There is a well-known joke that any discovery that is made in the world has its Chinese counterpart, only it was several centuries earlier.
At the beginning of the 19th century, China was a very rich country, whose products enjoyed unchanging success throughout the civilized world. Chinese porcelain, Chinese tea, silk, fans, art objects and many other exotic goods were in great demand throughout Europe. They were bought with great pleasure for a lot of money, and China took payment only in gold and silver, and completely closed its markets from foreigners.
Great Britain, which had recently conquered India and received fabulous profits from it, sought to expand its influence. Everything that could be plundered in India had already been taken away long ago, and I wanted more money.
In addition, the British were annoyed that Chinese goods had to be paid in precious metals, which depressed the pound sterling.
The British were unnerved by the fact that China sells a huge amount of goods in Europe, but itself does not buy anything in Europe. The trade balance was heavily skewed in China's favor. Only one port in the country was opened for foreigners - Guangzhou (Canton), while foreigners were prohibited from leaving this port and moving inland.
Negotiations with the Chinese were fruitless. The Chinese did not need goods from Europe. From a letter from Emperor Qianlong to King George III of England: "We have everything you could want, and we don't need barbarian goods."
And then the British found a product that could be sold in China with a fabulous profit. It turned out to be opium. In Bengal, which was captured in 1757, there was a lot of it, the East India Company had a monopoly on its production since 1773, and it was not far from being transported.
Opium Ships Off Lindin Island, W. Huggins. 1824 g.
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And then it was decided to increase the smuggling of opium to China. If in 1775 only one and a half tons of opium from Bengal were sold throughout China, by 1830 the East India Company had brought smuggling to 1,500-2,000 tons per year.
The Chinese realized too late. Millions of Chinese people from all walks of life, including the ruling elite, have been involved in drug use. It got to the point that opium was supplied through corrupt government officials who used drugs themselves, and those who did not agree were simply killed.
The Chinese - opium smokers, 1858
Between 10 and 20% of city officials used opium, and in villages this figure was twice as high. In some institutions, more than half of the employees were drug addicts. Soldiers and officers used opium almost en masse, which made the huge Chinese army practically ineffective.
The reason for the closure of the Chinese market for foreigners was also the fact that China fought against the smuggling of opium on its territory for several decades and in 1830 finally tried to stop it with tough measures. And in 1839, seeing that England, by hook or by crook, continues to smuggle opium in the country, the Chinese emperor closed the market for traders in England and its subordinate India by a special decree.
The Chinese governor Lin Zexu discovered huge stocks of opium in the only port open to foreigners and confiscated them with the help of the army. In addition to ships full of drugs, 19 thousand boxes and 2 thousand bales of opium were arrested.
Lin Zexu, Emergency Representative for Combating Opium Smuggling. After the victory of the British, he was removed from office and sent into exile.
Traders were asked to continue trading, but only after a written commitment not to sell opium. Moreover, the governor was ready to compensate the seized opium with Chinese goods. It would seem, which is much better ?!
Lin Zexu and the Destruction of Opium, 1839
However, this caused such a strong outburst of indignation among the British that in 1840 the so-called First Opium War was declared. For the first time in history, the war was fought not for the seizure of territories, but for the markets and the promotion of drugs into the country.
The ethics of selling drugs was initially widely discussed in England itself, but money does not smell, nothing personal. The trade lobby quickly suppressed the stupid and naive attempts of individuals, achieved its goal and in April 1840 began a war with China, which, of course, was approved by the US government.
The Chinese army was large, but scattered, scattered on different ends of a large country and poorly trained. In addition, on the eve of the battles, the British sent large consignments of drugs to the alleged areas of clashes, which were distributed practically for nothing, which finally killed the fighting efficiency of the Chinese and made them unable to repel the attack.
Shelling of Chinese junks. Author: Edward Duncan.
Therefore, only 4,000 well-trained and well-trained English soldiers in a short time, already by August 1840, reached Beijing and forced the emperor to sign an armistice.
Separate battles then continued until August 28, 1842, when the Chinese Empire was forced to agree to a humiliating peace, signed in the “southern capital,” the city of Nanjing. The British discovered five trading ports in which “independent” (and in fact, of course, purely English) legislative and judicial authorities operated.
And of course, the main bonus of the signed agreement was the ability to sell opium in China without restrictions for the East India Company, which, with great satisfaction and no less profit, began to pump the country with drugs.
Also, under the terms of the "peace agreement" the British handed over Hong Kong to themselves, and in addition, forced China to pay an indemnity of $ 21 million in silver. And for the opium that the Chinese governor arrested in 1839, the British demanded to pay them another 6 million dollars.
