Opium Wars free essay sample

Drugs have been around for hundreds of years and it modifies normal body functions depending on the drug. During the 19th century, the Chinese had become a victim under the dangerous drug of Opium. When opium was first introduce in China it was like any other drug, addictive and harmful to the human body but the Chinese weren’t aware of the opium negative effects. Opium the narcotic drug is derived of from immature seed pods of poppy plants. Opium was used for pain relieving, it was one of the first drugs able to relieve pain before morphine was invented, and morphine is safer drug then opium and they both came from the same plant. Before the opium war, foreign trade to Western countries was limited and strictly controlled by the government since the Chinese believes they won’t benefit from the Western countries such as England. The Chinese felt very superior comparing to the Western Countries and ironically England is actually more superior then China in every aspect; political dominance, military dominance and economical in particular. The Opium wars are conflicts between China and England over trading rights on the dangerous narcotic of opium, periods of the two conflicts are between 1839-1842, 1856-1860. The English and Chinese hostilities ended with the Treaty of Nanjing for the first conflict and convention of Peking for the second conflict. The Chinese suffered one of their most humiliating defeats from the opium wars, when they lost to a country that they considered barbaric. Britain’s military triumph over China’s military has dictated the results of the Opium Wars. By the end of the Opium wars Britain had asserted a dominant military force and influenced the importance of Western technology into military. When the Chinese was bombarded with the newly steam iron ship, Nemesis, Lin Zexu urges the Chinese government to start adapting towards western technologies to balance out their military disadvantages. Technology into the military plays a key role for England’s success with their powerful weapons and war machines. With the threat of England’s military, Chinese is forced to appease England to cease the invading army from further actions. This is an embarrassment for China and very significant, with the appeasement to England it shows that the Chinese government gave up on its own military and submitting to foreign presence even against their own morale and beliefs. Since China has submitted into England’s needs once, England used its Military threat to appease them more granting their needs and become prosperous while China is losing its international rights and slowly fall apart internally. Though the military capability on land isn’t that bad for China, the main concern was the naval difference while England uses steam iron ships, China’s naval power consists of wooden fire ships incapable to inflict serious amount of damage to the English navy. Lacking the advanced industrial economy needed to build up sea authority, â€Å"China remains exposed to attacks by sea until the first half of the 20th century. † (Roberts, 33). The only victory China had against England was fending off landed British and Indian forces in May 29, 1841 when villagers in Sanyuanli was provoked by the invaders for ridiculing Chinese tombs. Their victory in Sanyuanli has questioned the Chinese military if it’s reliable to protect their country if they can’t even protect themselves from the English. The Chinese Empire self proclaim them to be superior to the rest of the world and its aloofness against the Europeans but this condescending attitude was unacceptable to Great Britain leaving them to shatter the Chinese composure (Kuo, 9). It’s safe to say China is completely demoralized after been crushed by the more superior nation and leaving China in shambles. Prevailing military is required to sustain the more superior nation in battle. Chinese wealth is incomparable to the vast amount of riches that England has. Most of England’s income came from foreign trade and exploration in America’s and Africa. The opium war is based on the trade of opium when Britain wants to profit off China, and China refusing to trade with Britain causing lost of income to Britain. Strong economy is very important for every nation, especially in periods of conflicts happening, and with a strong economy countries can support their own military by buying more weapons for better war results. China’s defeat isn’t just from lack of technology into military but it’s also the insufficient funds to their military. A nation’s military superiority is usually determined by how much the nation is willing to spend on its military; we still see today the superpower of the world like United States is known for its dominating military but their expenditure on military is extremely high which forces their nation in debt. But China is exactly opposite of the modern United States, when they do have money to spend, these money won’t be used effectively and investing into dead-end ancient weapons like bows and spears. Another misuse of spending for the Chinese government is that they spend too much money on arts and instead on their growing fine good’s production prospering China a lot during the Opium wars. Though China isolates them away from the rest of the world it does keep a steady economy and the Opium wars triggered an economical boom in China which they will slowly prosper. With the treaty of five ports, it welcomes British merchants to do trades with the Chinese and actually benefit both sides. While British are only interest in certain Chinese teas, China can redeem themselves for their defeat in the first conflict trading tea for weapons and gunpowder. â€Å"War is the parent of armies; from these precede debts and taxes †¦ known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. †¦ No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. † (Kruger, 175). Madison made a strong point of how important it is to maintain an army but it will gain huge deficits for the army needing tax and building debts but also without armies you can’t preserve freedom. The economic effects of the Opium war benefits both sides, England prospering off China’s tea and its trade and introducing China into foreign trade. Though Chinese are humiliated on their methods of spending during the Opium wars, they learn from their mistakes of misuse spending and slowly adopting into western culture after the Opium wars. Chinese citizen’s shows concern over their own government failing to keep Chinese society stable during Opium wars. It’s embarrassing when the Chinese government is lost and scared of the English government during the Opium wars. Before the Opium War, the Chinese thought European countries were very barbaric. After the Opium War, China intellectually discovered the West, accepted the West and start adapting to Western Culture. Britain was trying to take control over China’s government but failed miserably, China surprisingly did manage to fend off England diplomats from a government takeover unlike countries like India which easily let any invading government to take over a country with ease. But it’s still shameful when the Chinese government almost agree on every treaty England proposed almost like obeying to its master like a dog. The only government making the right choices is the English government, proposing unfair agreements which the Chinese government is willingly to agree on. The Chinese governments were in a tight situation which if they fail to enact a treaty, they will be consequence like the treaty of tianking, destroying the Emperor Xianfengs summer palace in Chengde, and the Old Summer palace in Peking. China was very unstable during the Opium War, areas that was affected by the Opium war was unlawful and committing crimes since the Chinese government won’t intervene to stop the mayhem. British ideas on codes of law, rules of evidence and legal responsibility clashing with the Chinese view that the emperor’s administration operated on an ethical basis, above the mere letter of legal regulations. †(Kruger, 109). Kruger views both governments and analyzes how both of these governments work in his book, the British government heading forward to more success while Chinese governmen t is in state of emergency. Near the end of the opium war many other government such as French and Russians took advantage over the weaken government of China proposing similar trade laws without the aggression of their military. Shortly after the opium wars, â€Å"Chinese took practice of Western political ideas, social structures, and in some areas, technology were introduced to China. Western ideas of parliamentary democracy and capitalism were vaguely made known. International diplomacy became a concept. † (Kuo, 34). If China didn’t adopt more into Western culture, they will be making another terrible mistake and they wouldn’t be as successful as they are now today. While the Chinese government and its people suffer from Queen Victoria’s government, lesson has been learn of how important governments are to the people as they are the leaders for the people. The most humiliating action that the Chinese government did was capability of given in to the English and not fight till death with honor like the old Chinese ancient ways. The Opium War was the event that release Chinas out of isolation to the rest of the world. Before 1842, China was self isolated. The Opium War crushed Chinas false sense of superiority losing to a foreign country they considered barbaric. The steps Chinese take after the opium war is preventing them to be humiliated again if they ever encounter another conflict and improving on their military status, politics and their economy. If China does improve on these factors then China can actually prove they are the superior nation in the world. China realized that in order for them to recover its past glories, it had to learn from the West. Hopefully countries will learn from China’s mistake during the Opium war and prevent any other humiliation that China suffered. Being too overconfident and cocky isn’t bad at all as long as you can prove it, in China’s case, they were overconfident and arrogant but they can’t prove what they proclaim.