Expert answer:Chinese History question

Expert answer:Read or watch the Course Materials provided for each week.Create a Discussion Board post in which you write a 1-paragraph response to each of the following focus questions (for a total of 3 paragraphs):
When did the first Westerners arrive in China and what were their goals?What were the political, economic, and social challenges faced by both sides in dealing with the other?How did European nations use diplomacy and war to gain power and what were the results for China and the West?Course Material:http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/chinawh/web/s1/index… https://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/rise_fall_… https://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/opium_wars…Video Links(s): Asia and the Challenge of the WestSource: “The Two Coasts of China: Asia and the Challenge of the West.” Accessed June 23, 2016Note on Source: Episode 1 of the 1992 PBS Emmy-award winning ten-part documentary series the Pacific Century, about the rise of the Pacific Rim economies. The series was a co-production of the Pacific Basin Institute and KCTS-TV in Seattle. Principle funding was provided by the Annenberg Foundation.Instructions: Please click on the following links, which discuss the nature, causes, and effects of European encounters with China:Trade, Diplomacy, and the Canton System | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZmtpvfnqcQThe Origins and Development of the Opium Trade | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdGQU54b_60The Opium War and the Period of Unequal Treaties | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SMou3iQRHUTerms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the web page above.
lecture_24.5.1.__clash_with_the_west.pdf

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The First Clash with the West
China and the World Economy
Opium and the Expansion of Trade
The Opium Wars, 1842-1860
Looking Ahead
China and the World Economy
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In some ways, China was at the height of its power and glory in the
mid-eighteenth century. However, it was also during this period
that the first signs of the decay of the Qing dynasty began to
appear.
Unfortunately for China, the decline of the Qing coincided with the
growth of industrial and military power in the West, which
contributed to increase pressure for trade.
By the end of the seventeenth century, the English had replaced
the Portuguese as the dominant force in European trade.
London became an important trading center, where goods were
imported, exported, and transferred from one country to another.
Major Global Trade Routes
British Maritime Trade
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The 18th century was the period in which Britain rose to a dominant
position among European trading empires.
Maritime trade in Asia was dominated by the British East India
Company, a large joint-stock company based in London.
The Company was established in 1600 by a royal charter, which
granted it a monopoly over all English trade with India and East
Asia.
By 1690, the Company had trading centers (known as “factories”)
all along the west and east coasts of India.
The Company wanted to trade directly with China, but it was not
until 1699 that the Chinese allowed the Company to trade at
Canton.
The China Trade
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Operating through the British East India Company, which served as
both a trading unit and the administrator of English territories in
Asia, the English established their first trading post at Canton in
1699.
Over the next decades, trade with China, notably the export of tea
and silk to England increased rapidly.
By the late 1700s, tea accounted for more than 60 percent of the
British East India Company’s total trade.
From China, the Company bought tea, silk and porcelain. The
Chinese wanted silver in return. Over the next 100 years tea
became a very popular drink in England, and there was a fear that
too much silver was leaving the country to pay for it.
The Canton System, 1769-1842
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Aggravated by the growing
presence of foreigners, the Qing
court severely restricted the
movement of European traders in
China.
Beginning in the 1760s, China
began to limit foreign trade to the
single port of Canton (Guangzhou),
located on China’s southeast coast.
Foreigners were permitted to reside
there during the seven months of
the trading season (October-March)
and were allowed to go into the city
only three times a month.
Map of Guangdong province
where the city of Canton
(Guangzhou) is located
Restrictions on European Trade
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The Qing licensed Chinese trading
firms — known as hong — at
Canton to be the exclusive
conduits for trade with the West.
The Canton system limited the
ports in which European traders
could do business in China and
forbade any direct trading between
European merchants and Chinese
civilians.
The Canton System, which lasted
from 1760 to 1842, served as a
means for China to control trade
with the West within its own
country.
A 19th century engraving of the
waterfront of Canton. Some of
the foreign warehouses can be
seen on the left and the city
walls to the right.
