The Opium Wars - Causes and Consequences.

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The Opium Wars: Causes and Consequences

By Sylvia Simson

992-11-4219

Recitation TA: Claudio Benzecry

World Cultures: China

Friday, October 4, 2002

Nationalistic pride and an overwhelming desire for worldwide power and acclaim have always been defining characteristics of our world’s major political and economical countries. China and Britain have both always been regarded as two of these instrumental nations that shape our world. However, the rivalry between these two countries, particularly in the mid-nineteenth century, stands as the foundation of what is known as the Opium Wars.

        The first Opium War spanned from 1839 to 1842, ending with the Treaty of Nanjing signed on August 29, 1842. The second Opium War, caused by Chinese discontent with the previously signed treaty, commenced in 1856 and concluded in 1860, and included both the Treaty of Tianjin and the Convention of Peking.1 Both of these conflicts, concerned simply with the issue of trading rights between the two countries, can be defined as a struggle for supremacy as both nations’ attempted to economically and politically dominate their rival country’s government system.2 However, it must also be noted that cultural differences between the two countries instigated more hindrance in each country’s effort for control than anything else - the countries’ contrasting belief systems, in combination with their respective historical backgrounds, is what caused each country to regard the other as an adversary.3 In short, the cultural discrepancy between China and the West, in combination with the competition for political and economical domination, is the basis of what is known as the Opium Wars.

The Qing Dynasty, throughout its approximate 200-year reign, carried a certain mentality that was still highly influenced by Confucian thought. The last of China’s imperial dynasties viewed itself as “the most culturally advanced and prosperous country in the world,”4 and, presuming itself as the greater country, would continually treat foreign relations as tributary nations, demanding that they kowtow to their Emperor, use submissive language and participate in a one-way gift exchange.5 However, this belittling treatment caused official envoys from European countries to feel as if the level of equality and tolerance between the nations’ monarchs was uneven and unjust. China halted their stance towards treating European nations as tributary nations when official trade relations between China and Europe were made in the late seventeenth century; however, China’s thoughts of superiority lingered, and the country’s consistent arrogance became particularly visible in the trade business between the two sides of the world, which slowly became “the real irritant in Chinese-British relations.”6

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In 1741, the English-owned East India Company, at this point in time being the most powerful trading company in the world, experienced much economic loss “at the hands of Spain” just off the coast of Canton, the one legal port for foreign trade with China.  As the British tried to get the supplies they needed, the Chinese officials that worked there abused them. The East India Company tried to deal with the situation in 1759 by approaching the emperor directly with a petition; however, the company trader sent for the mission, James Flint, was arrested for sailing through a ...

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