Since the eighteenth century, the Chinese government had imposed several restrictions on foreign trade, and they only had the port of Guangzhou open to foreign trade. Only a group of licensed merchants called the Co-Hong held the exclusive right to trade with Westerners. British sailors purchased all kinds of goods from China; however, the only thing China would except from the British merchants was silver. In British India, there was well-established opium cultivation, and merchants soon began shipping it to China. In China, opium smoking had been banned many times, so British merchants had to go to great lengths to smuggle it in to China. It was well worth it though, as the opium traffic was very important to the British economy. The huge outflow of silver used to buy opium greatly exceeded the money traders paid for Chinese tea. These actions, along with the increasing influx of opium despite Chinese prohibitions, angered the Chinese government, so they embarked on a mission to suppress all opium trade. Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu was appointed to deal with the problem in Guangzhou. Lin was ruthless in his methods, and forced many foreigners to give up their stock of drugs. To show the governments firm intentions, Lin destroyed some six million dollars’ worth of opium in public. Lin wanted the foreigners to sign a bond agreeing to cease the drug trade on pain of death, but British traders abandoned the port, and soon after the first opium war started.
The first opium war was between Great Britain and China. In the beginning of the nineteenth century British merchants began smuggling into China to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain. China did not like that, and enforced its prohibitions on the importation of opium by destroying a large amount of opium confiscated from British merchants at Guangzhou. Britain struck back by sending gunboats to attack several Chinese coastal cities. China was not able to stand up against Britain’s modern weapons, and was defeated. Once defeated, China was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing, and the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue. These treaties opened many Chinese ports to trade and residence to the British, and ceded Hong Kong. Soon after, other western powers signed like treaties with China, and Western domination of China’s ports began. A second war broke out after a Chinese search of a British ship at Guangzhou. British and French troops forced the Chinese to accept the treaties of Tianjin. In this treaty, China had to open eleven more ports to foreign trade, allow foreign legations in Beijing, and legalize the import of opium.
The opium wars in China were wars that came to be due to western greed. The British seemed to provoke the Chinese into war because they knew they would win and get something good from victory. British merchants completely disregarded many Chinese laws and sold the addictive substance opium to Chinese smugglers. Westerners won both opium wars, and screwed the Chinese over by forcing them into foreign trade, and opening them to western ideology.
"A Short History of the Opium Wars." DRCNet Online Library of Drug Policy. Web. 9 Nov. 2011. <http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/heroin/opiwar1.htm>.
"Opium Wars." Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU). Web. 9 Nov. 2011. <http://www.sacu.org/opium2.html>.
"Opium Wars." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.
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