After these losses, the people turned to the Qing Empire itself for blame. This extraterritorial state when combined with the growing incompetence and lack of stability among the higher ups in the Qing Dynasty. It would only go down from here and these effects could still be felt as the Qing could never recover, falling ... Read More

Opium. It was another way of saying gold. The wonder crop. The cure-all to various ailments. This mysterious and exotic thing was that of a generational allure. It went by many names: yapian, diyejia, yingsu, yangyao, among many other names. The latter name, in particular, has a fervent meaning to that of the foreign craze, ... Read More

The 1830s were a peak for the opium trade into China, smuggled from India under British directives. Massive chests of opium, almost 200 pounds apiece, enough to satiate the addictions of masses from a single chest, were flooding the Chinese space. In 1835 alone, over 16 thousand chests, worth 17 million dollars apiece were brought ... Read More