Why was the opium war fought?

Answer 1

There were two Opium Wars sometimes called the Anglo-Chinese war.

Both were struggles about trade rights in China. The high tarriff placed

on imported opium by the Chinese Government and the attempt by Anglo

traders to circumvent the tax resulted in the Chines siezure of about four

million pounds from the warehouses of the Traders. The Chinese burned

the opium. In the war that followed the British occupied Canton and the

1842 Treaty of Nanking gave Britain trading concessions and Hong Kong.

The French and Americans demand for equal trading rights brought on the

second Opium War which was resolved by the 1958 Treaty of Tienstin,

granting French and America to trade in China on an equal footing with

the British. It also allowed missionary entry into China and to hold and

own property within China. Most favored trading status appears to be

founded on the right to sell drugs, property rights, and the desire to

spread your own beliefs to others.

Answer 2

The Opium War was fought because Britain had been importing opium into China. The Chinese government, because of the effects of this drug on the country's citizens, placed an embargo on the import of it. Britain refused, because they were making a lot of money off of the opium. Therefore, it united with eight other countries in order to defeat China. Although the starting point came from Britain's want to export opium into China, the result was much more than that. China was defeated, and not only did Britain get to continue its opium trade with the country, Spheres of Influence were carved, and territories had to be given to the victorious nations temporarily. (Ex. Portugal received Macau for a number of years, and Britain received Hong Kong for 100 years.) The Spheres of Influence were territories where each country had trading advantages with China over all other countries.

Answer 3

The First Opium War was a war fought between the British and the Chinese over the trade of the highly addictive drug, opium. The First Opium War lasted a long three years as it stretched between 1839 and 1842 in the densely populated country of China. The British, a trading partner of China, wanted more land; in order to obtain more land and trading rights from the Chinese, the British manipulated the Chinese people through the sale of opium.

Britain was in debt to China as a result of importing more traded goods than exported. China wanted few things from the British, a distrustful mindset that would prevent Chinese culture and tradition from being tainted by foreigners. When Britain introduced opium to the Chinese, the trade between the two countries skyrocketed as the addiction to opium soon took hold of a large portion of the country. (Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding)The opium, shipped in from farms in India, supported the triangular trade between Britain, China, and India (mainly benefiting Britain and India) as Britain bought it for a low price from India, and sold it to the Chinese for a higher price. By selling opium, the British were no longer indebted to the Chinese as China imported more goods than it exported, creating a few financial issues. Therefore, instead of Britain being in debt to China, it was China who was indebted to Britain.

The sale of opium was a very effective way for the British to solve their financial problem, seeing as to how western countries loved chinese products such as silk and rice, yet it sparked a major financial issue with China. The attempt at settling the financial problems was a big fork in the road as China kept buying more and more opium from the British. This eventually led to the first Opium war as Lin Zexu, the Imperial Commissioner, was appointed by the Daoguang Emperor to bring a stop to the use and trade of opium in China as it was slowing down the nation's economy. However, opium had use in the medical field as it could be used as a narcotic to relieve pain, which has long been replaced by morphine. Naturally, Lin and the Emperor did not approve the trade of opium and attempted to halt it by imprisoning foreign traders and confiscating their remaining stocks of the drug and destroying it publicly (Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding).

-Opium Wars (1839-42)

(Goldfinger, Shandra) The British were furious about Lin's destruction of the opium and took the heinous act as a sign of hostility. Hopes for ending the trade of opium were well out of reach so the last option was war.

As expected, the British ultimately won that war as the Chinese were dramatically outnumbered and outgunned due to the further advancement of the western-civilization's technology than that of China's. When Britain won, they realized that they were in a good position to demand a lot of the Chinese, seeing as to how they knew the power of Britain, a world power at the time. From Britain's triumph in the war came the Unequal Treaties, treaties benefitting Britain and Various other countries more than it did China. The Unequal Treaty from Britain, or the Treaty of Nanjing, allowed for the opening of five different trading ports for British trade in China at Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai. The Treaty of Nanjing also introduced the Open Door Policy, forcing China to open their metaphorical doors to new western ideas, cultures, etc.

