"The Opium Wars" were not about opium.

By Greg McCulley

Drafted 20 April 1998

����������� It is often said that the name "China" means the middle kingdom, but it is more accurate to say it means Central Kingdom.� Traditionally, China has viewed herself as the center of creation, and all other peoples were subservient to her.� This mindset leaves little room for imperial competition, so when the British Empire met China's empire, the stage was set for confrontation.� The Opium Wars were a manifestation of this conflict, and to say that these conflicts were only about opium would be a myopic evaluation of the Britain-China relationship during the nineteenth century.

����������� In the eighteenth century, there existed an imbalance of trade between China and Britain.� In the West, there was a high demand for tea, silk, and porcelain from the East. At the same time, China wanted very little that the West was offering to trade.� To solve this problem, outside traders developed a three-cornered trade system, which allowed them to exchange their European merchandise in India and Southeast Asia for products that they could more readily trade in China.� By the early 1800's the most frequent British import to China had become cotton and opium (Bunge, 19).� This was a direct violation of imperial decree, which outlawed the use or trade of opium in China.� This law was difficult to enforce, given the popularity opium had gained in China and the opportunity for financial gain in dealing the drug.� By 1839, the Chinese government decided to change the tide of opium trafficking by seizing and destroying 20,000 chests of opium at Guangzhou.� This became the premise for British aggression, and started what became known as the First Opium War (1839-1842). At the close of this conflict, Britain emerged the overwhelming victor, and the spoils of the wars were many, given under the Treaty of Nanking in 1842.� This document is considered by the Chinese to be the first in a line of "unequal treaties".

����������� On the surface, it appears that the impetus of the wars was the burning of the large opium shipment. When you look deeper, however, several facts emerge.� First of all, why did the Chinese government decide all of a sudden to burn the 20,000 chests of the drugs?� Was it to stem the flow of illegal drugs into the country?� Perhaps it was, in part.� The biggest problem Peking had with the drug trade was that it was alleviating the trade imbalance for the British.� The West wanted China's goods, and this newly developed demand for opium prevented the Westerners from being forced to pay cash for these goods.� Therefore, from a Chinese perspective, this was eliminating the influx of hard cash into China.� If China could eliminate this drug trade, Britain would be forced to pay in silver for the silks and porcelains she so desired, and this would bottom line nicely for the Chinese government.

����������� Also, the British Empire was none too pleased with the trade imbalance for more than economic reasons;� the imbalance pointed out that China just might be superior to the British, and they found this very distasteful.� England sought to bring this upstart to her knees and force her to provide dependable and profitable trade.� Continued Chinese insubordination in the early nineteenth century resulted in a London who had grown impatient and ready for a reason to strike China down.� The opium burning of 1839 provided that opportunity.� In the war that followed, China proved ill-prepared for the conflict, and was badly beaten.� This marked the beginning of the end of China's position as an� unchallenged imperial power.� In the Nanking Treaty of 1842, the British forced the emperor to cede the island of Hong Kong, already annexed by Royal Navy Captain Charles Elliot on January 20, 1841 (Hoefer, 26).� Also provided in the treaty:� the opening of five ports to foreign trade, limiting of the trade tariff to 5% ad valorem,� the payment of a large indemnity (six million dollars, the value of the opium destroyed by the Chinese), most-favored-nation trade treatment, and the granting to British nationals exemption from Chinese laws (Bunge, 19).

����������� These forced trade concessions blackened China's eye to the world.� Even after these concessions, there was conflict, however.� In 1856, hostilities erupted when Chinese troops attacked the British vessel Arrow.� This started what became known as the Second Opium War (this was also called the Arrow War, after the name of the vessel).� China no longer dealt with the outside world on her own terms, and this was only the beginning. After the British, the Americans and the French followed into Shanghai, forming a concession area, the International Settlement, �that was immune from Chinese law.� This area later became known as "the Whore of Asia" (Thubron, 142), for exploitation of the region became par for the course.� These events were shaped by the original assertion of British power over China.�

         So, we can see that the Opium wars were not about opium.  When the Chinese struggled with the Royal Navy during the Opium Wars, it was not just about a burned shipment of illegal drugs into the port of Guangzhou, or even the trade of the drug throughout Asia, but rather it was a struggle of the Chinese for her very sovereignty.