print | close The Opium War and Foreign Encroachment

• Reading: The Opium War and Foreign Encroachment
• Primary Source: The Treaty of Nanking, August 1842
• Primary Source: Letter of Advice to Queen Victoria
• Discussion Questions and Suggested Activities

The Opium War and Foreign Encroachment

Two things happened in the eighteenth century that made it difficult for England to balance its trade with the East. First, the British became a nation of tea drinkers and the demand for Chinese tea rose astronomically. It is estimated that the average London worker spent five percent of his or her total household budget on tea. Second, northern Chinese merchants began to ship Chinese cotton from the interior to the south to compete with the Indian cotton that Britain had used to help pay for its tea consumption habits. To prevent a trade imbalance, the British tried to sell more of their own products to China, but there was not much demand for heavy woolen fabrics in a country accustomed to either cotton padding or silk.

The only solution was to increase the amount of Indian goods to pay for these Chinese luxuries, and increasingly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the item provided to China was Bengal opium. With greater opium supplies had naturally come an increase in demand and usage throughout the country, in spite of repeated prohibitions by the Chinese government and officials. The British did all they could to increase the trade: They bribed officials, helped the Chinese work out elaborate smuggling schemes to get the opium into China's interior, and distributed free samples of the drug to innocent victims.

The cost to China was enormous. The drug weakened a large percentage of the population (some estimate that 10 percent of the population regularly used opium by the late nineteenth century), and silver began to flow out of the country to pay for the opium. Many of the economic problems China faced later were either directly or indirectly traced to the opium trade. The government debated about whether to legalize the drug through a government monopoly like that on salt, hoping to barter Chinese goods in return for opium. But since the Chinese were fully aware of the harms of addiction, in 1838 the emperor decided to send one of his most able officials, Lin Tse-hsu, to Canton to do whatever necessary to end the traffic forever.

Lin was able to put his first two proposals into effect easily. Addicts were rounded up, forcibly treated, and taken off the habit, and domestic drug dealers were harshly punished. His third objective--to confiscate foreign stores and force foreign merchants to sign pledges of good conduct, agreeing never to trade in opium and to be punished by Chinese law if ever found in violation--eventually brought war. Opinion in England was divided: Some British did indeed feel morally uneasy about the trade, but they were overruled by those who wanted to increase England's China trade and teach the arrogant Chinese a good lesson. Western military weapons, including percussion lock muskets, heavy artillery, and paddlewheel gunboats, were far superior to China's. Britain's troops had recently been toughened in the Napoleonic wars, and Britain could muster garrisons, warships, and provisions from its nearby colonies in Southeast Asia and India. The result was a disaster for the Chinese. By the summer of 1842 British ships were victorious and were even preparing to shell the old capital, Nanking, in central China. The emperor therefore had no choice but to accept the British demands and sign a peace agreement. This agreement, the first of the "unequal treaties," opened China to the West and marked the beginning of western exploitation of the nation.

Other humiliating defeats followed in what one historian has called China's "treaty century" (major aspects of the so-called "unequal treaties" were not formally voided until 1943). In 1843, France and the U.S., and Russia in 1858, negotiated treaties similar to England's Nanking (Nanjing) Treaty, including a provision for extraterritoriality, whereby foreign nationals in China were immune from Chinese law. To compel a reluctant China to shift from its traditional tribute based foreign relations to treaty relations, Europeans fought a second war with China from 1858-1860, and the concluding Treaty of Tientsin (Tianjin) and Convention of Peking (Beijing) increased China's semi-colonial status. More ports were open to foreign residence and trade, and foreigners, especially missionaries, were allowed free movement and business anywhere in the country.

Conflicts for the rest of the century wrung more humiliating concessions from China: with Russia over claims in China's far west and northeast in 1850 and 1860, with England over access to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in 1876, with France over northern Vietnam in 1884, with Japan over its claims to Korea and northeast China in 1895, and with many foreign powers after 1897 which demanded "spheres of influence," especially for constructing railroads and mines. In 1900, an international army suppressed the anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion in northern China, destroying much of Beijing in the process. Each of these defeats brought more foreign demands, greater indemnities that China had to repay, more foreign presence along the coast, and more foreign participation in China's political and economic life. Little wonder that many in China were worried by the century's end that China was being sliced up "like a melon."

Acknowledgment: The consultant for this unit was Dr. Sue Gronewold, a specialist in Chinese history. The text of the Treaty of Nanking is from Changing China: Readings in the History of China from the Opium War to the Present, edited by J. Mason Gentzler.

Copyright © 1977 by Praeger Publishers, A Division of Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Reproduced by permission of Holt, Rinehart and Winston. (Photographs courtesy of Culver Pictures Inc.; reprinted by permission.)

The Treaty of Nanking, August 1842

Article I

There shall henceforth be Peace and Friendship between ...(England and China) and between their respective Subjects, who shall enjoy full security and protection for their persons and property within the Dominions of the other.

Article II

His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees that British Subjects, with their families and establishments, shall be allowed to reside, for the purpose of carrying on their commercial pursuits, without molestation or restraint at the Cities and Towns of Canton, Amoy, Foochow-fu, Ningpo, and Shanghai, and Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., will appoint Superintendents or Consular Officers, to reside at each of the above-named Cities or Towns, to be the medium of communication between the Chinese Authorities and the said Merchants, and to see that the just Duties and other Dues of the Chinese Government as hereafter provided for, are duly discharged by Her Britannic Majesty's Subjects.

Article III

It being obviously necessary and desirable, that British Subjects should have some Port whereat they may careen and refit their Ships, when required, and keep Stores for that purpose, His Majesty the Emperor of China cedes to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., the Island of Hong-Kong, to be possessed in perpetuity by her Britannic Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, and to be governed by such Laws and Regulations as Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., shall see fit to direct.