The Treaty of Nanking was designed to protect British merchants and to provide security for trade with China. Cambridge at 216. To this end, the treaty provided the British subjects with a number of rights. It established a system of consular jurisdiction over British nationals. Id. at 217. It provided reciprocal protection so that subjects could "enjoy full security and protection for their persons and property within the Dominions of the other [state]". Id. It also allowed merchants to "trade 'with whatever persons they please', as opposed to trading with an official monopoly". Id.

-Unequal Treaties and Property Law in China

As you can see, British citizens and other foreigners were allowed special privileges because of Britain's victory in the war, which allowed the trade of opium to continue, worsening China's economy even further. (Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum) Britain was not the only country getting in on the action, other countries such as France, Russia, Japan, Korea, America, etc all got a piece of the Chinese pie, and in return, gave China their sphere of influence. Through the spheres of influence and the Treaty of Nanjing, Britain achieved their goal of obtaining more land, making a successful attempt at draining out all they could possibly want out of China.

The sale and addiction of opium was widespread among China after the British started selling it to China as the drug offered a feeling of serenity, a feeling that many Chinese people craved at the time due to the already in-the-dumps economy. (Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding) It was hard for the Chinese to refuse as British traders often offered out free samples in order to induce addiction, causing opium to slowly work it's way into the whole of Chinese society. As mentioned before, this was worked to their advantage as opiates could be and were used as narcotics to relieve pain, but were concealed from the British public so as to not follow in China's footsteps. After opium was banned, merchants still smuggled in the drug through Chinese ports (owned by Britain as spoils of the war).

Since the Chinese government had repeatedly banned opium smoking, the E.I.C. preferred to sell its production at annual auctions in Calcutta to licensed private firms so as not to jeopardise its legal trade in tea. The 'country traders' shipped the drug in specially built and heavily armed opium clippers to fortified receiving ships permanently stationed off the coast of southern China. From these floating warehouses the illicit cargoes were transferred to multi-oared 'fast crabs' and 'scrambling dragons', crewed by Chinese pirates who took the opium to coastal and riverine depots where bribed officials permitted the drug to be unloaded for distribution along extensive smuggling networks run by gangsters and Triads.

-Opium Wars (1839-42)

There was always a way for smuggling opium into China, rendering the Chinese law banning opium, useless. Not only were merchants smuggling opium into China, but they openly sold the drug at Chinese markets and other events at no attempt to hide it from Chinese authorities due to extraterritoriality which prevented authoritative figures from doing anything about it. (Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding) Before the First Opium War, China was in a neutral state, but the two main things that brought it down even further was the smuggling of opium into the country, and the rise of free-trade Imperialism. Britain was not the only one supplying opium to the Chinese, but America also saw it as a great solution to solving their own debts with China as America had the same issues with China as Britain did when China bought less British products than vice versa. Ultimately, the cause for the First Opium War was the trade and sale of opium.

(Goldfinger, Shandra) The First Opium War left behind more than just history lessons on China in the common textbook, but can be noticed in China's society today as Britain has only recently returned the trading port Hong Kong back to the Chinese, tea export has increased by 500 percent since then, silk export increased by 2800 percent, and a significant portion of the Chinese are still prejudiced against foreigners. The reason for the sudden increase in trade of tea and silk is the Chinese' focus on trade after the Opium Wars as they didn't want the same incident to happen all over again. In the end, the British sale of opium was used as means for obtaining more land and trading rights from the Chinese, leading to the devastation of the Chinese government and economy which is why The First Opium War will be remembered in history as the time when China was ultimately betrayed by the British.

Answer 4

the opium wars were fought over drugs (opium) they are made with poppy seeds the 2 countries wanted opium so they fought over it non of then got it Afghanistan got it

Answer 5

The Chinese (Qing dynasty) got attacked by the British and had to lend Hong Kong to the British for 99 years.