Opium smokers in China (1903) • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS The 1 st October 1949, Tian'anmen Square, Mao Zedong proclaimed the birth of the People's Republic of China and put an end to a period that Chinese intellectuals called the "century of humiliation", so much did China's internal and external policy then subject to the interested interventions of foreign countries. A period that began with the First Opium War (1839-1842), forcing China into modernity and marking the decline of the imperial era. This war is a clear example of the weakening of an empire, which, although the largest and most prosperous in the world, succumbed to the assaults of a smaller nation, located more than 25,000 km away. Sea route. The conflict gave China the image of a dragon out of breath and easily slain thanks to Western technological innovations from which other European and Asian countries, such as Japan, were to benefit. Imperial Traffic Opium first arrived in China in the 15th century century, under the Ming dynasty, from India and Southeast Asia. This drug complements traditional Chinese medicine, even if it is very rarely consumed because of its foreign origin and its expensive price. Recreational opium consumption did not become widespread until the beginning of the 18 th century in parts of southern China. It resulted from the introduction of tobacco to China and the practice – imported from Java, where liquefied opium was called madak – which consisted of smoking both substances simultaneously. This use, which is spreading in several Chinese regions such as the island of Taiwan and the coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangdong which face it, worries local governors; in 1729, it led to the publication of an edict by which the Yongzheng Emperor prohibited the consumption of opium throughout the empire. However, this edict did not prevent opium smuggling from overseas from continuing in China, a smuggling which, moreover, increased during the 18th century. century, although on a smaller scale. Smuggling generates a commercial circuit in which merchants from each European nation participate:grown in Bengal, the product arrives in China through the Portuguese enclave of Macau (the only western colony in Chinese territory) then passes to Canton, the largest commercial port. of China and the West's main gateway to the empire. For decades, this opium trade was made possible by the complacency of the corrupt local governors of Canton, who rarely inspected European ships docking at the port. This situation changed radically at the beginning of the 19 th century, when the opium trade with China became one of the major commercial stakes of the British Empire and, more precisely, of its largest commercial structure in Asia:the East India Company, or British India Company oriental. Early 19th th century, the opium trade with China became one of the major commercial stakes of the British Empire and, more specifically, of the British East India Company. After the conquest of Bengal and the wars led against the French colonial empire to control the Indian subcontinent, the finances of the company are weakened, and the latter must constantly borrow from the Crown to survive. The situation is getting worse with the increase in the consumption of tea, the overseas product now most in demand in Britain. However, tea can only be bought in China, and the British tried for a long time, but without success, to find an exchange product with the Chinese market which would make it possible to compensate for the commercial imbalance generated by the import of tea. A mission, entrusted to the British Embassy headed by Lord George Macartney, arrived in Beijing in 1793 to negotiate the opening of the market in China with the Qianlong Emperor. Ambassadors bring technological innovations such as watches, telescopes and weapons, which the Emperor contemptuously calls "useless trinkets". After a few decades, the company's representatives in Bengal realize that their opium monopoly is faced with the growing problem of smuggling into China:more and more European merchants are indeed trying to circumvent British controls in Bengal. and to buy the opium at a lower price to resell it in China at a juicy profit. Aware of being able to obtain better results by liberalizing the system, the company put an end to its own monopoly in 1834, which caused a sharp increase in the sale of opium in China. Corruption at the heart of the system Within a few years, the company succeeded in reversing the trade imbalance with the Qing empire. The vast reserves of silver accumulated by China over the centuries, when it was the main trading center of the globe, are beginning to dwindle. An element which, together with other problems such as the growing corruption of the political system, is causing a sharp recession in the Chinese economy. This forced the imperial authorities to choose a more direct method to solve the opium problem. In 1838, Emperor Daoguang entrusted Lin Zexu, governor of the provinces of Hunan and Hubei, and among the most ardent defenders of the prohibition of opium consumption in China, with the mission of investigating the situation in Canton. . What Lin Zexu discovers in the Cantonese port is alarming:the entire customs system is involved in opium smuggling. For their part, the commercial representatives of