All of this exceeded several times the profit received by the East India Company from the occupation of Bengal in 1757, and promised huge profits from the sale of opium in the near future.
The invaders should have been very pleased, but how can you satisfy the bottomless appetite of the British? From that moment on, the troubles in China, as it turned out, had just begun.
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The first Opium War smoothly spilled over into a civil war, which suited foreigners very much, since it further weakened the already plundered country and reduced the likelihood of success of the liberation movement.
Trade in English goods in China, 1858
In addition, the British believed that not all of their interests in the region were satisfied, so they were looking for a reason to unleash a new war.
Caricature * England pumps China with opium *.
But if a reason for war is needed, then it will always be found. This was the reason for the seizure by the Chinese authorities of a ship that was engaged in piracy, robbery and smuggling.
The ship "Arrow" was assigned to Hong Kong, which by that time the British had already appropriated for themselves, and therefore sailed under the English flag. This was enough to unleash the so-called Second Opium War (1856-1860).
The seizure of a vessel under the English flag by the Chinese.
In 1857, the British captured Guangzhou, but then they started having problems in India, and they stopped the invasion. In 1858, negotiations were resumed with the participation of the United States, France and Russia.
As a result of the Tianjin Agreements, China was forced to open six more ports for foreigners, gave foreigners the right to free movement around the country and free missionary activities.
All foreigners accused of any crimes from that day on could not be convicted under Chinese law. They should have been handed over to the local consulates, who themselves decided what to do with it.
The emperor pulled as best he could with the signing of this agreement, so in 1860 the Anglo-French troops reached Beijing and barbarously plundered the summer imperial palace, threatening to destroy all of Beijing.
The entry of the Anglo-French troops into Beijing. 19th century engraving
Then the Chinese were forced to sign the now "Beijing Agreement", according to which China again had to pay a large indemnity, transfer part of its territories to the Europeans, the Chinese could be exported to Europe and its colonies as cheap labor and several more ports had to be opened for foreigners.
It should be noted that the Russian general Nikolai Ignatiev played an important role in signing the Peking Treaty, as a representative of Russia.
For his help in negotiations with foreigners, which took place in the "Russian mission", where the general achieved the allies' abandonment of the plans to occupy Beijing, the Chinese Emperor agreed to clarify the border with Russia, as a result of which the left bank of the Amur and Ussuri with all coastal harbors to the Posiet Bay and the Manchurian coast to Korea.
In the west, the border along the Nor-Zaisang lake in the Heavenly Mountains was significantly corrected in favor of Russia. Russia also received the right to overland trade in the Chinese possessions, as well as the right to open consulates in Urga, Mongolia and Kashgar.
Adjutant General N. P. Ignatiev. Beijing, 1900
Previously, the opium trade was simply not paid attention to, but as a result of the Beijing agreements, it simply became legal. This has had a twofold effect. On the one hand, the British continued to plunder the country, but on the other hand, very soon there was nothing to plunder.
The snake began to devour its own tail. As English newspapers wrote: "The obstacle is not the lack of demand in China for English goods … The payment for opium consumes all the silver, much to the detriment of the general trade of the Chinese … The manufacturers have no prospects of trade with China."
Opium began to be grown directly in China, resulting in tens of millions of consumers and a million hectares of opium plantations. China had every chance to turn into an abandoned desert and be wiped off the face of the earth as a separate state.
Opium cultivation in China (tons per year), 1908
A bit unexpectedly, but despite the fact that it was the income from the sale of opium that initially served as a source of financial support for the communists in the early years of the founding of the Communist Party of China, it was the dictator Mao Zedong who subsequently managed to stop the seemingly inevitable end of the great country with super-harsh measures.
Small traders and consumers were given the opportunity to earn honest labor, while large ones were either executed or imprisoned.
Perhaps this is also why, despite the obvious cruelty of his reforms and terror, Mao Zedong is still revered in the People's Republic of China. For he still managed to revive the already almost dead corpse of the country and breathe new life into it.
The CCP called Yan'an a revolutionary "holy land." Opium was grown there, the income from which was financial support for the party in its early years.
Today, the Chinese regard the period of the Opium Wars as a national tragedy, calling those times "a century of humiliation." If before the Opium Wars the Chinese considered their country to be a great power capable of living independently without interfering in world politics, today they look at the world more realistically. They also opened their eyes to Europeans, their values and goals, which today allows the Chinese to more accurately assess international relations and their role in them. Perhaps we can say that the opium wars, albeit in such a sad way, had such a positive impact on the development of China.