At the beginning of the 18th century, the Chinese people consumed Opium on an everyday basis mainly adding it into the cigarettes, and it took a long time till people understood that opium was very addictive. The demand increased with every purchase. Countries made huge amounts of money on opium trade, while many civilians died from addiction. Until 1839, opium was announced illegal in China, but later on, two very important wars were triggered over the drug. Wars have always been a symbol of unresolved issues, far from straightforward, and well worth pursuing to learn about the inconspicuous motives. The First Opium War, according to Pletcher, took place in 1839-1842; the two conflicting sides were China and Britain (Pletcher 30). The conflict marked the beginning of unequal treaties and attacks on Qing sovereignty. The Chinese paid 21 million to the British government as a compensation for the confiscated chest and allowed foreigners to stay at five ports instead of one. Even worse, China was gradually reduced by the victors to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country. It is worthwhile to dug deeper into the reasons behind such enormous loses. The British had a great ambition to explore the foreign resources. Hahn wrote in his book that “Of the Western nations who tried their hands at Far East trade, Britain was the acknowledged leader” (Hahn 3). Britain Hahn, an American journalist, proves the fact that Great Britain had a significant influence on the whole world. She also argues that the British greed for pursuing benefits and expanding colonies to support blooming industry all over the world was never diminished. However, scholars Theodore and Richard suggest that there was a deep contradiction in regard to the conceptions of trade, jurisdiction and international relations that caused the first Opium War. Confronted with these opposite views, the question arises: Why were the unresolved conflicts between the Britain and the Qing governments the major causes of the Opium War?
As we can see, China did not need European allies. However, it was not the only reason why the trade did not work out. There were also a lot of cultural and diplomatic misunderstandings between the two sides that also led to the Opium Wars. England suffered a deficit in silver due to a large demand for Chinese tea. In order to reduce deficit, the British government sent Lord Macarney to China, wanting to address the problems of trading behaviors as well as to get an agreement, which would allow the minister to stay at Qing’s government. Lord Macarney greeted Qianlong emperor with gifts that could enhance the power of Qing government and improve the Chinese people’s standard of living. However, the emperor considered the gift as Britain’s condescension and rejected to make any adjustment on trade and foreign policies. Lord Macarney failed his mission, because he unsuccessfully performed the needed rituals and kneeled three times with his face down to the floor in front of Qianlong emperor. His failure of performing the routines offended the Qianlong emperor, enhancing the Chinese people’s belief that British were uncivilized men (Fay 373). Of course, it strengthened the belief that the Chinese did not need to trade with those who did not have any manners and respect for their government. Due to China’s old traditions and conservatism, this was a big deal. Again, in 1834, the British government appointed Lord Napier to reach a consensus with the Qing government, but he was rejected by the gatekeeper. Lord Napier too failed to follow the traditional Chinese foreign policy by delivering his message directly to officials in the Qianlong court. It was more appropriate for him to talk to a local governor first, and let the local governor to transmit his information to the officials in court. The differences in diplomatic manners sharpened the contradiction between to countries. After these events, Great Britain fell even lower in the eyes of the Chinese. They did not want anything to do with the British, including the opium trade. China has always been a closed country with very specific ethics, and whoever contradicted its ethics was dismissed once and forever.
The conflict that I just introduced was one of the most serious. Furthermore, there were some other conflicts between the British and Chinese people. After 1826, the trade balance started to favor the British. Massive expansion of Opium addicts engendered serious economic consequences. The Chinese people’s increasing consumption on Opium caused a decrease in domestic demands for other goods, resulting in broad sluggishness in economy. The extensive recovering addicts upset the domestic economic growth. More and more money and staff was needed to cure all those people, and the country spent huge amounts of money to restore the health of its population. Knowing the Chinese people’s sufferings, the British had a different interpretation. The Chinese people paid for their sensual pleasures and they would buy their enjoyment anyway; so, the British “could not be held morally accountable for responding to consumer demand” (Su 45). Su means that the Chinese would buy the Opium from another country if the British refused to sell it.
It is important to mention another detail of the cultural differences between the two powers. Great Britain did not understand the traditions of China, and as a result, it found the actions of the Chinese to be nothing but humiliating restrictions on foreigners’ liberty. British Opium traders were only allowed to stay in certain areas in Canton and they were forced to leave with Chinese accompanies right after the trading seasons. The British could not also bring their women with them. “They might arm themselves with swords and fowling pieces, but they were not to bring up muskets or cannon or pass warships within the Bogue. They might not leave Macao without permission” (Fay 35). Fay emphasizes that the situation grew to be physically dangerous. It was intolerable for British that their experiences in China were all-around monitored and constrained. The misunderstanding between the countries grew more and more. Due to the British’s arrogance, they refused to learn more about the ethics of China and their historical significance, and thus, refused to respect the country’s rules every time they came there.
