In 1536, England and Wales merged, and from the 15th to the 16th century, the wool industry became the "national industry" in Britain, and the demand for wool multiplied, so the enclosure movement was launched.
Enclosure movement comics
In 1769, James Watt, a mechanic at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, summed up the experience of his predecessors, and after many experiments, made the first single-action steam engine, the invention of the steam engine, which is an important symbol of the first industrial revolution of mankind, so that mankind has entered the steam era of modern machine mass production from the era of manual labor based on human labor for two million years.
Watt's modified steam engine
Washington became the first president of the United States in 1789 (he also became the world's first head of state to be named "president"), ending the history of British colonialism and making the United States an independent country.
Washington became president
These three historical events that are not compatible together will raise questions, what is this ghost? However, they are inextricably linked and have a great influence on the opium wars that followed the Qing Dynasty and britain.
First, the bloody rise of Britain
As stated at the beginning, in the 15th and 16th centuries, the wool textile industry became the national industry of England, and the demand for wool multiplied, so a bloody enclosure movement was set off in the British land, and many peasants lost their land and were forced to work for the noble and landlord class, and the nobles and the original capitalists completed the initial capital accumulation by means of this brutal way.
However, Britain was at best a land of bullets, and Spain had fallen by this time, but the European brother-in-law war between Britain and France was in full swing, in addition to the struggle for maritime hegemony, but also for colonies. In this way, relying on maritime hegemony, Britain began a global colonial plunder and quickly completed the accumulation of capital.
With the development of the textile industry, people are more and more aware of the growing textile industry, but inefficient, which caused many people to want to replace people through machines, began to study the dynamics, and a man named Watt, became the person who changed history.
Watts who invented the steam engine
In 1769, James Watt, a mechanic at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, summed up the experience of his predecessors, and after many experiments, made the first single-action steam engine, and from then on, the hercules "demon king" who swallowed fireworks was born.
In 1782, he improved and made a linkage steam engine, which enabled mankind to enter the steam age of modern machine mass production from the era of manual labor based on human labor for two million years. The invention of the steam engine marked the entry of mankind into the industrial age.
Thus forming a "virtuous circle", industry is like a snowball, more and more capital into, more and more new technologies are produced, driving the rapid development of industry, and need capital to bring new technologies, so Britain holds the hegemony of the sea, and constantly carries out colonial expansion activities, but in 1786, the United States, which was not willing to be colonized by Britain, ended British colonial rule and became independent.
This was a huge blow to Britain, and it was urgent to find a new place to replace the United States, so Britain set its sights on the eastern power that was about to decline at that time- Qing!
Second, the daydream of the eternal great power of the late Qing Dynasty
The Western imperialist countries headed by Britain have accumulated a large amount of capital through the enclosure movement and the colonial movement, and through many years of industrial development, their national strength has become very strong, and at this time, the Qing Dynasty is like a frog at the bottom of the well, not knowing the earth-shaking changes in the external world, and like the falling rocks on the edge of the cliff, it is about to fall into the abyss.
At this time, the Great Qing Dynasty was experiencing the rule of an emperor with a super long standby, that is, the "Ten Perfect Old Man" - the Qianlong Emperor!
The "Ten Perfect Old Men" Qianlong Emperor
After the efforts of his grandfather and Lao Tzu, who had already spread out the policies of acres and other acres, the population of the Yongzheng Dynasty had exceeded 400 million people, becoming the world's most populous country.
After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, in order to continue its rule, it implemented a policy of fooling the people, but it was deeply studied Han culture, and it can be said that the operation mode of the Han Dynasty was also inherited.
The Qianlong Emperor, like his predecessors, attached importance to agricultural development, encouraged the reclamation of land, expanded the planting area, and developed xinjiang, Yunnan and other frontier areas through population migration.
Although the Qianlong Emperor also attached importance to the development of commerce and gave a loose policy, he adopted some policies of compassion for merchants, and financial institutions (ticket numbers for trading exchange and deposits and credit) also began to appear in the Qianlong Dynasty, but the policy of heavy agriculture and suppression of business in traditional Chinese feudal society did not change in essence, and the policy of closing the country from the Ming Dynasty did not change, and strict restrictions were imposed on imports and exports.
In the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, everyone was curious about some new things, but they were only curious, and they never thought that these "strange tricks" could change the agricultural social pattern for thousands of years in the future. Until the Qianlong Emperor, still dreaming of the Eastern Empire, although with the land and the wealth of many people, at that time it was still one of the world's top two powers, after all, Britain has not yet become the sun does not set, the United States has only gotten rid of colonial rule, but this is only a few glorious years before the advent of darkness, this piece of fat has been remembered!
Third, the foreign devil's first salute and then soldiers
As the saying goes: if you are not afraid of thieves, you are afraid of thieves! Of course.
Through European traveling missionaries such as Marco Polo and Browning and the East India Company, Britain gained a deep understanding of the Qing Dynasty, a great power, so that at first it wanted to establish trade relations through normal means, and there were two diplomats that made Britain return home.
