about the opium wars?

Question

can anyone summarize me what happened during this war? why...with who...these things...


thanks! =)

Answer 1

Foreigners were especially irritated by the high customs duties the Chinese forced them to pay and by the attempts of Chinese authorities to stop the growing import trade in opium. The drug had long been used to stop diarrhea, but in the seventeenth and eighteenth century people in all classes began to use it recreationally. Most opium came from Turkey or India, and in 1800 its import was forbidden by the imperial government. Despite this restriction, the opium trade continued to flourish. Privately owned vessels of many countries, including the United States, made huge profits from the growing number of Chinese addicts. The government in Peking noted that the foreigners seemed intent on dragging down the Chinese through the encouragement of opium addiction.

In the meantime, the empire faced other problems. The army became corrupt and the tax farmers defrauded the people. The central bureaucracy declined in efficiency, and the generally weak emperors were unable to meet the challenges of the time. The balance of trade turned against the Chinese in the 1830s, and the British decided to force the issue of increased trade rights. The point of conflict was the opium trade. By the late 1830s more than 30,000 chests, each of which held about 150 pounds of the extract, were being brought in annually by the various foreign powers. Some authorities assert that the trade in opium alone reversed China's formerly favorable balance of trade. In the spring of 1839 Chinese authorities at Canton confiscated and burned the opium. In response, the British occupied positions around Canton.

In the war that followed, the Chinese could not match the technological and tactical superiority of the British forces. In 1842 China agreed to the provisions of the Treaty of Nanking. Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain, and other ports, including Canton, were opened to British residence and trade. It would be a mistake to view the conflict between the two countries simply as a matter of drug control; it was instead the acting out of deep cultural conflicts between east and west.

The French and Americans approached the Chinese after the Nanking Treaty's provisions became known, and in 1844 gained the same trading rights as the British. The advantages granted the three nations by the Chinese set a precedent that would dominate China's relations with the world for the next century. The "most favored nation" treatment came to be extended so far that China's right to rule in its own territory was limited. This began the period referred to by the Chinese as the time of unequal treaties - a time of unprecedented degradation for China. The humiliation the Central Kingdom suffered is still remembered and strongly affects important aspects of its foreign policy. Meanwhile, the opium trade continued to thrive.

The British and French again defeated China in a second opium war in 1856. By the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin (1858) the Chinese opened new ports to trading and allowed foreigners with passports to travel in the interior. Christians gained the right to spread their faith and hold property, thus opening up another means of western penetration. The United States and Russia gained the same privileges in separate treaties.

Answer 2

opium wars were between the british and the chinese.... back in the earlier days china was isolated voluntarilly due to them thinking theier culture was the best and they needed no help fromt he outside would... so thinking that they needed no help, they closed off trading to the western world but one port... and that port was open to foreign ships but for trade, but they would trade thier fine porsilin, silk, tea, and jade to the western world but all they wanted back is silver and gold... britain had to do this but were mad about it because it is making gold and silver rare in britain and sent the price for it way up... so merchants thought of a way to get the chinese into trading with the british by taking the poppy plant, making opium, and selling it to the chinese for little or sometimes for free secretly... opium being the addictive drug that it is made china very very addicted to opium and at that time there were no drug laws so basically everyone from china was addicted... this sent the demand way up and since they couldnt live without opium, britain raised their price on the opium so that they made a lot of money on selling opium to chinese... chinas emperor became concerned with this because the economy was being ruined due to people not working and just smoking opium all day long in the fields and not working etc etc... so the emperor requested that britain stopped the opium trade.... but by this time everyone was in on it making good money including the united states (open door policy was related to the opium trade) people made money off of it int he stock market also... so since the trade was so good for britain, they refused to stop and continued... in return, the emperor marched down with his army and seized a foriegn british opium trading ship and burnt all the opium... this action caused the british to be mad at china and declare war with china and of course (remember china being isolated) china had no modern weaponry and their army was very inferior to britains due to their prolonged ethnocentric isolation... they were annhialated and were forced to sign a treaty with britain... britain knowing they could wipe out china easily made a treaty that gave areas such as hong kong and other places to britain and china got nothing... this was an unbalanced unfair treaty but china had to sign it because if they didnt, they would be annhialated again like britain had just done to them... in the treaty britain said they would give it back 155 years later to china... which happened to be 1997 and like they promised they gave it back... that is what started the opium wars hoped it helped :)