The Opium Wars and the Aftermath in China

China “Before”

Canton System

“Barbarians” don’t have anything China needs

Lin Zexu’s Letter to Queen Victoria 1839

“Of all China’s exports to foreign countries, there is not a single thing which is not beneficial....On the other hand, articles coming from outside China can only be used as toys; they are not needed by China. Nevertheless, our Celestial Court lets tea, silk, and other goods be shipped without limit. This is for no other reason than to share the benefit with the people of the whole world.”East Asia: A New History, 167; cf. China: Its History and Culture, 153.]

Opium Addicts (4-12 million)

First Opium War 1839-42

Tougher prohibition law is passed to keep out already illegal opium.

Chinese official Lin seizes 20,000 chests of illegal British Opium

Canton shut to trade

British retaliate, war begins

The Treaty of Nanjing (1842) Article 2.  Determined the opening

of five Chinese cities—Canton, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Shanghai—to residence by British subjects and their families “for the purpose of carrying on their mercantile pursuits, without molestation or restraint.” It also permitted the establishment of consulates in each of those cities.

Article 3.  “The Island of Hong Kong to be possessed in perpetuity” by Victoria and her successors, and ruled as they “shall see fit.”

Article 4.  Payment of $6 million by the Qing “as the value of the opium which was delivered up in Canton.”

The Signing of the Treaty of Nanjing

Article 5.  Abolition of the Canton Cohong monopoly system and permission at the five above-named ports for British merchants “to carry on their mercantile transactions with whatever persons they please.” The Qing government was also made to pay $3 million in settlement of outstanding Cohong debts.

Chinese militia in the Second Opium War

The Cost of Defeat 1842 21 million ounces of silver to Great Britain at the end of the 1839-1842 war

1858 4 million ounces of silver to Britain and 2 million ounces to France

1860 8 million ounces of silver to Britain and 8 million ounces to France

1862-9 Approximately 400,000 ounces of indemnities cumulatively for violence against missionaries

1870 490,000 ounces of silver to France after the Tientsin massacre

1873 500,000 ounces of silver to Japan after the Japanese expedition to Taiwan

1878 5 million ounces of silver to Russia

1881 An additional 9 million ounces of silver to Russia as the price of Chinese reoccupation of the Ili valley in northern Xinjiang

1895 200 million ounces of silver to Japan

1897 30 million ounces of silver to Japan, for her withdrawal of troops from Liaodong

1901 450 million silver dollars to the Western allies as the Boxer Indemnity

1922 66 million gold francs to Japan, for her evacuation of part of Shandong

(Source: East Asia, A New History)

Hong Xiuquan: Leader of the Taipai Rebellion (1850s and 60s)

斬邪留正解民懸。

I slay the evil, preserve the righteous, and relieve the people's suffering.

Failed Civil service exam twice, deeply disturbed

Visions began in 1837

In his visions he was taken up to Heaven. In the dazzling light he was received by beautiful maidens, but “cast no sidelong glances at them.” He was washed to cleanse him of the filth of the world. His belly was cut open and his internal organs replaced by new, clean ones. Then he was led before a magnificent divine figure with a long golden beard, who lamented that the people of the world had lost their “original hearts” and were deluded by malicious demons. They no longer worshipped him, and they drank wine, smoked opium, and lived lives of debauchery and worldly vanity. Hong was eager to assist in chastising the demons and soon was allowed to do so, driving from Heaven the Dragon Demon of the Eastern Sea. Hong belonged in Heaven and had his own beautiful palace. It now was clear that the gold-bearded figure was his heavenly father, and he had a heavenly elder brother who assisted him in some of his battles. His heavenly mother and heavenly younger sisters brought him beautiful fruit to eat, and the younger sisters sometimes chanted sacred texts with him or joined him in his attacks on the demons. He was given a demon-slaying sword and a golden seal that forced demons too flee. Once he watched his father and elder brother chastise Confucius as one who had done the most to delude the people of the world. [Mountain of Fame, 265; cf. China: Its History and Culture, 157-8]

The Self-Strengthening Movement

Towards the end of the 19th century

China had to do something to combat tremendous threat of Western imperialism.

Inspired by Japan’s enormously successful transition to modernity, the intellectual elite adopted an approach that may be summarized by the statement:

“Chinese learning for substance; Western learning for practical development.”

The Boxer Rebellion (1898-1901)Boxers primarily young male farmers

who practiced a combination of spirit possession and martial arts

Female Boxers: Red Lanterns

Anti-foreign movement Antagonized by more aggressive

missionaries Precipitating event: murder of two

German missionaries led to Germans coming in and seizing Chinese land (port)

Russians, Britain also seizing land, especially port cities

Boxers failed miserably, confirming Chinese weakness at hands of European imperialism