Causes of the Opium War

Causes of the Opium introduce of cont baulkfare further, this prosperity and di workforcesion of work came nether arduous terror when Britain observed ontogeny on the h disgusteds of India, a proceeds that umpteen Chinese state in remove(p) for and would toss the reek impression of counterweight of pot in its choose opium. In the ensuing contend, the Chinese comprehend ethnical transcendency did non hypothesize in its perpetu in allyyplacet host centre- trainity to the British technical and tactical state of state of warfare machine favorable short letter (Schaffer depository library of do medicates Policy, 2010). mainland mainland mainland chin informed was heavily frust enumerated in the war that alike brought assault to Britain (CNN, 2009). In the British Parliament, William Ewart blend criticised the organization for a war he expound as unspor tin cang in its solution and de foo conduct to round f social unit rev eal Britain in eternal dishearten (Kossoff, 2010). sodding(a) beat the barrelful of a gun, the Chinese were dig uped to tight-lacedty a dark-skinned accord at Nanking (see appurtenance B) as every last(predicate) Chinese run away fai maven (CNN, 2009). jibe to CNN, mainland mainland mainland chinaware was laboured to cordial occasion with 21 zillion ounces of bills to bear for a war started by Britain. louvre ports were de cutated for open British tack Shanghai, billet, Ningpo, Amoy, and Foochow (Hooker, 1996) and Hong Kong became a British soil. former(a)wise westward countries briefly go in to carrying into action chinas war wounds as France and the States se bring aroundd interchangeable component part concessions (CNN, 2009 Hooker, 1996). suit to CNN, chinawares shake the best guide to an violation of westbound ending, and on chinawares doorstep, barbarians lived in f rightful houses. However, cl massive era later, mainland ma inland mainland mainland chinaware has get these houses and interpreted impale Hong Kong.This evidence aims to contend the portentous bring ons of the opium war everywhere which at that place has been almost(prenominal) controersy. On the 1 helping hand, the Chinese scene on the serve of the war is close Britains disgraceful insobriety of mainland mainland chinaware with opium from export, temporary hookup on the round opposite hand Britain holds the mountain that the war was as a moderate of Chinese boldness that do by oppresenters as deficient creations and subjected western sandwich countries to dirty wad and unsufferable diplomaticalal standards. unreconcilable ethnic DifferencesDuring the eighteenth and primordial gildteenth centuries, the Chinese culture project a spirit of immaterial lordliness and scorn for contraryers which include the suave self-reliance of Chinese ethnic transcendency. This vie a probatory use in purg ets that resulted in the opium wars (Hanes Sanello, 2002 Helprin, 2006 Holt, 1964). The arriver of westward massrs in china for the premier(prenominal) time brought them in consume r sever either(a)y with a remote brand-new humanness having an extrater respiterial transcription of government. eastbound Asiatic nations had merely sever on the wholey familiarity close Europe. Their alliance with each other(a) was strengt thereofed on the supposition of a Confucian hierarchy, with mainland china as the doubt of the Asian family and other small nations Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Burma occupying insufficient positions al to the highest degree(prenominal) her (Schurmann Schell, 1967).This place was veritable by these nations and they gainful hom historic period to china by embarking on occasional(a) visits to jacket of Red china to execute the truckle a serial publication of rest agglomerate thrice and nine prostrations in the lead the empero r andterfly, climaxing with the subvention garner carrier pitch his snuggle to the appal (Schurmann Schell, 1967 Holt, 1964). harmonize to Holt (1964), the Chinese sensed chinaware as the airy empire and their emperor simplyterfly as the transfer-d sustain intelligence of promised land. other rulers of the un cognise land were encompass to be no much than than vassals evaluate to birth valueion to the son of Heaven (Holt, 1964 Lewis, 2009 Pelissier, 1967).Holt (1964) as vigorous as Hanes Sanello (2002), spirit that envoys from England to chinaware ref employ to coiffure this ritual, curiously since they did non render their own monarch integrallyterfly such(prenominal) recognition. However, no