The Thirteen Factories
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The European presence was
restricted to the “Thirteen Factories,”
on the Canton Harbor. The name
came from the word “factor,”
referring to trading company reps,
who maintained offices or factories.
Factories were “foreigners quarters”
outside the city walls in Guangzhou.
These were business markets, not
actual factories where goods were
manufactured.
Chinese citizens often referred to
the factories as “Barbarian Houses.”
Painting of the factories, circa
1820, with flags of Denmark,
Spain, the U.S., Sweden,
Britain, and the Netherlands
Effects of Canton System
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Low Chinese demand for European goods, and high European
demand for Chinese goods, including tea, silk, and porcelain, forced
European merchants to purchase these goods with silver, the only
commodity the Chinese would accept.
In modern economic terms the Chinese were demanding hard
currency or specie (gold or silver coinage) as the medium of
exchange for the international trade in their goods.
From the mid-17th century around 28 million kilograms of silver was
received by China, principally from European powers, in exchange
for Chinese goods. Britain had to purchase silver from other
European countries, incurring an additional transaction cost.
The uneven balance of trade between the two countries, which
forced the British to ship vast amounts of silver bullion to China in
exchange for Chinese manufactures.
European Dissatisfaction Grows
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For a while, the British tolerated the limitations of the Canton
System, which brought considerable profit to the East India
Company and its shareholders.
By the end of the 18th century, the British had begun to demand
access to other cities along the Chinese coast and that the country
be opened to British manufactured goods.
However, within China there was a limited demand for British-made
goods. Consequently, leading Chinese merchants only accepted
bar silver as payment for their goods.
The huge demand in Europe for Chinese goods such as silk, tea,
and ceramics could only be met if European companies funneled
their limited supplies of silver into China.
The Macartney Mission, 1793
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In 1793, a mission under Lord
Macartney visited Beijing to press for
liberalization of trade restriction and to
request the opening of formal
diplomatic relations between Great
Britain and China.
Lord Macartney arrived in Beijing with a
caravan loaded with six hundred cases
of gifts for the emperor.
But the tribute was in vain, for
Macartney’s request for an increase in
trade between the two countries was
flatly rejected, and he left Beijing with
nothing to show for his efforts.
Portrait of Lord Macartney
Letter from Emperor Qianlong of China to
King George III of England
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Emperor Qianlong, who ruled China for much of the 18th century,
sent a letter to George III of Britain (r. 1760-1820) in response to
Lord Macartney’s request for trade privileges: “You, O King, live
beyond the confines of many seas, nevertheless, impelled by your
humble desire to partake of the benefits of our civilization, you have
dispatched a mission respectfully bearing your memorial…To show
your devotion, you have also sent offerings of your country’s
produce…As to your entreaty to send one of your nationals to be
accredited to my Celestial Court and to be in control of your country’s
trade with China, this request is contrary to all usage of my dynasty
and cannot possibly be entertained…As your Ambassador can see
for himself, we possess all things. I set no value on objects strange
or ingenious, and have no use for your country’s manufactures…I
have expounded my wishes in detail and have commanded your
tribute Envoys to leave in peace on their homeward journey.”
The Amherst Mission of 1816
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After the failure of the Macartney
mission in 1793, another mission,
led by Lord Amherst, arrived in
China in 1815.
The purpose of the mission was to
establish more satisfactory
commercial relations between China
and Great Britain.
However, the mission achieved little
except to worsen the already
strained relationship between the
two countries.
Portrait of Lord Amherst
Opium and the Expansion of Trade
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By 1800, Westerners had been in contact with China for more than
two hundred years, but after an initial period of flourishing relations,
Sino-Western trade had been limited to Canton.
This arrangement was not acceptable to the British. Not only did
they chafe at being restricted to a tiny enclave, but growing appetite
for Chinese tea created a severe trade imbalance.
By the late 1830s, the governments of Great Britain and France were
deeply concerned about their stockpiles of precious metals. They
sought to find a commodity that the Chinese would accept instead of
silver to pay for the goods they bought at Canton.