Diplomacy is back
This diplomacy of far-reaching significance to modern and modern times is insignificant in the eyes of the Great Qing, and the Draft History of the Qing Dynasty records:
In the fifty-eighth year (1793), the British king Yazhi sent envoys such as Ma Jiaerni to pay tribute, and asked for people to send people to Beijing, and to send people to Ningbo, Zhushan, Tianjin, Guangdong and other places in Zhejiang, and asked for tariff reductions, which were not allowed.
Indeed, in the eyes of the Qing authorities, the Macartney mission was just one of many foreign missions to celebrate the birthday of the Qianlong Emperor, and the trade request made by the Ma Garni envoy was rejected by the Qing court, and The Macartney did not return.
At that time, there was also a small episode that according to the Qing etiquette system, foreign envoys were asked to kneel and pray, but this was unacceptable in the Western world, forced to open the Chinese market, the British diplomatic envoys' workaround was also rejected, Ma Garni said that as long as someone in the Qing Dynasty performed the same salute on the portrait of the British king he was holding, he could kneel and worship the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
The proud and delicate Qing monarchs in the comics
After Macartney returned, not long after, the British were busy fighting with a brother in France, and the matter of opening the door of the Great Qing Dynasty was stranded for a while. In 1816, a delegation led by Ashde was sent to Visit China in an attempt to expand Sino-British trade, before which Britain had had several military tentative operations in Macau, but because of its fear of the Qing government, it finally gave up, but this time it was also because of the arrogant etiquette of the Qing Dynasty, and returned again.
trade
difference
Bring evil thoughts to the heart
The negotiation did not meet expectations, but the business should be done. Because chinese tea, silk, porcelain and other luxury goods are very popular in the European market, the British hope that China can open up trade, especially tea, which is very popular in Britain, which seems incredible in other Western countries.
British exports of wool, wool, violins and other industrial products are not favored in China, and the Qianlong Emperor even believed that China lacked nothing and there was no need to trade with Britain, which made Sino-British trade bring a huge trade deficit to Britain.
In the 18th century, Britain began to implement the gold standard monetary policy, and the Qing court used silver as currency, because all trade with China needed to be converted into silver, so that britain needed to buy silver from the European continent for trade purposes, gold and silver were bought and sold, which damaged the British profits.
Another Qing government's tax revenue is amazingly high, to levy twenty percent of the tax on British merchants, as a mercenary businessman, not far to lose money to make money? It was absolutely impossible, and an evil thing that could reverse the trade deficit entered the vision of the British merchants: opium.
The silver of the Great Qing
Smuggling of opium
Flies do not sting seamless eggs
。 In fact, before the smuggling of opium, the people of the Qing Dynasty had already smoked opium. In 1729, the seventh year of Yongzheng, the Qing government issued the first edict prohibiting trafficking and smoking opium, and later the Qianlong Emperor also issued a smoking ban. The Jiaqing Emperor also issued a three-dimensional decree and strictly prohibited the opium trade. But where there is profit, there is recklessness, which is why opium smuggling can be popular.
Skinny big smoker
In the 1720s, the British colonialists began to operate the evil opium trade in China, smuggling opium to China, with a gross profit of up to a thousand silver dollars per box, and also led to the "triangular trade" of Britain-India-China, which allowed britain to make greater profits, and the trade deficit of the British was quickly smoothed out, and there was a large surplus.
In contrast, the smuggling of opium had a very great impact on the Qing Dynasty, one was the outflow of silver, the economy was damaged, and the other was the prevalence of opium consumption, and the physical and mental damage of the people was very terrible.
But there are always people with conscience, such as the national hero Lin Zexu. In December 1838, the Daoguang Emperor ordered Lin Zexu to be the minister of Chincha and sent to Guangdong to smoke cigarettes, which is the famous Humen in history.
Lin Zexu, the national hero who sold cigarettes in Humen
In March 1839, after Lin Zexu arrived in Guangzhou, he ordered foreign tobacco dealers to hand over all opium and promised not to sell it again.
Later, the ship never dared to carry opium, and if it was brought, once it was found, the goods were exhausted, and the people were righteous and willing to accept the crime
And from June 3 to June 2, most of the opium stocks legally belonging to the British were destroyed.
This also became the trigger for the Opium War, and on August 15, 1839, Lin Zexu ordered the prohibition of all trade, sent troops into Macau, and further expelled the British. This incident thus became the fuse of the Opium War.
Fourth, the cannon opened the locked door
On January 5, 1840, Lin Zexu, according to the will of the Daoguang Emperor, announced the official closure of the port and cut off trade with britain forever. In the months that followed, there was a fierce internal debate between the British over whether to retaliate for the loss of "loss" and "dignity", and finally a criminal decision was born: the gun on the ship.
In June 1840, a mobile fleet of more than 40 British ships and 4,000 soldiers, led by Yi Lu, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the British Royal Family, set out from India to the surface of the Chinese sea, and the Opium War began until the humiliating Treaty of Nanking was signed in 1842.
The Humiliating Treaty of Nanking
Since then, the fortunes of the Great Qing Dynasty have taken a sharp turn for the worse, and the Chinese people have also stepped into the historical abyss of semi-colony and semi-feudalism, and climbed out of the abyss, we have spent a hundred years!