The Opium War -- An Empire's Addiction and Another Empire's Decline

Author: (USA) Travis Hines III
Translator: Zhou Huirong
United States / USA
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Don’t say we didn’t warn you in time. Upon receiving this letter, Her Majesty the Queen must immediately report to me what measures have been taken in all ports。——Lin Zexu’s letter to the British Queen regarding the opium issue
These Chinese people willingly buy what others willingly sell. If I propose increasing the naval budget to add a few cruisers, aiming to uphold the moral standards of the Chinese people, what would the House of Commons say?——British Prime Minister Palmerston’s speech in the House of Commons
This war is fundamentally unjust and will bring eternal shame to this nation, a humiliation I have never known nor heard of before. Our flag has become the banner of pirates, protecting the shameful opium trade. I fear that because of England’s against China, God will punish England。——British opposition MP William Gladstone
(These are) the most contemptible war excuses ever made. I must say that the language of Chinese officials is throughout patient, polite, and gentlemanly; while the language of British officials is, without exception, threatening, shameful, and arrogant。——Lord Derby, leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, commenting on the Arrow Incident
We won twice, but we only won once. You invaded the (Daguan) fortress twice, how can you still not be satisfied? It is time for foreigners to learn to respect us。——Prince Gong’s remarks to captive Harry Parkes
I am willing to take off my hat, bow deeply to welcome His Majesty the Emperor; to stand rather than sit; to speak only when questioned; to retreat rather than advance, and to kneel without turning my back—on the issue of bowing, American envoy Walter Hay writes to the Chinese court to declare war on China。——The Times
We imagine a scene: the Colombian Medellín cocaine monopoly successfully launches a military attack on the United States, forcing the U.S. to legalize cocaine and allowing the monopoly to export drugs to five major U.S. cities without supervision or taxation, and the U.S. government is forced to agree that officials who sell drugs manage all Colombians operating in these cities. Additionally, the U.S. must pay war reparations of $1,000—the cost of Colombia’s war to export cocaine to the U.S. This scene is, of course, absurd, even the most extravagant science fiction writers could not have imagined such a scenario. However, similar events did occur in 19th-century China, not just once, but twice. But the instigators of both wars were not the aggressive Colombian merchants, but Great Britain, the most technologically advanced nation at the time, which imposed similar conditions on China. Carl von Clausewitz once wrote, “War is a form of diplomacy.” If this Prussian military theorist had studied China’s Opium Wars, he might have added: the abuse of forbidden substances is another form of diplomacy, and in some cases, may be more effective than war. The two wars of 1839–1842 and 1856–1860 are collectively known as the Opium Wars, fought between Britain and later the French Empire against the Qing Dynasty. To this day, the war has been easily forgotten or largely ignored by the Western world, yet for the Chinese and Eastern peoples, these two conflicts remain an embarrassing mark of Western imperial rule, their influence lasting to this day. This conflict also left a permanent, shameful symbol of Western treatment of the East over several centuries. Some might say that this arrogant behavior and colonial mindset persist to this day, such as the U.S. blockade of Cuba and British troops stationed in Ireland. Previous Western books published on this conflict have been filtered through the lens of Eurocentric historians, who either downplayed or ignored the criticism of the two wars, concluding that the addictive drug was legal and legitimizing the colonial actions of Western powers in a highly developed civilization. Although the Opium Wars occurred a century ago, the issues they involved remain relevant in the modern world. The Opium Wars are also a dramatic portrayal of power and corruption, human frailty, greed, and stupidity. While the international drug trade is at the heart of the story, it ultimately reflects cultural conflict. The cost of the war was high, involving fundamental moral, ethical, political, and social issues. The roots of this conflict lie in three interconnected issues. First, China’s confidence. With nearly 4,000 years of history, China believed it was the center of civilization in the world, viewing other nations as barbarians and treating them not with equal courtesy but as “tribute-bearing” states. Second, China’s monopoly production of tea (and to a lesser extent, luxury goods like silk and porcelain), coupled with its insistence on paying for these products only in silver. Third, Great Britain had become the world’s leading industrial power, equally arrogant about its Christian civilization’s moral and material superiority, believing other nations should treat it as an equal (even if not superior) rather than a subordinate state. For this, it was willing to provide millions of Asians with a destructive poison. A historian once wrote that opium was carried to China on the backs of camels, and it ultimately broke the backbone of this nation.