The modern world is changing up so quickly, and getting connected with a really crucial speed. One of such sufficient processes is globalization. Globalization in simple terms is usually known as the process during which the world is transformed into a single unified system.
At the end of the last century, globalization has become a hot topic for debates all around the world and it has not yet stopped. However, globalization is not a new process, since it implies the integration of the economic, cultural, political and religious spheres. Today globalization caused both positive and negative consequences and this paper will show it on the example of Opium War in China.
Before talking about the advantages and disadvantages of globalization, one has to figure out the roots of this global phenomenon. In common knowledge, people used to think that the most popular sources of globalization start way from scientific and technical progress, in particular from the development of the Internet, by means of which the distance between countries is erased. Today people are able to get news from anywhere all over the world and the Internet connects the cultures indeed.
Another trigger to globalization is world trade, which has become much freer as a result of liberal measures. The latter caused transnationalization, which essentially is known as an exchange between the countries. Usually it is exchange with those benefits, which are abundant in one state and lacking in another.
Multinational companies are now captured with financial information market and mostly all of the economies are becoming global ones. The transition to market economy is happened all over the world, starting from former Soviet Union, ending up with the United States. Consequently, globalization is indeed wide concept.
Probably one of the most important roots of globalization is considered to be the combining of cultural traditions. The media is turning out to be homogeneous, because of the fact it is globalized. English has become an international language, all the cultures are starting to get internationalized and values are globally similar.
Looking up to these roots one can agree, that globalization is both positive and negative phenomenon. Certainly, world is getting united, but the unique features are fading, because of these cultural mash up. Same happens with economy and politics.
If one starts to reveal positive aspects of globalization, one should realize that globalization has created an international competition. The competition, in return, is a simulator of the production, hence, the harder competition is, the higher level of production becomes. After all, every manufacturer tries to occupy a favorable position in international trade, so one aims to do everything so that one’s goods are more attractive, than his competitors’. Consequently, it is fair to claim, that globalization has provoked industrial scale savings that contributed to avoiding shocks in the economy and lower prices.
It seems like globalization is a panacea from the world catastrophes and hardships. With this reason, it is essential to reveal the negative sides of globalization, which are really important for the analysis of Opium War. First of all, benefits of globalization are not evenly distributed across the globe. “Changing world inequality induced by a changing distribution of population between countries also has different implications for policy, especially if induced by world migration” (Snowdon, Bordo, Taylor, & Williamson, 2004).
Some industrial sectors are making huge profits from international trade, by causing the influx of skilled labor from abroad, while others lose their competitiveness and jobs, become they are unnecessary. Forgotten industry needs tons of time and money in order to reconstruct and to adjust to the new conditions of life. A sufficient amount of local business, industries and organizations (sometimes really good ones) are losing money and people are getting fired. These changes amazingly hurt the national economy of each country and caused sufficient changes in the economic structure, by increasing the unemployment rate. The de-industrialization of the economy manufacturing sector actually looses its ground, while the arena leaves a thriving service industry.
People have to retrain in order to find their place in this global changing system. Moreover, competition creates a large gap between skilled and unskilled workers. Overall, it is tough to say, whether globalization is good or bad, since one has to make a so-called case study of each country. For some countries globalization could be benefiting, when others are only suffering from the unequal exchange.
Globalization has a significant impact on the political system of the world. Conflicts over the use of natural resources will not be avoided. The world is already on the verge of tremendous discord caused by - deforestation, pollution of the oceans and seas, the irrational use of the benefits of the Earth. All this can cause irreparable harm to humanity and the planet as a whole.
Globalization is the process of continuing integration of the countries in the world and is strongly underway in all parts of the globe. By integrating the different countries with one another, globalization presents several challenges related to the diverse cultural, political, and economic practices that each country has adopted. It was already told in this paper about cultural aspects of globalization.
Overall, globalization unites the nation, and at the same time the cultural authentic borders are getting vanished. Talking about the Opium War, it must be said that the cultural challenges associated with globalization can range from contrasting views in control, religion, and values. Political factors that can contribute to conflicts and misunderstandings during the Opium War stemmed from pressures of adhering to the political pressures that threaten to strip China of its traditional values and views.
The weakened Chinese government that until this point restricted the trade of Chinese goods with foreigners in China. Lastly, the Opium War plays a detrimental role in the economy for China because it helped the country to grow from the exportation of opium, and the importation of silver. In the 1890’s, China attempted to ban the sale of opium in the port of Canton.
This created conflict between the British and the Chinese, and the desire to rule the ports in China was the catalyst to the Opium war. Without access to opium or the ports in China the economic growth that the British had grown accustomed to would be devastated. To ameliorate these condition the British declared war on China.
