How Did The Opium War Affect China
"Although the Chinese had used opium as a medicine, there was no widespread addiction before the British arrived."-Robert Trout. The Opium War in the year 1839 to 1856 changed China’s trade policy with other countries especially with the British. The Opium War was a major turning point for China affecting a great number of their population of 400 million. China changed from being self-sufficient to being forced to sign the Nanking and Tientsin treaties with the British and the French. Due to China’s overconfidence and unwelcome attitude toward foreigners and opium, it caused the British to declare the Opium War against China which made the Chinese suffer for many years, but at the same time, it also forced China to open its doors to the foreigners.
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China was practically self-sufficient, its emperors had little interest in trading with Europeans. European Merchants were determined to find a product the Chinese would buy in large quantities, eventually, the British East India Company discovered the product opium. China regarded European goods as inferior to their own and bought very few goods from the European Merchants at Canton because that was the only port China would do business from, they refused to open other ports to foreigners. China was basically a closed country who didn't want or need anything from outsiders or foreigners. "This was the routine of the old China trade. These were the commodities traditionally brought to China and traditionally carried away. And at the heart of the trade was tea. It came from now another place. India didn't produce any, nor Java, or Formosa; Japan was inaccessible; the world perforce drank Chinese teas. Above all, the English drank them" (Fay, 17). Britain needed tea from China which was one reason that caused them to try to negotiate or convince China to open more ports up to trade with outsiders. The denial from China towards Britain over exporting tea caused or sparked the Opium War to happen. Due to China's disrespectfulness towards foreign countries, Britain declared war and imported opium into China to show that they are not a weak country anymore. China had no respect for foreigners and called them barbarians, this was another reason that caused the opium war because it was belittling countries powerfulness. "they came in ships instead of on horseback, but they were barbarians just the same-hairy barbarians, foreigner devils, fan kui!"(Fay, 31). The phrase "fan kui" means in Chinese "foreign ghost", and by calling foreigners ghost, this shows how unfriendly China was toward outsiders, and were looked down upon by the Chinese. But Europeans ignored what the Chinese called
China was practically self-sufficient, its emperors had little interest in trading with Europeans. European Merchants were determined to find a product the Chinese would buy in large quantities, eventually, the British East India Company discovered the product opium. China regarded European goods as inferior to their own and bought very few goods from the European Merchants at Canton because that was the only port China would do business from, they refused to open other ports to foreigners. China was basically a closed country who didn't want or need anything from outsiders or foreigners. "This was the routine of the old China trade. These were the commodities traditionally brought to China and traditionally carried away. And at the heart of the trade was tea. It came from now another place. India didn't produce any, nor Java, or Formosa; Japan was inaccessible; the world perforce drank Chinese teas. Above all, the English drank them" (Fay, 17). Britain needed tea from China which was one reason that caused them to try to negotiate or convince China to open more ports up to trade with outsiders. The denial from China towards Britain over exporting tea caused or sparked the Opium War to happen. Due to China's disrespectfulness towards foreign countries, Britain declared war and imported opium into China to show that they are not a weak country anymore. China had no respect for foreigners and called them barbarians, this was another reason that caused the opium war because it was belittling countries powerfulness. "they came in ships instead of on horseback, but they were barbarians just the same-hairy barbarians, foreigner devils, fan kui!"(Fay, 31). The phrase "fan kui" means in Chinese "foreign ghost", and by calling foreigners ghost, this shows how unfriendly China was toward outsiders, and were looked down upon by the Chinese. But Europeans ignored what the Chinese called