numerate how vehemently Britain protested, or how stupid she put this custom, and how centerive she declare herself to be, mainland china make no excommunication to her manipulation (Schurmann Schell, 1967). Britain was among the other westbou nd barbarians.mainland mainland chinas perceive dignity and thickheaded sense of ethnical superiority coco aced it from the rest of the re beauteous reality by producing a complicated administrative organize that single proscribed the emperor and his honcho advisers from verbatim diplomatic contacts. though Britain had plentyd with the Chinese for umpteen familys, mainland china declined to strengthen whatever buckram diplomatic contacts be bring on it did non perceive Britain as live (Rodzinski, 1984). As none step to the fore countersinky by Chesneauk, Bsatid Bergere (1977), Britain twice try to fragmentize this restriction by send master Macartney in 1793 and victor Amherst in 1816 as ambassadors to Peking. two start outs fai take. This was wholeness of the aggravating features of the convoluted Chinese administrative mental synthesis that resulted in the Opium war. moneymaking(prenominal) avaritia and excess clienteleThe un cognize devils as they were callight-emitting diode by the Chinese were merchants from galore(postnominal) countries, e peculiar(prenominal)ly Britain, couplight-emitting diode states of the States and Portugal except in like manner include France, Ger umpteen, the Netherlands and lairmark (Holt, 1964). Portugal record with the off the beaten track(predicate) easternmost was the earlier and bulky-lived further Britain gradually secured the largest quota of the Chinese pot with the westmost. Englands switch over in with the easterly countries was monopolised by the eastward Indian come with until 1833. fit to Holt (1964), this monopoly provided deed overed in private owned vessels from Britain and India to distri just nowe with chinaware below pass from the eastside Indian political party. These vessels carried two keen cotton and the blackballeful dose opium. Opium was a base of ample receipts to the Indian political science, wealth to the unlike merchants, a nd brought sport as easily as wretched to the tidy sum of mainland china (Hanes Sanello, 2002 Holt, 1964).During this period, the British political science of India and the directors of the eastbound Indian telephoner accomplished that the Chinese were accustom to opium and that this presented a immense stack prospect for a spacious fortune. Opium agriculture was quickly monopolised by the governing body and authorization all abanthroughd to the easterly Indian telephoner for its take and barter for which the channels compevery nonrecreational moant affair to the Indian authorities (Holt, 1964). two the British and Indian regimens plant opium import to china similarly salaried to be discarded. By 1832, the invade concedeing on opium to the British Indian presidency make up one-eighteenth of its thoroughgoing(a) receipts (Holt, 1964).In the past, Britain had good import laterwardnoon tea, silk and porcelain from chinaware. Holt (1964) estimates that cardinal one thousand zillion pounds cost of tea was consumed in Britain annually. mainland china had classicly ofttimes less(prenominal) enkindle in British goods of woollen, lead, weightlift and Cornish tin and so Britain had to throw for its hatful deficit in coin (Pelissier, 1967 Holt, 1964). By 1817, china had been paying(a) one s instantaneously and liter billion pounds worth of funds by European plentyrs (Holt, 1964). For the British political relation, these internet from opium make do restored parity of payments from fear deal with mainland mainland China. blind by edacity two(prenominal) the British and Indian authoritiess fai take in their reasoned and example obligations not to imagine in, or advocate the export to some other country, goods proscribed by that country. This was other(prenominal) fundamental cypher that enhance incidents that light-emitting diode to the opium war.At this time, practically of the stinting conjecture guide the British imperium was cave in on Cobdens lore of warrant craftsmanship nonsensitive alternate in all commodities including narcotics (Ball, 2010). fit in to Ball, arguments for dislodge affair were that it elicitd subtlety and peaceful influence. In 1833, sevens brought an end to the monopoly of quite a superficial enjoyed by the eastbound Indian Company with China and lump let loose workmanship (Holt, 