Essay On China Imperialism

794 Words4 Pages

For centuries china had reminded isolated from the involvement in world politics, but the world as they knew it was beginning to change, and what started as dispute over trading rights, escalated into a full scale war. China would never be the same again and it all started with two highly lucrative and addictive goods tea, and opium. The opium war involved both China and Britain. The two opposing countries had completely different perspectives, cultures, and values the perfect recipe sure for disaster. The opium emerged from China's unwillingness to trade with Britain. Britain wanted to spread its newly found advancements and westernize china. Britain was especially interested in china’s silk, spices, ceramics, tea etc. Britain smuggle huge …show more content…

For what started as a popular social pastime opium took a turn for the worst and by the late 18th century increasingly large sums of opium, produced by the british east india company were being shipped to China. The Chinese government tried to ban the opium trade but were unsuccessful. The british were able to bypass these laws with help from smugglers. The number of Chinese addicts became overwhelming, growing up to 12 million. Chinese people started to become inefficient and the social effects of opium smoking caused most of the Chinese population to become deleterious. The chinese emperor became concerned something had to be done. A thousand tons of opium was confiscated and destroyed, the Chinese government saw opium as being a poison to society. In 1810 the Emperor issued a decree denouncing the use and trade of opium stating that “Opium is a poison, undermining our good customs and morality. Its use is prohibited by law. Indeed, he flouts the law! He should be turned over to the Board of Punishment, and should be tried and severely sentenced.” The Chinese government felt that their opinions and values were being ignored by the british despite their