for decades, setting the stage for the many violent rebellions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
These wars were rooted in a desire to trade in China. China had been engaged in trade with the West since the 1600s, with Westerners mostly using silver to pay for silk, spices, tea, porcelain, and a variety of other Chinese goods. Many Western nations were accustomed to bargaining with goods, rather than money, and began to chafe at Chinese demands for silver in lieu of trade goods.
When Britain took control of India, it also acquired a monopoly on Indian opium production, and British merchants found a brilliant solution to the Chinese trade problem. By smuggling opium into China, merchants could acquire a stable source of Chinese silver that could be used in trade, creating a market for the highly addictive narcotic. The Chinese government, understandably, didn’t give this idea as much thought as the British, and many government officials began protesting the growing opium trade and attempting to enforce China’s strict anti-drug laws.
In 1839, the Chinese government appointed Commissioner Lin Zexu to supervise the Chinese port of Guangzhou. Zexu took a strict anti-opium stance, even writing a letter to Queen Victoria stating his intentions to end the opium trade. He confiscated and destroyed huge volumes of opium, giving the British an excuse to start the First Opium War. The British claimed he had engaged in the destruction of property and pounded Chinese coastal cities with gunboats and soldiers. Eventually, the Chinese government was forced to concede in defeat and the British forced them into the Treaty of Nanking, gaining the territory of Hong Kong along with very favorable trading terms in 1843.
13 years later, the Second Opium War was triggered by a Chinese-led search for and seizure of a British vessel suspected of smuggling. The British used military force again, accompanied by nations that wanted a slice of China’s lucrative trade such as France and the United States. In 1860, the Chinese were forced to sign a second treaty, the Treaty of Tianjin, opening more ports to European trade, providing free passage for European merchants to China, and forcing China to pay reparations to nations caught up in the Second Opium War.
The Opium Wars are often used as a clear example of European imperialism in China. Like many nations in Asia, China has been forced to open its borders to trade against its will and to offer very favorable trade terms to its European “partners”. The “Unequal Treaties,” as the treaties that ended the Opium Wars are known, provided numerous very lucrative contracts, ports and terms to European signatories and forced China to greatly compromise its own legal system. Eventually, the Chinese population rebelled, and the Opium Wars could be considered a major contributing factor to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the last royal dynasty in China.
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