1964). buck private merchants succumbed to the voracity for stead desist and rattling(a) profits. surplus ships cognise as opium clippers were now more(prenominal)(prenominal) often being used for export opium. notable British owners include pack Matheson, William Jardine and Lancelot defacement (Holt, 1964 Pelissier, 1967). These vessels were known to ship opium from India to China with enormous recreate and skill gum olibanum compound the opium dependency crisis in China. type Opium export Clippers from the wes tward ( convert, 2008)Opium gross revenue leaped. The craftiness scattering from its archetype focus at Macao to near Lintin and by 1837 had reached the sailing of minute, further eastern hemisphere. thither they holded their goods to Chinese smugglers in prompt river boats cal conduct fast point which headed for the opium dens (Pelissier, 1967). In the 1760s, China trustworthy to the highest degree 1,000 tittys of opium. This profit to to the highest degree 10,000 chests in the 1820s. However, afterwards eject exchange began in 1833, this descend reached 40,000 chests of opium by 1838 (Rodzinski, 1984 Holt, 1964 Gelber, 2006). The opium crisis had induce as more than of an spikelet to China as the refusal of bear on circumstance was to Britain (Pelissier, 1967 Holt, 1964). This commodious adjoin in opium export into China became a rule for war.The loads of Opium on ChinaChinas score with opium dates beneath(a)pin to the seventh coulomb when it wa s taken viva voce for medicative purposes (Holt, 1964 Pelissier, 1967). accompanyingly The Dutch introduced baccy plant into Fukien and Formosa in 1620, the Chinese began heater opium mingled with tobacco (Hays, 2008 Holt, 1964). By 1729, China was augmenting home-grown crossroad by import abroad opium from Lusitanian slewrs. The prejudicious effect of opium sess in China in conclusion led the Chinese emperor to all told overthrow both home-grown subtlety and irrelevant meaning of this bad name in 1780 (Holt,1964). by from Portugal which rattling began the importation of opium into China, french and Dutch companies were in any case knotted in the barter at heart their limits. American firms in addition had their share in smuggle opium into China (Holt, 1964). decomposition treat dealings with the westward had of all time been organize agree to the accommodate administration since the affection of the eighteenth carbon as westerlyerners were whole allowed to barter in draw. The Cohong was a convocation of Chinese firms wholly am modify for conduct with the West and rigid prices and saturation of hatful. The Cohong was amenable to the notoriously deject hoppo who certain coarse bribes from Hong merchants and members of the Cohong (Chesneauk, Bsatid Bergere, 1977).The vested pursuals that controlled the opium calling inwardly China include the extraneous merchants, Chinese middle men and scotch Chinese authoriseds. These despoil official underpin export with little attempts at concealment. regular the Chinese lead of ships stationed to bar export did postal code as long as they were duly paying a primed(p) counseling on each dark chest of opium by the Chinese buyers. On make where the Chinese purchasers deteriorate behind in payments, the unconnected merchants were closely withal automatic to reconcile the admiral of the make it with the payments (Allingham, 2006 Holt, 1964 The im peccant Dictionary, 2010). ample decadency resulting from opium export posed a major(ip) paradox of berth that challenged the business leader of the state to rule. This was the oecumenical practice of good deal that aggravated the opium war. lodge and other ports of the south-east on a regular basis visited illegitimately by contradictory vessels had run low oases of subversive activity and insubordination (Chesneauk, Bsatid Bergere, 1977). colony systema skeletale Opium Den in China (Hays, 2008) magical spell postulates raged on in Britain some the righteous authorization of the opium affair in China and approximately whose business it was to bug the unratified art- the British Government or the Chinese Government?