The British solution was opium. A product more additive than tea,
opium was grown in northeastern India and then shipped to China.
Because of its strong mass appeal and addictive nature, opium was
an effective solution to the trade problem.
Growth of the Opium Trade
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Because of its strong mass
appeal and addictive nature,
opium was an effective
solution to the trade problem.
As imports increased, popular
demand for the product in
southern China became
insatiable despite an official
prohibition on its use.
Soon silver bullion was flowing
out of the Chinese imperial
treasury into the pockets of
British merchants.
Effect of the Opium Trade on China
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Opium was a valued medicine
which could deaden pain, assist
sleep and reduce stress. But it was
also seriously addictive and
millions Chinese became
dependent on the drug.
The British actually encouraged
people to use the drug in China sales of opium were extremely
lucrative.
As a result, millions of Chinese
would die from opium addiction,
and the very fabric of Chinese
society was threatened.
Top: Opium poppy fruit exuding latex
from a cut
Bottom: English opium ships
China’s Response to the Opium Trade
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Chinese officials became increasingly
uncomfortable with problems of crime,
fecklessness and social irresponsibility
that resulted from opium misuse.
The Emperor appointed Lin Zexu as
“Imperial Commissioner for the
Destruction of Opium,” the Qing
version of a drug czar, to curtail the
opium trade.
Lin Zexu, Imperial Commissioner
for the Destruction of Opium
Lin Zexu and the War on Opium
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In 1839, Lin Zexu wrote an open letter, published in Canton, to Queen
Victoria of Britain, urging her to end the opium trade.
He appealed to the Queen on both moral and practical grounds and
threatened to prohibit the sale of rhubarb (widely used as a laxative in
nineteenth-century Europe) to Great Britain if she did not respond.
His primary line of argument was that China was providing Britain
with valuable commodities such as tea, porcelain, spices and silk,
while Britain sends only “poison” in return.
He accused the “barbarians” (i.e. private merchants) of coveting profit
and lacking morality. His memorial expressed a desire that Victoria
would act “in accordance with decent feeling” and support his efforts.
The memorial was never delivered to the queen, though it was later
published in “The Times.”
Lin Zexu’s Memorial to Queen Victoria
(Excerpt)
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“We find that your country is sixty or seventy
thousand li from China. Yet there are barbarian
ships that strive to come here for trade for the
purpose of making a great profit. The wealth of
China is used to profit the barbarians. That is to
say, the great profit made by barbarians is all
taken from the rightful share of China. By what
right do they then in return use the poisonous
drug to injure the Chinese people? Even though
the barbarians may not necessarily intend to do
us harm, yet in coveting profit to an extreme, they
have no regard for injuring others. Let us ask,
where is your conscience?”
—Lin Zexu, Open letter addressed Victoria, the Queen of England
Ban on Opium Use
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Recognizing the
consequences of opium
abuse, Lin Zexu embarked on
an anti-opium campaign. He
arrested more than 1,700
Chinese opium dealers,
confiscated over 70,000
opium pipes, and destroyed
2.6 million pounds of opium.
He attempted to get foreign
companies to forfeit their
opium stores in exchange for
tea, but this ultimately failed.
Top: A complete opium smoking
“layout,” including two opium pipes;
Bottom: Painting of an opium den in
the 18th century.
Destruction of Opium Stores
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When these attempts failed,
Lin resorted to using force in
the western merchants’
enclave.
It took Lin a month and a half
before the merchants gave up
nearly 1.2 million kilograms
(2.6 million pounds) of opium.
Five hundred workers labored
for 22 days in order to destroy
all of it, mixing the opium with
lime and salt and throwing it
into the ocean.
A painting of Lin Zexu
supervising the destruction of
opium in Canton
The Opium Wars
1839-1860
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The British viewed the seizure and destruction of their opium
supplies as an unwarranted attack on free trade, as destruction of
British property, and as dangerous interference with British subjects
abroad.
