The Opium War

In this descriptive essay the movement for china to prohibit opium and the formation and the devolution of the first opium war from 1839 till 1842 and its aftermaths for china will be shown. The Opium War was one of the most important points of inflexion in the history of china. Before this war, china was an autonomous feudal state that administrates the state without interventions of other states. After the repression of the Qing Dynasty by the British and the signing of the disparate contract of Nanjing in 1842, china converted step by step to a half feudal and half colonial state.

Already in the forties of the 19th century, Great Britain was a high developed, capitalistic State. After it has tightened its colonial control about India, their aggressions adjust against china. In this time china was still a self isolated feudal state with a dominant autarkic agricultural economic system. British industrial goods were not liked and couldn’t be sold in china in this time, so that Britain had to pay big amounts of silver to buy Chinese products like silk and tea.

To avoid these high costs, Britain starts to bribe Chinese functionaries by opium. It was brought in rising high amounts to china. For example in contrast to 1820 where they brought 4000 cases with 600 kilo of opium for each to china, they transported 40000 cases of that in 1838 to the empire of the middle, which means that a very high amount of silver leaves china in this years. The price of silver was rising high so that the burden of the Farmers gains and the Qing Dynasty get into financial problems consequently.

Thereby the number of opium smokers elevates, the feudal functionaries getting more and more corrupt and the fighting power of the Chinese army was enervated. Finally the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty Daoguang (from 1821 till 1850) was frightened of his authority. Because of that he sends the general governor of Hunan and Hubei, Lin Zexu, as a special representative to Guangzhou to eliminate dealing with opium. In Guangzhou he let arrested the dealers, punished corrupt functionaries and ordered the foreign traders to surrender their opium to him.

The foreign traders also had to sign a commitment that they never would deliver opium to china again. The counteraction of Charles Elliot, the British inspector for trade in China, attempts to perforate the prohibition and told the foreign traders that they don’t have to sign the commitment and don’t have to surrender their opium to the Chinese governor. He also commands the trade ships which anchor in front of the Pearl River to get away. After those actions Lin Zexu prohibited all trading actions between Chinese and British people and let guard the British residential area by the army.

On the 3rd of June in 1839 he gave the order to a public burn down of 1,15 million kilogram of the surrendered opium of Humen. Thereafter he wanted to go back to the normal trade between china and Britain with a general prohibition for opium. After the public burn down, Charles Elliot pressures the British government to start a vengeance war against china. In April of 1840 the British parliament declares a resolution for a war against china on what they started an offense in June. They first attacked the coast of Guangzhou with 40 warships and about 4000 army soldiers.

That was the beginning of the opium war. The Chinese army was prepared well for this offense so that they can kickback the attacks in Guangzhou and later also in Xiamen in the province of Fujian. Later they charged Dinghai in the province of Zhejiang and push along to the north where they accomplished the harbor of Tianjing and menace the capital Beijing. The Qing administration was afraid about this development so that they sent Qishan, general governor of Zhili (today called Hebei), to Guangzhou to start negotiations for peace.

But during the negotiations in January of 1841, the British army attacks the fort in front of Humen and captured it. Because of that Qishan was affected to sign the convention of Chuanbi which declares the abandonment of Hongkong to Great Britain and the payment of reparations for the burned opium. This convention was an affront for the Emperor Daoguang which threatened his authority. Because of that he declared the war against Great Britain. He sent his nephew Yishan to Guangzhou who should direct this military act. But even before he arrived the British army captured Humen that were protected by admiral Guan Tianpei and 400 soldiers.

If they also blast to Guangzhou by cannon, Yishan capitulates, asked for peace and signed the convention of Guangzhou which obligates him to pay 6 million silver dollars as reparation for the war. But the Britain government was disaffected with the advantages of the provisional convention of Chuanbi so that they sent again 26 warships with 3500 soldiers to expand the war of aggressions. In august of 1841 they captured Xiamen and later in October Dinghai, Zhenhai and Ningbo in the province of Zhejiang. In June of 1942 they ineffectively attacked Wusong nearby shanghai and captured later shanghai itself and Zhejiang.

In August the British warships advanced the Yangtzekiang River to ship to Nanjing. If they arrived at Nanjing the Qing administration sent a diplomatic, called Qiying, to a British ship for negotiate peace. On the 29th of August in 1842 he signed the infamous Chinese – British contract of Nanjing which was the first disparate Contract of the modern Chinese history. The contract, which includes 13 articles, orders China to open Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai as trade harbors, to assign Hongkong to Great Britain and pay a reparation of 21 million silver dollars.

In the following year Great Britain compel the Qing administration to sign the abstract rules for the British – Chinese trade in five free trade harbors and also to sign the contract of Humen as accessory to the contract of Nanjing, which includes that the maximum duty for British goods is constricted on 5%. It also declares that British people are able to build up houses for permanent living. Through the Nanjing contract and other disparate contracts in the following years china lost its political independence.

The inflow of foreign goods started to corrode the Chinese feudal economy. Because of that china developed into a half feudal and half colonial society in these years. In my opinion the opium war was a very important and influencing part of the Chinese history. I made the experience that you can find these influences till today. It especially affects Hong Kong which is a part of china again since 1997 but till 2047 declared as a special administrative region with an own currency and own rules. You can make this experience if you know different parts of china.

In Hong Kong you can find many European looking buildings, a lot of western food and about 19. 000 Britain’s. It is a very international, intercultural city and nearly everybody speaks English. But you can also see the differences if you visit some other cities which were colonized before a long time. For example in Shanghai or Qindao. But every region which was colonized is again a part of china today. In the time of international trade and globalization a European people like me can’t imagine that in our days a region of a country is colonized by another country.

And I also think that Daoguang, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty in the time of the opium war, reacts completely correct to this situation because no emperor in this world allow another country to make his nation addicted to drugs and cheat to them about the income of the international trade. So that I can say that I think that the events which happened turned into a negative light only because of the arrogance and presumption of the Britain’s, that captured parts of china, despite to the big resistance of China, to acquire things which were not owned by them and to browbeat a country which is cultural known for harmony till today.