the United Kingdom refuse to deliver their shipments of drugs. Lin Zexu even sent the young Queen Victoria a letter asking her to ban the opium trade with China, but her request was ignored. He finally resorts to force:he organizes the purge of customs, lays siege to the district where the delegations of Western trading companies are located, and confiscates 20,300 cases of opium which are burned with quicklime on the beach of Humen. This event was presented as the trigger for the conflict. But it is obvious that the British were never inclined to find a diplomatic solution to the problem, which led to several episodes which only made the situation worse. Thus, when British merchants killed a peasant, the British authorities in Canton refused to deliver the culprits to their Chinese counterparts so that they could be judged according to local legislation. An event that infuriated Lin Zexu to such an extent that he prohibited the supply of all British ships in the Pearl River delta, where Canton is located. The British, under the orders of Commander Charles Elliot, retaliated by trying to force certain ports such as Kowloon, in present-day Hong Kong, to sell food to ships. These tensions give rise to a maritime confrontation considered to be the real beginning of the conflict. But the British do not achieve their objective, and Elliot decides to block all British commercial ships from the port of Canton, which goes against the decisions of the imperial authorities who welcomed British ships not carrying opium. This dispute provoked a naval battle at Chuenpi, near Canton Bay. Two British ships engage 14 Imperial junks and sink four before withdrawing without casualties, demonstrating their nation's technological superiority. Under pressure from merchants in Britain and other Western nations, the British Parliament finally decided in October to send a military expedition to China. Lord Palmerston, British Foreign Secretary, immediately sends instructions to Elliot demanding an end to hostilities. Among other conditions:a preferential trade treaty for the British in China, the opening of four ports (Canton, Xiamen, Shanghai and Ningbo) to international trade, and the possibility for British citizens to be tried according to the laws of their country. . Cannons crush Canton Over the following months, the British recalled their military and diplomats from Canton, giving the impression to the Qing Empire that they did not want open conflict. It is the calm before the storm. In June 1840, after several months of preparations, a British fleet made up of 40 ships and 19,000 soldiers arrived in Chinese waters. His primary objective is not Canton, but the island of Zhoushan, near the mouth of the Yangtze, about 1,500 km from Canton. The fortress falls in a few days against the power of the artillery of the British ships - including the HMS Nemesis , the first steam frigate with an iron hull in history – against which the Chinese wooden junks could not compete. After this show of force, the British left for the Pearl River delta to submit Canton. But their conditions for ending hostilities, which included ceding Hong Kong in exchange for Zhoushan, were unacceptable. They then seized Canton after three months of fighting, and China accepted a ceasefire in May 1841. The British fleet returns to the mouth of the Yangtze and seizes the strategic port of Ningbo in October. After having repelled Chinese attempts to recover this place in the spring of 1842, the British sought to strike a blow to avoid the prolongation of the conflict on dry land. They set their sights on Zhenjiang, a city near Nanjing where the southern end of the Grand Canal was located, the most important communication route between the north and the south of China. In July, the fall of Zhenjiang leads to the closure of the Grand Canal. Faced with the threat hanging over Nanjing and the impossibility of navigating the Grand Canal to supply the Chinese troops from the north, the imperial authorities had to capitulate. Peace negotiations between the British and Chinese resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing on August 29, 1842. The British obtain the opening of China to international trade, the possibility of establishing themselves permanently in the ports of Canton, Xiamen, Shanghai and Ningbo, and the complete cession of control over Hong Kong in exchange for the island of Zhoushan. The British Empire is thus the first nation to sign a preferential trade treaty with China not subject to local legislation, which will pave the way, a few years later, for the signing of similar agreements between China and other imperialist nations in the Second Opium War. The conflict is the perfect illustration of Western technological superiority over China at the time, with barely 800 losses on the British side against 20,000 in the Chinese ranks. The conflict is the perfect illustration of Western technological superiority over China at the time, with barely 800 losses on the British side against 20,000 in the Chinese ranks. It also confirms the global supremacy of the British Empire as a military power and inaugurates a new stage of Western imperialism, characterized by the so-called “gunboat diplomacy”, in reference to the powerful Western warships. Find out more The Opium War. 1839-1842, J. Lovell, Buchet Chastel, 2017. Timeline 1839 On March 27, Lin