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FOREIGN RELATIONS DEPTH STUDY: FIRST OPIUM WAR …
FOREIGN RELATIONS DEPTH STUDY: FIRST OPIUM WAR (1839-42):
CAUSES
made China agree to the
Hong System
- high duties to Chinese
China made Britain pay for goods in
silver
. Britain then sold opium to get silver yet this resulted in a
silver drain
- lost $18M
Britain knew China was
militarily weaker
than them->
Britain:
steamships and maxim guns VS
China:
juanks and muskets
opium dens
proved a bad social impact
Britain
stockpiled
on opium but eventually had too much to get rid of
Lin
ordered burning/seizing of opium
Traders fled to
Macao
and were
blockaded
. Manufacturers lobbied foreign secretary. Britain gave in and
sent gunboats
.
EVENTS
early 1840:
gunboats
sent.
besieging cycles
between Chinese and international community.
battles at sea
where opium was. Britain takes warehouses and river barges with
silver taels
to pay Chinese.
late 1840-42:
British-Indian army
beseiged Canton and other ports
.
25 steamship
s bombarded coastal forts and
captured islands
- Chinese fought back.
early 1842:
more soldiers, caught forts near 5 key deltas near Shanghai.
Chinese almost agreed to T of Chuan'Pi
, refusal
resumed fighting
summer 1842:
British
ready to seize Nanjing
. Chinese
surrender and agree
to T of Nanjing (first unequal treaty).
CONSEQUENCES
$21M
compensation
opened
Canton, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xiamen and Fuzhou
to British trade
,
exempting
Britain from Chinese law.
Hong Kong became a
British colony
, with
no Qing taxation
on it
Open
ports allowed smuggling
, leading to
unofficial opium trade
despite Chinese restrictions
T of Nanjing was
the first unequal treaty
, favoring Western powers and
humiliating China
- it was the first of many
'most favoured nation':
China
signed treaties with America and France
, granting them
trading privileges and more power
Britain gained
similar status through threats
, ensuring trading privileges
Britain controlled Shanghai
, improving the Yangzi River for trade,
spreading Western influence
in China- Chinese were both
inspired yet resentful