British also believed that the Chinese judicial system was not a place to seek justice. For any trade, it was important that the judicial system functioned in a universally honest way. Also, the corrupted bureaucratic government allowing officials to utilize smuggling as a way to make money was incomprehensible for British. “Without laws against opium, the mandarins would not be able to squeeze so many dollars a chest from the Chinese who dealt it” (Fay 46). Fay claims that without a proper judicial system, nothing could be changed about the opium trade. The authorities had made the prohibition law dormant and even involved in the smugglings themselves (Fay 194). The Qing government discussed the idea to make opium legal in China but finally decided to go against opium. The British thought that Lin’s suddenly strict policies to prohibit any opium coming from Great Britain were too ruthless for British to handle their business at a moment. Palmerston argued that “by no means dispute the right of the government of China to prohibit the importation of opium into China, but the prohibition ought to be enforced. Traps ought not to be laid for foreigners” (Fay 194). However, Fay’s expectations were not met, and the traps were laid. The Qing government unexpectedly put a harsh line against opium by cutting the traffic and catching British trader. This made the Opium Wars very personal, as people like traders and diplomats were not supposed to be hurt. The hatred of the British grew, and the conflict went even deeper.
However, there are some possible reasons supporting Hahn’s argument in the introductory that the Opium War was premeditated, which means that Great Britain wanted to control China at all cost. The British government thought it was its responsibility to compensate the British traders’ losses under the strict anti-opium campaign, because it encouraged its traders to export opium to China. However, the British government’s budget was in deficit. So, calling for a war was a good way to compensate its people (Beeching 176). Also, Britain had to colonize territories to support their growing economic power. Only with the backing of all the natural resources, could British industrial power reach a new dimension. China was a good fit for Britain’s need. So, the opium trade was only an excuse that British utilized to make a big impact on the Chinese citizens and further demoralize the Chinese government (Polachek 23). This makes perfect sense, however. We know that throughout the world history, Great Britain has been a very influential and intellectual country. It had access to almost anything, but it did not manage to use its powers wisely. Instead, Great Britain colonized a lot of lands, and although it promoted itself as a democratic country, from the situation with the Chinese and opium we can see that it was not actually the case. The British were willing to control China because they saw that her power and influence grew. Thus, we were able to explain the fear of the British and their will to control the Chinese. However, as a result, the government of China did not suffer, but the civilians did, which indicates the selfishness of the British government that did not care about anything but political games. And such games often cost thousands of human lives.
Secondly, the Opium War was meant to change China on the religious level. There were rumors about how idle and immodest Chinese were in the Britain. Faivre, a British merchant at that time, described that “It was him who stood at the outer limit of civilizationface to face with barbarism” (Ward Fay 107). Again, Fay, just like many of his comtemporaries, describes China as an undeveloped and barbaric country. China was once the leader of the world, but after a sequence of "Literary inquisition", policies against those works being considered as unfavorable to Manchu's political and moral dogma, Chinese had less association with "mechanical arts". The term “Literary inquisition” refers to a 16-year campaign led by the Qianlong Emperor and his advisors to eliminate works or parts of works they considered to be objectionable on political or moral grounds” (Hook 213). The term “Mechanical arts” refers to traditional essences of writing and reflecting. The British thought that the reasons why Chinese drained their traditional culture and literacy were their absence in the immersion of Baptismal waters (Ward Fay 107). Encouraging rebirth in Christ could guide the Chinese people to the right direction. Everything comes back to the British willing to control the Chinese through such religious transformation. Once they had one faith, it was likely that the British would become an authority for the Chinese. Here, it becomes clear that the Opium Wars were just a justification of Great Britain’s desire for another conquest.
However, the arguments that I have presented earlier can be contradicted. First, the British government did not encourage the trade of Opium. “Opium merchants had operated under the unofficial approval of the British government for decades without sanction, and could not be reasonably expected to assume anything other than full protection of their cargo as property” (Su 45). Despite Su’s claims that the British government barely approved the trade, it can be surely said that both parts needed this trade, and both governments benefitted from it. Second, because China had plentiful resources itself, the British could not find a demand for goods in China as big as Britain's demand for Chinese commodities. There was a huge trade imbalance between China and Britain. Of course, Great Britain needed China more than China needed Great Britain. The British couldn’t ever let themselves feel inferior to some Asian country, which they considered undeveloped. The British regarded Opium as the economic panacea for a severe deficit in Britain. Furthermore, the Opium War could never be a war for Christian revitalization. Not only the leisure class but also the elites were addicted to opium. The Chinese exhausted their silver and personal belongings for opium. More severely, as it was mentioned before, an enormous amount of people died due to excessive smoking.
This topic is significant because it digs into the deepest causes of the Opium Wars. My thesis is relevant, because it explores and explains the underlying causes of the evident reasons of the Opium War. More broadly, it provides a better understanding of British and Chinese conflicts that make the Opium War inevitable. From this research we can understand that every war has much deeper roots than we suspect. It is both the cultural and political misunderstanding. From the cultural point of view, the countries simply did not understand each other’s ethics and traditions, which insulted China. From the political point of view, China was quite independent and did not want to trade with Great Britain who believed that the whole world depended on her and wanted to ultimately control it. However, the choice not to trade with Great Britain weakened China as well: she became more isolated from the rest of the world, and she also made it difficult for the foreigners to cross her border. As a result, for a long time, China did not get to develop connection with other cultures.
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