Causes Of The Opium War

Moreover, many political conflicts, which were clearly affected between the years of 1792 to 1842, arose as the Opium War was developing and was progressing to a conclusion; it is explicitly evident that the idea of the Chinese and British government contradicting each other was essentially the cause of the Opium War in the first place. But the tense times, Commissioner Lin Ze-Xu stayed incredibly loyal to his main task that was handed to him by the Daoguang Emperor – destroy all of the opium and prevent any more from entering China – he was able to dispose all of the opium that he was able to gain control of in different ways, such as “arresting 1,700 dealers, [seizing] crates of the drug” on both the Chinese harbors and on ships at sea, and

By being able to take action in order to maintain the somewhat peaceful situation that they once had before this entire incident, for example, like what Roblin had stated, the Daoguang Emperor appointed Imperial Commissioner Lin Ze-xu in order to fix the opium problem by institution laws that banned opium throughout China. Lin Ze-xu was also able to commit himself to his work, even though this may have hurt his religious beliefs, such as the idea that he had “wrote a poem, apologizing to the sea gods for the pollution” (Roblin). But even though China was able to improve itself through small things, such as what was stated beforehand, the political situations between the Chinese and British that were affected by the Opium War were negatively affected overall. Roblin and Goldfinger both declared that China’s and Britain’s governments were opposed to each other people of misunderstandings, such as the disposals of the opium, the holding of the British merchants, and

As the Chinese and British continued to fight this incredibly unfair and one-sided fight, since the British was more capable and advance military-wise and strategic-wise, when compared to China, China was finally able to notice that no matter what the situation, since their military equipment and strategies were much more old-fashioned and less-efficient compared to the British’s military equipment and strategies, they were bound to lose much more than what they already had lost, even though they went through the trouble to recruit “umemployed tea porters” (Goldfinger) with a payment of $6 a month, they also “paid fisherman $6 a month to patrol and raid on [the] boats” (Goldfinger) that carried opium, and attempted to imitate Western techniques by “shipping in 200 cannons to Canton and purchasing a 1,080 ton ship to reinforce their blockade” (Goldfinger). According to Goldfinger, after the British navy, specifically the Royal Navy, “took Canton and sailed up the Yangtze River, destroying tax barges” (Goldfinger), the Chinese government agreed to meet the “minimum demands [from] the British” (Goldfinger). And this eventually led China to admit “defeat after their coastal town had been thoroughly bombarded” (Coburn) and were forced to sign and abide to the unequal treating, or the Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing). Most would agree that the Opium War had an incredibly negative effect on