Micaela Mengen World History; Period 7 Mr. Porrino & Mr. Lopez 25 March 2016 During the time period of industrialization, the European powers were interested in finding raw materials that would compliment their industrial needs and wants. Geopolitics led by industrialization often caused problems between the European nations as they rushed to Africa and Asia for resources, however, it resulted in the birth of imperialism, the policy of extending one’s country’s rule over many lands. In addition to imperialism, it created nationalism in which every nation competed with each other to see whom was the greatest; they competed for the best military forces, best economy, and most importantly, who controlled the most territory. …show more content…
During the 1800’s, China had a specific system, called the Canton System to Regulate Foreign Trade, in which they controlled trade between other nations, however, Great Britain had no interest in following such policies, eventually leading them to import items illegally. The only material that they could offer to China was opium, a drug that greatly impacted the population and led to social and economic problems due to the 1% population that became addicted to it. Realizing the problem, Lin Zexu, a Chinese commissioner, took charge of the situation and in 1839 he destroyed all the chests on British ships in Guangzhou that contained opium; this act is considered the only chinese victory against the Europeans that China had. Soon after, two drunk British men killed a chinese villager and caused further problems due to the European idea of extraterritoriality where British people living in China are still subject to British laws, not those of China. Such events caused war to break …show more content…
With China wielding 45,000 soldiers against 12,000 British troops, one would expect an easy victory from China, however, the results ended up being the exact opposite due to Britain’s superior equipment. The Nanjing Treaty ended the Opium War on August 29, 1842. In order to finish what they started, the British forced China to open their country to Western ideas. In total, the treaty consisted of 13 articles with 7 of them benefiting the British. The first was the indemnity, the money paid by the losing nation after a war to pay for costs and harms they have caused, of 21 million Mexican silver dollars. The treaty also called for the opening of the following ports for trade: Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai. The third article was to abolish the Cohong, the group of merchants whom were in charge of the imports and exports, and replace them. The next deal was to appoint a foreign counsel that would be in charge of maintaining the idea of extraterritoriality, along with the agreement that any privilege china would give to another nation in the future would also be given to Britain. The last article, which benefited Britain the most, was the cession of Hong