Article V

The Government of China having compelled the British Merchants trading at Canton to deal exclusively with certain Chinese Merchants called Hong merchants (or Cohong) who had been licensed by the Chinese Government for that purpose, the Emperor of China agrees to abolish that practice in future at all Ports where British Merchants may reside, and to permit them to carry on their mercantile transactions with whatever persons they please, and His Imperial Majesty further agrees to pay to the British Government the sum of Three Millions of Dollars, on account of Debts due to British Subjects by some of the said Hong Merchants (or Cohong) who have become insolvent, and who owe very large sums of money to Subjects of Her Britannic Majesty.

Article VII

It is agreed that the Total amount of Twenty-one Millions of Dollars, described in the three preceding Articles, shall be paid as follows:
Six Millions immediately.
Six Millions in 1843...
Five Millions in 1844...
Four Millions in 1845...

Article IX

The Emperor of China agrees to publish and promulgate, under his Imperial Sign Manual and Seal, a full and entire amnesty and act of indemnity, to all Subjects of China on account of their having resided under, or having had dealings and intercourse with, or having entered the Service of Her Britannic Majesty, or of Her Majesty's Officers, and His Imperial Majesty further engages to release all Chinese Subjects who may be at this moment in confinement for similar reasons.

Article X

His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees to establish all the Ports which are by the 2nd Article of this Treaty to be thrown open for the resort of British Merchants, a fair and regular Tariff of Export and Import Customs and other Dues, which Tariff shall be publicly notified and promulgated for general information, and the Emperor further engages, that when British Merchandise shall have once paid at any of the said Ports the regulated Customs and Dues agreeable to the Tariff, to be hereafter fixed, such Merchandise may be conveyed by Chinese Merchants, to any Province or City in the interior of the Empire of China on paying further amount as Transit Duties which shall not exceed ___ percent on the tariff value of such goods. (Note: Tariff schedules were not settled at this time. The tariff rates on various goods were fixed after further discussions; they averaged about five percent.)

Important Additional Privileges Granted To Foreigners In Subsequent Treaties

Most Favored Nation Status (Article VIII of the Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue, between China and Great Britain, signed October 8, 1843)

The Emperor of China, having been graciously pleased to grant to all foreign Countries whose Subjects, or Citizens, have hitherto traded at Canton the privilege of resorting for purposes of Trade to the other four Ports of Fuchow, Amoy, Ningpo, and Shanghai, on the same terms as the English, it is further agreed, that should the Emperor hereafter, from any cause whatever, be pleased to grant additional privileges or immunities to any of the Subjects or Citizens of such Foreign Countries, the same privileges and immunities will be extended to and enjoyed by British Subjects; but it is to be understood that demands or requests are not, on this plea, to be unnecessarily brought forward.

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Letter of Advice to Queen Victoria (1839)
by Lin Zexu (Lin Tse-Hsu)

Refer to the letter that Commissioner Lin Zexu wrote to Queen Victoria in 1839. (For a web version see: academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/com-lin.html). After locating this letter, refer to the following questions:

1. Why did Lin Zexu write this letter to Queen Victoria?
   
2. Why is he worried about the sale of opium in China?
   
3. What connection does he think Queen Victoria has to the opium trade?  Do you think he is right?
   
4. What does this document tell us about the relations between China and the West in the nineteenth century?

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Discussion Questions and Suggested Activities

Vocabulary

• Opium War
• unequal treaties
• "country" trade
• balance of trade
• extraterritoriality
• most favored nation status 

Questions

1. Compare the Treaty of Nanking with the Chinese emperor's reply to Lord Macartney. What sort of rights did the Chinese give to the British that they previously refused to give?
2. If the word "imperialism" is defined as "the policy of seeking to dominate the affairs of weaker countries," do you think Chinese today are justified in saying that China suffered from Western "imperialism" begun by the British?  Discuss.

Activities

1. Imagine you are diplomats charged with concluding these treaties for the Qing state on the one hand and for foreign powers on the other. Write a report detailing your negotiations. What are your main concerns? What are different ways you could look out for your interests?
   
2. In your textbook, in the library, or on the Web, locate maps which show the increase over time of treaty ports (by 1900 there were over 100) and the "spheres of influence" claimed by foreign powers in China. When did the greatest number of concessions occur? What else occurred at this time to explain how greater demands could be made by foreigners? Which parts of China were most heavily involved? Least involved? Was the effect of foreign presence and power in China the same everywhere? Why? (Refer to the web site: academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/images/lt19cmap.gif or see the maps in either Ebrey's Cambridge Illustrated History: China, p. 241, or in Barraclough et. al's The Times Atlas of World History, "Dismemberment of the Chinese Empire 1842-1911."
3. Locate copies of the treaties China concluded with foreign powers from 1842 until 1905, including the entire Treaty of Nanking, the Treaty of the Bogue and Treaty of Wanghui in 1844, the Treaty of Tianjin of 1858 and Beijing Convention of 1860, the Zhefu Convention in 1876, the Tianjin Convention of 1876, the Treaty of Tianjin of 1885, the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, the Boxer Protocol of 1900, and Japan's Twenty-One Demands of 1915. Trace the evolution over time of greater concessions and indemnities imposed upon China. Given what you know of China's situation and foreign powers, evaluate these treaties. Were they "fair," "just," or defensible?
4. Research the long-term effects of the different foreigners active in China at this time. For example, trace the long-term impact of the missionaries, charting the number of Christian converts from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, by 1949, and on into the 1980s. Where are the largest communities of Christians located? What does this say about long-term cultural contact and the effects of imperialism? Also, look at the long-range economic impact of imperialism in China by tracing the nineteenth and twentieth century histories of tea, porcelain, sugar, tobacco, and textiles.