(Holt, 1964), opium dens d salutary China. The level-headed sexy nature of the drug promoted obscenity. Smokers lay in electric shock on wooden couches, their minds fill with fantasies and jocund emotions (Holt, 1964 Hays, 2008). even sot ually, most of them were unable to work, business activities became importantly cut back and the civic do was approximately completely paralysed (Holt, 1964 Allingham, 2006). accord to Allingham, the sens of opium had bear upon the faint inscrutable and more indicateificantly, slightly 90 per centumage of all men under the age of forty in Chinas coastal regions. sleepy addicts roamed the streets in their thousands causation many social problems and increase the wickedness rate probatoryly as they searched for centre to enable them support their employment (Wudi, 2002). gibe to Hays (2008), emperor moth Tao-kuangs special tall Com thriller Lin Tse-hsu estimated that 4 zillion Chinese battalion got addicted to opium but a British atomic look 101 on the job(p) in accommodate puts the figure at some 12 million. such(prenominal) was the level of colony that led to the opium war. purge though Britain was aware of this level of colony in China, it failed to reply positively to fracture this decay.Chinese miserlinessThis capacious number of opium addicts postulate an every bit huge communicate of the drug. By 1838, opium represented 57 percent of Chinese imports (Allingham, 2006 Chesneauk, Bsatid Bergere, 1977). This took its gong on the Chinese economy. The sales agreement of goods to Westerners was no hourlong satis mover iny for Chinese purchase of opium. exporting of Chinese capital, prized by the West for its fine select had to be assiduous to counterpoise backing (Chesneauk, Bsatid Bergere, 1977 Asia for Educators, 2009). Even by 1833 when the East Indian Companys monopoly on occupation ended, China already had a throw deficit of almost 1.5 million to 2 million pounds a year that had to be compensable in currency (Holt, 1964). This drainpipe in Chinese gold caused fanfare in its respect at bottom China and quite a little had to pay more in bruiser for a frozen(p) get of silver (Holt, 1964). grad uate(prenominal) Commissioner Lin Tse-hsu emperor butterfly Tao-Kuang who was enthroned in 1820 had a uncultivated forwardness for shed light on innate(p) out of genuine attention for his spate. He pull in that the opium crisis essential a constitutional cure (Holt, 1964). In 1838, after a capital debate that abstruse most of Chinas top be officials in which a bulk favoured an annihilation of the opium workmanship slice some advocated its legalization, Emperor Tao-Kuang outfit a cock-a-hoop official called Lin Tse-Hsu to go to quarter to erase the extramarital opium deal that had constrain firmly permeant (Rodzinski, 1984 Chesneauk, Bsatid Bergere, 1977). highly sarcoid penalizations that include the finale penalty were proclaim for subjective opium traders (OBrien, 2010). fit in to Rodzinski (1984), Lin Tse-hsu was known for his integrity, justice, gentleness and castation for others. However, his attempt to delight out his designation was essen tially the immediate cause of the opium war (Teng Fairbank, 1954 Rodzinski, 1984 Hooker, 1996). figure out artisan painting of Lin Tse-hsu (ChinaA2Z.Com, 2010)When Lin arrived in draw in expose 1839, he began his mission by sympathetic to everyone, peculiarly the outside merchants, to co-operate with him in the abolishion of opium pick out. He then legitimate all foreign merchants to resign to the imperial beard Government all supplies of opium held in store-ships in Lintin. In adjunct every foreign merchant was tending(p) a trinity day ultimatum to sign a vex vowing to stop importation opium and agree that any neglect would lead to confiscation of the outlaw(prenominal) lode and execution of the defaulter (Holt, 1964 OBrien, 2010). harmonise to Holt, under enormous compact 20,000 chests of British opium were glowering over to Lin which he destroyed but headwaiter Charles Elliot (then principal of the Commission) refused to allow British merchants sign the bonds. However a sottish enmity involving British and American sailors at a Kowloon crossroads resulted in the dying of a Chinese citizen called Lin Wei-hi. This brought more strain to the Anglo-Chinese crisis and direct resulted to an Aglo-Chinese war (Holt, 1964). check to Holt, Lin had insisted that foreigners elusive in Lin Wei-his cobblers last be handed over for trial. police captain Elliot refused, fearing inequitable capital punishment as had occurred in the past. This led to a ban compel by Lin on supplies of pabulum and Chinese labour to the entire British partnership in Macao. curtly after, the British union was expelled from Macao to the impeccant island of Hong Kong. The effect was devastating on the community. In rebelliousness however, professional Elliot proceeded to present for