After being overtaken by the British the Chinese territory several new political regulations caused China to be divided based on resources and access to the ports. In this paper, the concept of globalization and the Opium war will be explored. Along with the aforementioned, the cultural, political, and economic factors will be addressed and comparison of the impacts that globalization had on all three aforementioned factor in China during the Opium War and today will be explored.
Opium War, Globalization, and Cultural impact
During the Opium was the expansion of the British access to the trade in China had detrimental impact on the culture of the Chinese because it threatened the Chinese traditions, religion, and values.
Traditions
The Chinese are traditionalists. In the 1840’s, the Chinese did no traditionally trade with foreigners. As a result, an immense amount of illegal amount of opium trade that was occurring. The illegal trade of opium was transpiring and taking place out of India. The primary trade culprit was the British. With the illegal trade of opium came devastating social and economic turmoil to China because of the addiction related to the drug.
In addition to the devastation of the drug, traditionally foreigners were restricted in trading with the Chinese because the Chinese wanted to resume the control that they had over their trade system via the East Indian Company. The East Indian Company solely traded silk, porcelain, and Chinese tea for Indian cotton and woolens. With the trade system, a shortage in silver occurred and this negatively impacted the access of the British to the trade system.
For this reason the British engaged in the aforesaid illegal opium operations. The illegal opium trade also threatened the security that of the Indian Trade Company because the main trading allies (British) no longer could afford to provide the country with their silver demands. Hence, China’s trade traditions were based on the East Indian Company and a monopoly that they established that only accepted silver for payment of Indian goods from the British.
Religion
The Opium war and globalization are two key factors that played a devastating role in the religious practice and the conservation of Chinese culture. The opium trade applied more than a social decline and drug addiction, it also brought a decline in morality for the Chinese. Christian missionaries posed as a direct threat to the Chinese trade and economy because they were at the forefront and directly involved in the opium trade. In fact, “in the eighteenth century the imperial powers made use of religion to invade China, since they concluded that ‘missionaries served colonialism, and the forces of colonialism supported the missionaries work with their armed might” (Schiller, 1978).
Despite the painful history associated with the missionaries and their active role in the opium trade a method of invading China and the use of its trading ports; today Christianity is accepted and the past association with the Opium Wars did not have the same impact. It is a reminder of how corruption regardless of what capacity can have a negative impact on the perception and religious practices of the Chinese population, and how monetary gain can cause people to misrepresent the purpose of religious endeavors. Hence, the religion in China was threatened by the misrepresentation and misguidance of Christian missionaries during the opium War, but to date has forgotten the earlier involvement of Christian corrupt Christian principles in the opium trade.
Values
The Opium war threatened the overall functions of the Chinese values and culture. This highly addictive drug permeated the homes of the militia, government officials, and lower level inhabitants. The Confucius principles, which were so dominant in China, were now compromised. This was also a threat of national security because the people who were suppose to focus on protecting the Chinese against threats such as opium, were involved in the use of the drug.
Initially the use of opium was limited to wealthy and high ranked families but with the heavy saturation of the drug in the trade market and the increase access level during the opium war; the population use also increased.
“ At the beginning, opium smoking was confined to the fops of wealthy families who took up the habit as a form of conspicuous consumption, even they knew that they should not indulge in it to the greatest extreme. Later people of all social strata- from government officials and members of the gentry to craftsmen. Merchants, entertainers, and servants” (Cleary, 2016)
The increased use of opium use in the Chinese society is a prime example of globalization can negatively impact the function of a country’s society. The integration of the British in Chinese trade not only reduced economic gain, but also changed the traditional and expected use and influence that the drug had on Chinese societal views. Hence during the 100 years preceding the Opium Wars played a first hand role in the distrust of foreign trade and a distain for the products that were being offered by Western powers.
Globalization, the Opium War, and Politics
Before the opium, War in China the Qing dynasty was the dominant political power in the country. Under the Qing dynasty, the Canton monopoly was in existence. As previously mentioned before the Canton monopoly reduced the trade opportunities that were made available to foreign powers. The British and the United States were limited to the products that were traded to China and the compensation for silk, tea and other goods that were in high demand. These restraints placed a heavy emphasis on the political power that the British denounced after taking over the trade system.
Initially before the Opium War, the Chinese political reign continued to be dominant over the expansion of globalization and trade between India and the British because they limited the political power to those of the literary class. The Spring Purification Movement was also the main and driving force to the Chinese political system. The Spring Purification Movement was establish in 1830 and begin to create the standard tone for imperialism in Chinese politics, and promoted Confucian philosophy. It actually was the Spring Purification movement that argued and resistance against the trade of opium. The limitation of trade in served as a resisting factor to globalization of China into the free and open market.
Globalization, the Opium War, and Economics
At the beginning of the XIX century, the Ch'ing discontent policy has resulted in a number of public disturbances, organized by secret societies. The deep crisis has affected the economy. Ch'ing continued to pursue a policy of isolation from the rest of the world. However, this situation could no longer hold many European powers that were at the stage of rapid economic growth and they needed new markets for their products, cheap sources of raw materials and labor.
