The Opium Wars

Opium Wars

Unil the 18th century, opium use in China had consisted mostly of medicinal purposes. By the early 1800s, however, millions of Chinese had become addicted, and the illegal drug thrived through black market trade

The main purveyors of opium were the British, though merchants from the United States and other European countries also participated in the trade. One chest of opium contained around 135 pounds of the substance, and the importation of chests grew from 5,000 in 1821 to 35,000 in 1837.

Captain Charles Elliot, the British chief superintendent of trade in Canton, put pressure on the Chinese government to legalize the opium trade. Meanwhile, the fatality rate caused the Emperor of China to appoint an official to oversee deaths.

Commissioner Lin Zexu had battled the problem of drug use in the provinces of Hubei and Hunan, and he now attempted to eliminate opium. He blockaded the foreign community, stopped trade, ordered Chinese servants to leave, arrested a leading foreign dealer, and demanded that the merchants surrender their inventory of opium.

After 47 days, Captain Elliot handed over 20,283 chests to Lin, who destroyed them. In a 1839 letter to Queen Victoria, Lin made the assumption that the British government was not involved in the opium trade, and pointed out that it would be in the best interests of both nations to stop. The letter never reached England, and the messenger was murdered by sailors.

In the war that followed, the Chinese could not match the technological and tactical

superiority of the British forces. In 1842 China agreed to the provisions of the Treaty of Nanking. Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain, and other ports, including Canton, were opened to British residence and trade. It would be a mistake to view the conflict between the two countries simply as a matter of drug control; it was instead the acting out of deep cultural conflicts between east and west.

The French and Americans approached the Chinese after the Nanking Treaty's, and in 1844 gained the same trading rights as the British. The advantages granted the three nations by the Chinese set a precedent that would dominate China's relations with the world for the next century. The "most favored nation" treatment came to be extended so far that China's right to rule in its own territory was limited. This began the period referred to by the Chinese as the time of unequal treaties - a time of unprecedented degradation for China. The humiliation the Central Kingdom suffered is still remembered and strongly affects important aspects of its foreign policy. Meanwhile, the opium trade continued to thrive.

The British and French again defeated China in a second opium war in 1856. By the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin (1858) the Chinese opened new ports to trading and allowed foreigners with passports to travel in the interior. Christians gained the right to spread their faith and hold property, thus opening up another means of western penetration. The United States and Russia gained the same privileges in separate treaties.