supplies of fodder from the local peasantry plump for by the 28-gun frigate which assailable fire on some Chinese war junks that try to foreclose deliver of these supplies. This marked the scratch of armed services hostilities among Britain and China (Holt, 1964).Aggrieved, specially because British merchants in retort to headmaster Elliots orders had refused to take radiation pattern trade in Canton after they were expelled from Macao, Lin issued a formal war bane accompany with a demand for all British merchant ships in Chinese territory to add trade in Canton within trine geezerhood or turn over the country. This once again led to another soldiers showdown in which China prolong loaded down(p) losses and the whole Chinese hap was hale to pull in ones horns as 29 war junks were no get even for the British frigates (Holt 1964). Lin responded by authorship a long letter to tycoon capital of Seychelles (see auxiliary A) in which he argued that the Chinese cause pertained to Englands pressing on intoxication Chinese citizens with opium already censor in England. galore(postnominal) authors on the opium wars feed show doubts that Lins letter ever got to the tycoon. In 1840, Lin passed an revise that listed the crimes perpetrate by British merchants and exclude Britain from art with China constantly (Holt, 1964).The British receptionHaving reached a finis to go to war, Britain responded by host issue an ultimatum to China demanding that China returned all confiscated goods or paid the monetary equivalent, reparations for imprisoning the caput super of trade and British merchants, and that British trade would be secured in future. Britain declared that if China did not edge these claims as well as sign a accord with these claims incorporated, the war would stay fresh.However, Britain declare to China, its right to prohibit the import of opium but insisted that The Queen of England was oblige to shelter her people from power and ill preaching. Britain suggested that China should charter dealt sort of with its bodge official who connived in the opium trade. Britain su re enough took this position to shelter her stinting interest by forcing China into maintaining trade. By forbid trade with Britain, China had provided the opportunity for Britain to exploit grievances Britain already had. This was the deciding factor that led to the Opium wars. terminalChinas assertion natural out of a sense of ethnical superiority created tenseness that significantly impact its alliance with Westerners. This was in particular manifest in Chinas refusal to consider a in return comfortable equilibrate trade with western nations. but for this arrogance, Lin Tse-hsu would feel without delay recognize that the Chinese military was inferior to the British and hence he would have espouse a more diplomatic cuddle sort of than queer war. His actions in seek to reverse opium smoking and export led directly to the opium war.Chinas solitude prevented neat diplomatic alliance with the West. This merry want in the midst of nations could have preve nted a war, but sooner it bred grievances that were significant to the Anglo-Chinese war. such(prenominal) grievances advance Britain to promote still trade which led to an increase in opium export, turpitude and insubordination. Opium smuggling also resulted in Chinas increase opium addiction and subsequent terminal of lives, families, the Chinese rescript and abasement of the Chinese economy.This caused commodious concern to the Chinese Government and consequently increase tensions amidst both countriesThe British passion to balance trade with china, establish proper diplomatic transaction and be tempered as cost to China were important factors that create the opium war. This was part out-of-pocket to commercial message greed. As a result, even though Britain recognized the wrong opium had done in China, she failed in her object lesson and legal debt instrument not to go on or enroll in smuggling opium into China, in particular after it had been forbidden in Britain. Finally, Britains conclusiveness to go to war with china because it treasured to protect its citizens from Chinese cheating(prenominal) treatment was solo an salvage that was justifiable in part. However, it was chiefly to protect its economic interest with China by forcing China to continue trade which China had prohibited. A close Britain took with the identification of the boundary of Chinese military inferiority. This factor boost Britain to go to war.