The main success of founding of such new markets was the increase of the opium imports from neighboring India to China, which brought its sellers huge profits. The Chinese government has repeatedly tried to prevent the opium trade. However, foreigners are simply ignored the ban in favor of their own commercial interests. Opium accounted for more than half of the value of all British goods imported into China.
After the opening of Chinese-made goods by Old World, mainly tea and silk, they have become extremely popular among the European and then among North American population. However, with increasing of trade turnover for wholesale buyers of Chinese goods is also increasing your start economic problem. The Chinese demanded silver as payment that eventually had turn the sale of tea and silk unprofitable business for the leading British merchant houses and other Western countries.
In order to pre-empt such prospects, famous administrative and military leaders of the United Kingdom expressed the idea of the feasibility to deploy through the East India Company a mass sale of Indian opium to the Chinese as for silver. Politicians and traders have calculated that as the addiction to the drug of a growing number of the Celestial Empire population, paid for the Chinese goods precious metals in much more significant amount will return to England. The rapid growth of opium import and tissues caused a tide of silver from the country, which in turn led to a sharp increase in the rate pouch of silver as compared to the local copper coin. In 1820, one pouch of silver coins exchanged for 1100-1200, in 1838 - 1600 coins in 1851 - to 4700 coins. Talking about today, it must be said that “China is now the largest petrochemical demand center in Asia and it is moving ahead of the United States as the world’s biggest consumer of refined copper” (Weidenbaum, 2002).
Conclusion
Globalization has had negative and positive impacts on the globalization of China on cultural, political, and economic levels. During the Opium was the expansion of the British access to the trade in China had detrimental impact on the culture of the Chinese because it threatened the Chinese traditions, religion, and values. The Chinese are traditionalist. In the 1840’s, the Chinese did no traditionally trade with foreigners. As a result, an immense amount of illegal amount of opium trade that was occurring.
The Opium war and globalization are two key factors that played a devastating role in the religious practice and the conservation of Chinese culture. The opium trade applied more than a social decline and drug addiction, it also brought a decline in morality for the Chinese. The Opium war threatened the overall functions of the Chinese values and culture. This highly addictive drug permeated the homes of the militia, government officials, and lower level inhabitants. Before the opium, War in China the Qing dynasty was the dominant political power in the country. Under the Qing dynasty, the Canton monopoly was in existence. As previously mentioned before the Canton monopoly reduced the trade opportunities that were made available to foreign powers.
Lastly, it is essential to emphasize the special features of modern Chinese globalization. Firstly, this country accepts the rejection from shock therapy. Chinese globalization was carried out gradually. Initially there were formed 4 territorial economic zones in southern China, near Hong Kong.
Then the gradual industry evolved, that is to open some industries to foreign capital. Only 5 years after joining the WTO, China has opened the whole territory and all industries to foreign capital. Thanks to that, China was saved from negative aspects of globalization. A serious drawback of China is a big operation of Chinese workers, especially foreign enterprises. Certainly, the role of trade unions is hidden in the fact of hiring as much workers as possible, but another shortcoming is associated with the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves. The latter straightly leads to inflation, which is about 6-10%.
The second feature of globalization policy in China is that the latter has not been disclosed so far, by saving its power. Finally, the Chinese model of globalization is trying to optimize the benefits and minimize the disadvantages of the policy of reforms and openness. Due to this fact, China is trying to save its sovereignty and uniqueness. Hence, “It is difficult to forecast with confidence the full impact of China’s opening of its service sector to foreign direct investment, in part because there is so little precedent for a developing country to offer such a degree of market access” (Lardy, 1992).
Opium War was a terrible national humiliation for China, which until that time considered itself the sole a center of civilization. However, there was another side to the effects of opium warrior - China began to open up to Western technology and innovation, education and medicine Western system, the modern missionary schools and hospitals were established across the country, but the price for such progress was paid very high. The illegal distribution of drugs within one state contributes to their movement in the territory of neighboring countries, it takes on an international character, and incorrect legal reaction of state on drug trafficking only promotes activity and secrecy of this phenomenon.References
Cleary, V. (2016). TheFirst Opium War (1838-1842). Webs.bcp.org. Retrieved 17 June 2016
Lardy, N. (1992). Chinese Foreign Trade. The China Quarterly, 131, 691. Snowdon, B., Bordo, M., Taylor, A., & Williamson, J. (2004). Globalization in Historical
Perspective. Southern Economic Journal, 71(1), 201.
Schiller, H. (1978). Cultural Imperialism. Rfea, 6(1), 269-281.
Weidenbaum, M. (2002). Globalization: Wonder land or waste land?. Soc, 39(5), 36-40.