When Lin blockaded the foreign factory area in Canton to force
traders to hand over their remaining chests of opium, the British
government claimed that it could not permit British subjects “to be
exposed to insult and injustice.”
Britain engaged in two wars to punish the Manchus and force the
court to open China to foreign trade.
Lacking modern military technology, the Chinese suffered two
humiliating defeats.
China’s military losses resulted in the signing of unequal treaties,
that provided trading and diplomatic concessions to the West.
First Opium War, 1839-1842
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The First Opium War (18391842) lasted three years and
demonstrated the superiority
of British firepower and military
tactics.
British gunboats, equipped
with the latest in firepower,
bombarded Chinese coastal
and river ports.
With outdated weapons and
fighting methods, the Chinese
were easily defeated.
The Qing navy, composed entirely
of wooden sailing junks, was no
match for the steam-powered
ironclad battleships of the British
Royal Navy.
Treaty of Nanjing, 1842
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In 1842, Britain made China
accept the Treaty of Nanjing,
which included the following
terms:
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Britain was to receive a huge
indemnity, or payment for losses in
the war;
Britain gained the island of Hong
Kong;
China had to open five additional
ports to foreign trade;
British citizens in China were
granted extraterritoriality, the right to
live under British (not Chinese law)
and be tried in their own courts.
Top: Signing the Treaty of Nanjing;
Bottom: Original copy of the
Treaty of Nanjing
Second Opium War, 1856-1860
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Conflict between China and
Great Britain continued to
escalate in the years following
the end of the first Opium War
throughout the late 1840s.
Open conflict broke out after the
Qing government conducted a
search of a suspicious British
ship, dubbed the “Arrow.”
The search prompted the British
to resume siege upon the treaty
port of Canton in 1856.
Combat at Guangzhou (Canton)
during the Second Opium War
The Treaty of Tianjin, 1858
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In June 1858, China signed the Treaty
of Tianjin, ending the first part of the
Second Opium War (1856-1860).
France, Great Britain, the Russian
Empire and the United States were the
parties involved.
The treaty opened more Chinese ports
to the foreigners, permitted foreign
legations in the Chinese capital Beijing,
allowed Christian missionary activity,
and legalized the importation of opium.
The treaty was ratified by the Emperor
of China in the Convention of Peking in
1860, after the end of the war.
1860 Convention of Peking,
which ratified the 1858
Treaty of Tianjin
Destruction of the Summer Palace
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In 1860, during the Second Opium
War, British and French
expeditionary forces reached
Beijing.
The British High Commissioner to
China, Lord Elgin, in retaliation for
the torture and execution of British
and Indian prisoners, ordered the
destruction of the palace.
Once the Summer Palace was in
ruins, a sigh was raised with an
inscription in Chinese staging:
“This is the reward for perfidy and
cruelty.”
Top: The imperial gardens as they
once stood.
Bottom: Looting of the Old
Summer Palace by AngloFrench forces, 1860
The Era of Unequal Treaties
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The Treaty of Nanjing and the Treaty
of Tianjin were the first in a series of
“unequal treaties” that forced China to
make concessions to Western powers.
In the decades that followed, China
was forced to sign many more
unequal treaties that eroded the
authority of the Qing government over
its people.
French political cartoon from the late
1890s depicting a frustrated Chinese
official surrounded by competing
imperialist powers
Looking Ahead
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Although the Opium War traditionally has been considered the
beginning of modern Chinese history, it is unlikely that many
Chinese at the time would have seen it that way.
This was not the first time that a ruling dynasty had been forced to
make concessions to foreigners, and the opening of five coastal
ports to the British hardly consisted a serious threat to the security
of the empire.
Although a few concerned Chinese argued that the court should
learn more about European civilization, others contended that
China had nothing to learn from the barbarians and that borrowing
foreign ways would undercut the purity of Chinese civilization.
Over time, China’s failure to deal effectively with the Western
imperialist contributed to the disintegration of the Qing dynasty.
…
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