The Pros And Cons Of The Treaty Of Nanking

The Treaty of Nanking was signed on the 29th of August 1842. This treaty was ratified by the British and Qing Chinese representatives following the end of ‘The First Opium War’, a conflict which saw Chinese conscripts go up against a much smaller force of technologically advanced British troops, and lose decisively. Because of the humiliating loss on China’s part, they signed the Treaty of Nanking which contained thirteen articles but there were three which were most important in regards to global connections. Those were the opening of five ‘treaty ports’, the ceding of Hong Kong island to Britain and the reparations and compensation payments which totalled approximately $21 million silver dollars.

The treaty is a pivotal moment in global history as it shows clearly a few key points in global development in the 19th century. The first is how it clearly shows the ‘power balance’ of the world begins to shift firmly from Asian empires to European ones. In previous centuries, nations like China had far more power economically and militarily compared to European nations due to the size of their populations, their natural resources and control of highly coveted luxury goods such as silk and tea. It is because of these advantages that China entered a period of isolation in the decades leading up to the treaty and the imposition of strict and often arbitrary rules regarding trade.
This saw much easier and cheaper access to Chinese goods and it saw the Chinese markets flooded with illegal opium and cheap manufactured goods from the industrialized west. This is an example of how the Europeans in the years to come would reshape the global economic system to one that was almost entirely dictated on their terms, terms that were enforced through coercion and superior