Zexu ordered the burning of opium confiscated from British merchants.1840 On July 5, British troops captured the strategic island of Zhoushan.1841 On May 30, the English captured Canton, the main port of the Middle Kingdom.1842 On July 21, the British attacked Zhenjiang. The Grand Canal is cut.1842 The war ended on August 29 with the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing. Peasant Crisis Opium was not only harmful to the health of the Chinese:it also harmed the social stability of the empire, due to economic repercussions that extended beyond the coastal areas where the drug was imported. To pay for opium, large quantities of silver left China, and the scarcity of this metal increased its price compared to copper. In their daily life, the peasants paid with copper coins, but they had to pay their taxes in silver. Thus, the increasing decrease in silver led to an increase in these taxes:one silver liang (36 g) was equivalent to 1,000 copper coins before 1820; to 1,300 in 1827; to 1,600 in 1838; finally, to more than 2,200 in 1845. The rural world then found itself plunged into a serious crisis. The Big Drug Factory Patna supplies the EastOpium is the juice of the poppy (Papaver somniferum ). The British cultivated poppies in India for China, Patna being the main producing city. The lithographs opposite give an idea of the extent of this trade, a monopoly of the British East India Company, and show some stages of production in an Indian factory. They were made from the drawings of Captain Walter Stanhope Sherwill, originally published in the book The Indian Opium, its Mode of Preparation for the Chinese Market , printed in London in 1851. The poppy was sown in November and required intensive irrigation during the three months of its growth. Harvesting was done when the petals fell and the capsules were swollen. Incisions were then made in these capsules to allow the juice to exude, which was collected and left to dry in the open air for a month. The resulting product was then sent to factories for processing and storage until its auction in October, almost a year after sowing.The review The raw opium arrives at the Patna factory in labeled and numbered earthenware jars. It is first examined either with the naked eye or by introducing a spoon into the mass. Then samples are taken and chemically analyzed to determine its consistency and purity.The mixture The opium jars are then transported to a room where their contents are poured into tubs and stirred until a homogeneous paste is obtained. This is then sent to the balling room , where it is given the rounded shape characteristic of opium loaves.Pressing The opium is pressed using a brass basin to give it a round shape using the lewa , a liquid exuded during the previous process. The dumplings are then covered with poppy petals. A skilled worker could make more than 100 opium loaves a day.Storage The loaves are dried and stored until the ships are ready to take them away. Children examine them regularly to prevent them from spoiling or being attacked by insects. To avoid this kind of damage, the loaves are covered with crushed petals, stems and capsules. “Where is your conscience? » Lin Zexu, the imperial commissioner who, in 1839, destroyed the opium of Canton, sent a letter to Queen Victoria of England saying:"We find that your country is sixty or seventy thousand lis from China, but, however, barbarian vessels strive to come here to trade and make great profits. […] We ask you:where is your conscience? I heard that smoking opium is strictly forbidden in your country [it was actually not the case]; it is because the harmful effects are well recognized. As you do not allow opium to harm your country, you should all the more protect other countries, especially China, from it. » British secret weapon Frigates against junksThe British had a real secret weapon in their war against China:HMS Nemesis , a frigate expressly ordered in 1839 by the East India Company to support the English fleet during its campaigns in China. Built in three months, she was the first iron-hulled ship capable of ocean voyages and the best representative of the naval technological superiority of the British against the Chinese. Compared to large and heavy Chinese junks, the Nemesis was fast and versatile (it could sail or use its six boilers); moreover, its shallow draft allowed it to navigate in waters difficult to access for other ships and to penetrate into narrow river areas. These elements, combined with powerful artillery, gave it a key role in the capture of port cities such as Canton. Hong Kong becomes British In 1842, by the Treaty of Nanjing, China ceded to the United Kingdom the island of Hong Kong, endowed with great strategic importance:its port, deep and well protected, has entrances to the east and west, and lies on the main trade routes of the Orient. In 1860, at the end of the Second Opium War, China also had to cede the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island to the British. British rule over the region increased under a convention signed in 1898, ceding the enclave to Britain for 99 years. In 1984, a Sino-British treaty set the date for the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, the year in which China recovered the sovereignty of this territory, even if the latter remains limited by a special regime lasting 50 years. /P>
