In China's history, there was a war that changed China's destiny and shook the pattern of the world, and that was the Opium War. The Opium War was a war of aggression launched by Britain with opium smuggling as the fuse against China, which was the beginning of China's modern history and the starting point of the Chinese people's resistance to foreign aggression. The causes, processes, and effects of the Opium War are the subject of our discussion today.
Causes of the Opium Wars
During the Daoguang period, in order to improve the trade deficit with China, Britain smuggled a large amount of opium into China, resulting in the Chinese people becoming addicted to drugs, social order chaos, and the decline of national strength. Opium is a drug extracted from poppies, which can cause hallucinations and pleasure, but it can also be addictive and debilitating.
The British cultivated opium from India, and then, through middlemen, smuggled it to China in exchange for Chinese tea, silk, porcelain and other goods. In this way, the British could make huge profits, while the Chinese paid a heavy price.
According to statistics, by 1838, China had imported 40,000 boxes of opium every year, equivalent to 14,000 tons, while the total value of China's annual exports of tea, silk, porcelain and other commodities was only 25,000 tons. As a result, China would have to pay Britain a trade deficit of 120 million taels of silver every year, equivalent to half of the Qing Dynasty's annual revenue. This trade not only caused China's silver to lose, but also caused China's commodity market to shrink, causing China's economic crisis.
The harm of opium is not only economic, but also social. Opium made the Chinese people lazy, powerless, ignorant, shameless, lost their self-esteem and self-confidence, and even lost the will to live.
Opium has degraded China's social morality, broken families, reduced population, epidemics, and increased crime. Like a sharp blade, it pierced the heart of China, making China, once a big country in the East, a half-dead sick man.
Opium was so poisonous, of course the Manchu court was not happy, a holy decree was issued, Lin Zexu was ordered to go to Guangdong to ban smoking, investigate smugglers, and destroy opium, which caused dissatisfaction in Britain, and Britain used this as an excuse to send warships to invade China. Lin Zexu was a particularly righteous minister of the Qing Dynasty, and in 1839 he was appointed minister of the Imperial Mission, responsible for prohibiting opium smuggling, restoring customs order, and protecting national interests.
After he arrived in Guangzhou, he began to take a series of measures, such as sealing up opium dens, arresting opium dealers, confiscating opium, prohibiting foreign merchants from trading with Chinese merchants, demanding that foreign merchants hand over all opium, and destroying more than 20,000 boxes of opium in Humen, equivalent to 140 million taels of silver. These actions shocked and angered the British, who believed that Lin Zexu had violated their freedom of trade and personal safety, and they demanded that the Qing Dynasty compensate for the damages, apologize, release the people, open more ports, and allow opium to be legalized. The Qing government rejected the unreasonable demands of the British, and the British threatened to use force and sent an expeditionary force led by Elliott to wage war against China.
The British took advantage of their ships and artillery to land on the coast and capture Guangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, Shanghai and other cities. British warships were already steamships wrapped in iron, armed with heavy artillery, fast, firepower, and high defense, allowing them to move freely at sea and attack cities and fortresses along the coast.
On the other hand, in the Qing Dynasty, due to years of seclusion from the country, the warships were still made of wood, only equipped with light artillery, slow speed, weak firepower, at best could only operate in rivers and ports, and could not compete with British warships.
The Qing Dynasty's army, although it had a certain number and courage, was poorly equipped, poorly trained, and had a chaotic command, and could not effectively stop the offensive of the British army. The British army, although small in number, was well equipped, well-trained, and orderly, and could flexibly use various tactics to strike at the weaknesses of the Qing army. Under such conditions, the outcome of the Opium War was almost foreordained. From 1840 to 1842, the British army successively captured Guangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, Shanghai, Nanjing and other important cities and ports, the Qing army in Humen, Dinghai, Ningbo, Zhenjiang, Nanjing and other places, all suffered a painful defeat, the Qing government was unable to fight again, can only agree to negotiate with the British, signed the humiliating "Treaty of Nanjing".
The effects of the Opium Wars
After the Opium War, China was forced to sign unequal treaties such as the Treaty of Nanjing, ceded Hong Kong Island, paid 21 million taels of silver, opened five ports of trade, implemented most-favored-nation treatment, lost sovereignty and territory, and became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, which also stimulated the Chinese people's sense of resistance and started the national liberation movement in modern China.
The Treaty of Nanjing, a peace treaty of the Opium War and the first unequal treaty in China's modern history, was imposed on China by Britain without China's consent and ratification, and was a treaty that completely violated international law and international morality.
The signing of the Treaty of Nanjing marked the fact that China's sovereignty and territory were divided and occupied by the British, China's economy and society were controlled and exploited by the British, China's culture and thought were influenced and changed by the British, and China changed from an independent and self-respecting country to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country.
The defeat of the Opium War also made the Chinese people realize their backwardness and ignorance, inspired the awakening and resistance of the Chinese people, and started the national liberation movement in modern China. After the Opium War, a group of people with lofty ideals appeared in China, who were unwilling to accept the fall and submission of China, and began a series of reforms and revolutions, trying to save China from peril and seek China's progress.
After the Opium War, China officially opened the curtain of modern history.