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A Nation in Shambles: A Century of Humiliation

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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

The Second Opium War and the Treaties of Tianjin and Beijing

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After the Treaty of Nanjing, the ‘unfair treaty’, the Chinese resented not only the effects of the treaty but also resented what they called the foreign barbarians. Small anti-foreign movements would persist throughout the next decade or so, but only in 1856 did an event happen in which the British were agitated enough to respond ... Read More

Days of Opium

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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

Daoguang’s Conundrum

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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

The First Opium War

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After hearing about the Chinese efforts to eradicate opium from the lands and the destruction of opium, the British felt it best to retaliate. In June of 1940 the first ships of the British fleet arrived. To the British, the Chinese were to be made an example of. Nobody was to stand in the way ... Read More

The First Unequal Treaty

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After a humiliating defeat at the hands of the British, the Qing were forced into a humiliating pact known as the Treaty of Nanjing. Through this agreement, the British would be able to have the control over Chinese trade as they wished. Guangzhou, among other important ports, would be open to foreign trade after all. ... Read More

The Macartney Voyage

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A lot of the British motivation in their involvement in the Opium Wars can be traced back to the year 1793. At the time, Britain was the envy of the world. A colonial power, they traveled the world to find what they wanted, and they got what they wanted. It was an empire grand in ... Read More
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