The opium wars

History of Opium – The Opium Wars.

 

The history of opium goes back to ancient times when the drug was used for ritual purposes and for anesthesia. The ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Indians, and Romans used opium as a pain reliever and often included the drug in surgical procedures to keep pain at bay. The drug is even mentioned in medical texts from the ancient world that date back to the times and writings of Dioscorides, Galen and Avicenna.

 

Opium continued to be used for medical uses up through the American Civil War at which time other medications were developed and derived from the poppy plant to be used. Today, drugs like morphine and opioids are derived from the poppy plant, the same plant that is used to make opium. These opium derivatives are widely used throughout medical practices. The medical world has evolved opium rather significantly over the years and developed new medications that can be injected at controlled doses for better use.

 

Historically, opium was used for recreational purposes during the 15th century but because it was a rare drug that carried a rather high expense, this use was limited. The use of opium would not become a more regular part of Chinese history until the 17th century when the drug is more widely available. During this time, opium was mixed with tobacco and smoked throughout China and opium addiction was first being noticed.

 

The British encouraged Chinese opium use in order to increase the balance of trading that they had with China. As a result, the British would deliver opium from India to China openly. The cultivation of opium, or of the poppy plant in India, was governed by the British under the East India Company. That Company would supervise and oversee the production and shipment of opium for many years.

 

In 1839 as well as in 1858, massive confiscation of opium by the Chinese emperor who wished to stop the opium deliveries led to two Opium Wars. At that time, opium was traded all over the country by the British and opium use would continue to be widespread in domestic production. Ultimately, more than 25% of all Chinese men would be opium consumers by the early 1900s.

 

It wasn’t until the 19th century that opium use for recreational purposes affected other nations. In time, global regulation of the drug would begin but this action would not fully take place until after the 1870s when town ordinances were created in San Francisco, California and other areas. In 1909, the International Opium Commission was formed to further regulate opium.

 

During this time period, opium was being purified into morphine and heroin was also being created from the drug. Both of these would become widely available for recreational use through injection as well as in patent medicines that contained opiates derived from the poppy plant.

 

The 20th century brought major changes as opium was prohibited from many countries. This regulation would greatly reduce the level of opium use but it would also lead to what is now modern production of the drug for illicit street purposes. Tight regulatory practices keep opium that is used to develop legal prescription drugs under check too.

 

Today, opium production is dominated by Afghanistan but the level of production is significantly less than it once was. Worldwide production of opium is estimated at around 7 metric tons per year versus nearly 35 metric tons that were produced in 1906 prior to the major regulatory actions that were taken during the 20th century.

 

The Opium Wars

 

The First Opium War  (1839–42)

The Opium Wars stemmed from China’s attempts to suppress the opium trade and British plans to balance trade with China, whose tea and porcelains had a huge demand.  Also Great Britain, had been looking for a way to end China's restrictions on foreign trade and open more coastal cities to it. Foreign traders (primarily British) had been smuggling opium, mainly from India to China since the 18th century, but that trade grew dramatically from about 1820. The resulting widespread addiction in China was causing serious social and economic disruption there. More than 25% of the population was addicted to opium. In March 1839 the Chinese government confiscated and destroyed more than 20,000 chests of opium—some 1,400 tons of the drug—that were warehoused at Canton (Guangzhou) by British merchants. The antagonism between the two sides increased a few days later when some drunken British sailors killed a Chinese villager. The British government, which did not wish its subjects to be tried in the Chinese legal system, refused to turn the accused men over to the Chinese courts.

 

Hostilities broke out several months later when British warships destroyed a Chinese blockade of the Pearl River (Zhu Jiang) estuary at Hong Kong. The British government decided in early 1840 to send an expeditionary force to China, which arrived at Hong Kong in June. The British fleet proceeded up the Pearl River estuary to Canton, and, after months of negotiations there, attacked and occupied the city in May 1841. Subsequent British campaigns over the next year were likewise successful against the inferior Qing forces, despite a determined counterattack by Chinese troops in the spring of 1842. The British held against that offensive, however, and captured Nanjing (Nanking) in late August, which put an end to the fighting.

 

Peace negotiations proceeded quickly, resulting in the Treaty of Nanjing, signed on August 29. By its provisions, China was required to pay Britain a large indemnity, cede Hong Kong Island to the British, and increase the number of treaty ports where the British could trade and reside from one (Canton) to five. The ports of Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai should be open to British trade and residence. Among the four additional designated ports was Shanghai, and the new access to foreigners there marked the beginning of the city’s transformation into one of China’s major commercial entrepôts. The British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue (Humen), signed October 8, 1843, gave British citizens extraterritoriality (the right to be tried by British courts) and most-favoured-nation status. (Britain was granted any rights in China that might be granted to other foreign countries). Other Western countries quickly demanded and were given similar privileges. Within a few years other Western powers signed similar treaties with China and received commercial and residential privileges, and the Western domination of China's treaty ports began.

 

The second Opium War (1858- 1860 )

 

In the mid-1850s, while the Qing government was embroiled in trying to quell the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64), the British, seeking to extend their trading rights in China, found an excuse to renew hostilities. In early October 1856 some Chinese officials boarded the British-registered ship Arrow while it was docked in Canton, arrested several Chinese crew members (who were later released), and allegedly lowered the British flag. Later that month a British warship sailed up the Pearl River estuary and began bombarding Canton, and there were skirmishes between British and Chinese troops. Trading ceased as a stalemate ensued. In December Chinese in Canton burned foreign factories (trading warehouses) there, and tensions escalated.

 

The French decided to join the British military expedition, using as their excuse the murder of a French missionary in the interior of China in early 1856. After delays in assembling the forces in China (British troops that were en route were first diverted to India to help quell the Indian Mutiny), the allies began military operations in late 1857. They quickly captured Canton, deposed the city’s intransigent governor, and installed a more-compliant official. In April 1858 allied troops in British warships reached Tianjin (Tientsin) and forced the Chinese into negotiations. The treaties of Tianjin, signed in June 1858, provided residence in Beijing for foreign envoys, the opening of several new ports to Western trade and residence, the right of foreign travel in the interior of China, and freedom of movement for Christian missionaries. In further negotiations in Shanghai later in the year, the importation of opium was legalized.

 

The British withdrew from Tianjin in the summer of 1858, but they returned to the area in June 1859 (en route to Beijing to sign the treaties) and were shelled by the Chinese from shore batteries at Dagu at the mouth of the Hai River and driven back with heavy casualties. The Chinese subsequently refused to ratify the treaties, and the allies resumed hostilities. In August 1860 a considerably larger force of warships and British and French troops destroyed the Dagu batteries, proceeded upriver to Tianjin, and, in September, captured Beijing and plundered and then burned the Yuanming Garden, the emperor’s summer palace. Later that year the Chinese signed the Beijing Convention, in which they agreed to observe the treaties of Tianjin and also ceded to the British the southern portion of the Kowloon Peninsula adjacent to Hong Kong.

 

 

“There are no permanent alliances, only permanent interests.”

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

 

“What is merit? The opinion one man entertains of another.”

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston