As the western world is quickly stepping into the industrial age during the 17th and 18th century, the Far East civilizations have still remained in a mostly feudal society. This unbalance of progress created an unbalance of world perspective, unbalance of trade and unbalance of military power. The result of this unbalance made India a colony of Britain, also completely changed the face of Southeast Asia and awakened Japan to become a world power. This unbalance, however, is most evident in the two Opium Wars that took place in China during the middle of 19th century and early 20th century. The Opium Wars were interestingly enough, not really about opium. The cause of the war maybe partly due to opium trade, but in the end the war became something much larger. The British-Chinese armed conflict would have occurred even if there was no opium trade at all. The Opium Wars are really about Britain's huge economical problems, British trader's financial interests and Britain wanting exclusive rights in China. Also it is a clash of two civilizations that are in two different eras. The Qing government and Chinese people in general were not aware of any internationally accepted standards and behaviors. Their negligence of the international scene and the total lack of communication with foreign governments led to the inevitable misunderstanding and clash with western powers. The ramifications and influences of the Opium Wars on the Chinese civilizations are still evident even today, in the form of the Chinese people's general distrust of the West, extreme nationalism and the obsession of preserving absolute unity of the country.
The first Opium War occurred in the year 1840.(Beeching, 37) The Qing government was made aware of the dangers of opium smoking among the Chinese people and banned opium in 1821.(Beeching, 38) But the Qing government did not give a reasonable grace period and also did not put up a reasonable effort to try to enforce the law. The result is that opium traders was first caught off guard and then discovered they did not really have to obey the law since it was not enforced vigorously. The ineffective enforcement of the law gave the British traders a false hope of possible legalization of opium in China. So the British traders went on to continue selling opium in China. In the year 1929, the ban on opium was more vigorously enforced but still not very effective.(Beeching, 44) Opium became more wide spread as the enforcement of law proved to be ineffective. It was not until fifteen years later, in 1936, the Qing court sent imperial commissioner Lin Zexu to strictly enforce the Opium law and so he did.(Chesneaux, 112) Lin Zexu quickly ordered the surrender of all Opium from the British traders. Also Lin Zexu held the British community as hostage for six weeks to ensure the prompt burning and destruction of opium.(Chesneaux, 117) These actions were deemed necessary by Lin Zexu to deter any further opium trading activities.
The British government felt that it is their responsibility to compensate the British traders since it is the British government encouraged the British traders to grow opium and sell opium to China. But the British administration's budget was hopelessly in deficit, there was no way that the parliament is going to pass the measure to compensate British traders. Also the news of the imprisonment of the British community in China stirred anger among the British people; they felt humiliated. Thus, the administration decided to start a military campaign against China to protest the sudden ban on opium and the imprisonment of the British community. The British do have some justification in starting the opium war, but it was not enough. Chinese government banned opium because it is a dangerous drug and it is illegal; Britain on the other hand, infuriated by the ban on opium and started an armed conflict with China to continue to sell drugs in China. Also, asking the Chinese government to compensate drug dealers is just ridiculous. This is hardly a justification for starting the war, but Britain's economic trouble forced the British to start the war. The First Opium War was more like a gamble, the British was betting on that British military is far superior to the Chinese military. The British won the gamble and solved their economic and opium trade problem, but exposed the Qing's weakness and led to further exploitations and misery of the Chinese people.
The objective of the war on the British side was to gain war indemnities to cover the loss of British traders and further strengthen British interests in China. The British administration wanted the Qing government to compensate the British for Lin Zexu's confiscation of opium and the expense of the military campaign. The result of the British invasion was a couple thousand Chinese casualties, some property damage, nothing really significant. But the actual impact of the war on the Qing government and the Chinese people were extremely large. Although the Chinese losses from the first Opium War was very limited and insignificant, but it was very shocking to the Qing government that there seems nothing can stop the British troops from advancing. Also the British seemed to be able to strike virtually anywhere. It was impossible to defend against the British invasion because the mobility of the British navy. Qing government had almost one million soldiers in the standing army; the British had four thousand invading troops. But the Chinese army had to be divided and deployed into hundreds of forts and locations to ensure the two thousand mile coast line is covered. Also much of the army is deployed in the far west and north to defend against other threats. China had no railroad or any form of high speed transportation to speak of. It took over four month for a western Chinese army to reach the coast to reinforce the defense. So although the Chinese army had huge numbers, but the British invading troops often find themselves out number the Chinese defenders. Also to add to the disadvantages, half of the Chinese army was still equipped with swords and blades, the other half of the Chinese army was equipped with rifles that were captured from the Ming dynasty that had an effective range of one-hundred meters and are mostly over a century old in age.(Holt, 159) This makes it very difficult for the Chinese soldiers to fight the British invading army that are equipped with the newest rifles and canons. Another major disadvantage is that the Chinese army has never had any experience or even knowledge of modern warfare because China had been enjoying a peaceful period for over a century. Also, opium smoking is wide-spread in some of the Chinese army, which considerably weakened the Chinese army as a whole. Thus the Chinese army was in a disadvantageous position in every aspect: numbers, weapons, training and tactical leadership.
Considering all the disadvantages, inevitably the Chinese army was promptly defeated by the British. The British invading army was advancing with incredible speed. Chinese cities had fell and was being captured almost daily. But the emperor was not even aware of the situation because the Governor-General of Zhili, Qishan deceived the emperor by reporting defeats as victories. When the emperor realized what was going on, it was too late. The British seemed unstoppable and the defeat of the entire Chinese army was imminent. Under the pressure and fear of total defeat, the Qing emperor submitted to the British demands and signed the Treaty of Nanjing. The treaty of Nanjing is a big turning point for the China and the Chinese people. This is the first of the unequal treaties that are to be signed under foreign military threat. The terms of this treaty were not too harsh; the Qing governments had to pay twenty-one million in silver, ceded Hong Kong and promise to freeze the tariff rate at five percent. Although this treaty was not too damaging to Chinese interest, the war indemnities and Hong Kong was rather insignificant at the time, but this is the starting point of China's down fall into the so called "half-feudal, half colony" state.(Chesneaux, 122) For the first time in Qing history, Chinese territory was forced to be hand over to a foreigner power. This treaty creates all kinds of doubts about the Qing government among the Chinese people and stirred up a lot of interests from the other foreigner powers such as France and the US. Also, the treaty sets a fixed five percent tariff on the Chinese imports which was insignificant at the time but became a major disadvantage for the Chinese people later on. Soon after the treaty of Nanjing, France and the US negotiated similar treaties with China which did not include the ceding of any Chinese territory. The emperor agreed to these treaties promptly to please the foreign powers and to show that all foreigner powers are equally favored.
Once Qing government's weakness is shown to the foreign powers, the foreign powers are not satisfied about the insignificant terms in the treaty of Nanjing. Britain and France wanted more open ports, more exclusive rights and more spheres of influence in China. Fourteen years after the treaty of Nanjing is signed. In 1856, Britain, France and the US requested that the terms of the treaty of Nanjing to be amended to more favorable terms, including a request for immediate full scale legalization and free trade of opium, additional export tax on tea and the opening of various ports. These requests were refused by the emperor on the grounds of contradiction to the original treaty and inconvenience. Foreign powers feel frustrated by the refusal and this refusal by the Qing government gave them the motivations for starting the second Opium War. Perhaps the second war could have been avoided if there was more international communication and negotiation between the governments. But once again, the lack of communication led to misunderstanding and led to doubts and frustration for all governments involved. A British consul member described how the Qing officials acted at negotiation table as: "They did not really come to negotiate, it was apparent that their only objective was to get out of here as fast as they could."(Holt, 141) The lack of experienced diplomats on the Chinese side was extremely detrimental to the Chinese cause. The British did not wage war immediately after the refusal because the refusal was seen to be not a valid enough cause to declare war. But the seed of war have been planted and it is only waiting for the right moment with the right justifications. With this objective in mind, the British and the French easily found an incident which to be used as the excuse to start the second Opium War. The "Arrow" incident, which was considered trivial even by the US, was used by the British as a justification to fight another war in China. The "Arrow" is a Chinese ship that is granted the right by Hong Kong to display a British flag to avoid trading restrictions. This ship came under suspicion of piracy and was boarded by Chinese troops to investigate. The crew of the "Arrow" was arrested and later found guilty of the charge of piracy and smuggling of contraband goods and opium. The British demanded the return of the crew and an apology from the Canton government. The Canton governor-general Ye Mingzhen submitted to British demands and released the crew, but refused to apologize to the British. Normally such incident should have ended right here, the incident was insignificant by anyone's standards, but it gave the British an excuse to launch the planned attack on China.
The British started the invasion on October 23, 1856, by landing two thousand British marines at Humen.(Chesneaux, 152) The Qing army at Humen was surprised and caught off guard. Also the governor-general Ye Mingzhen on hopes of peace talks issued the order of not to return fire. So the Qing army abandoned Humen and let the British easily travel straight to the city of GuangZhou. The British besieged the city and destroyed numerous government offices. But Ye Mingzhen escaped and the British did not want to stay in hostile territory too long. So the British pulled out in January, 1857. But this was only a brief and temporary truce. In the summer of 1857, joined by the French, the British invaded GuangZhou again with eleven thousand men and sixty-six war ships. GuangZhou fell almost immediately and Ye Mingzhen was captured, later died in a prison cell in India. At this point, the Qing court still was not fully convinced of the defeat and refused to open negotiations. So the British navy took Dagu fort and marched out side of city of Tian Jin. The Qing court finally agreed to start negotiations but insisted the negotiation must be done in GuangDong province, not Tian Jin. But as British and French army and warship amass outside of Tian Jin, the Qing court submitted to British demand and signed the Treaty of Tian Jin.
After the treaty, the British and the French was still not satisfied and still insisted on amending the Treaty of Nan Jing. On June 17th, 1859, the British navy arrived at Dagu fort again and thought it would be easily taken just like the last time. But this time the British were wrong. The Qing general Sengelinsin put up more canon, more defense structure and more well trained soldiers at the fort. The British suffered their biggest loss of four hundred and forty-six men and six warships were sunk. The humiliating defeat infuriated the British and French governments; they started plan a large scale invasion of China. On the other hand, the news of victory at Dagu fort made the emperor feel secure and did not think the British would come back. So the emperor withdrew two-thousand men from Dagu fort and ordered them to fight internal rebellions. On July 27th, 1860, seventeen thousand British marine and hundreds of warships arrived at Dagu fort and this time took the fort easily. One thousand Chinese defenders at the Dagu Fort died in this battle.( Chesneaux, 194)
Chinese General Sengelinsin retreated to Tian Jin, then abandoned Tian Jin and retreated to outside of Bei Jing. The British took the defenseless city of Tian Jin easily. At this point, the emperor was angry at the loss and ordered Sengelinsin to fight the British once and for all in a decisive battle. Sengelinsin followed the emperor's order and led thirty-thousand Manchurian cavalry to face the British. The British also wanted to take Bei Jing to make the emperor submit to their demands. The two forces met outside of Bei Jing and the Chinese cavalry was defeated by the superior rifles and canons of the British. The emperor fled Bei Jing to his summer palace and later died there. Bei Jing was taken by the British and French forces with almost no resistance. The imperial palace Yuan Ming Yuan was looted and burned. The British signed the Treaty of Bei Jing with the Qing officials that were left behind in the city.
The result of the Second Opium War was perhaps unexpected by the Chinese people. This war is much more destructive than the First Opium War. This is the first time that a foreign army has taken the Capitol city Bei Jing, ever since the start Qing dynasty. The entire country was very much shaken by the war, not to mention the emperor in fear for his life fled the Capitol. This seemed to be the end of Qing Empire, but interestingly after the death of the emperor and Yehenala took power, the Qing actually began to revive and strengthen. Being shocked by the result of the war and suffered thru the war herself, Yehenala finally agreed that rapid modernization was necessary and inevitable to keep the empire alive. Yehenala appointed various key officials that became leaders in the thirty year "Modernization Movement".( Chesneaux, 247)
The "Modernization Movement" was proposed and led by Li HongZhang. Li HongZhang came to power after the Second Opium War. The conservative wing of the Qing government temporarily retreated because their policies and strategies obviously failed completely. The new reformers like Li HongZhang, Zeng GuoFan and Zuo ZongTang started a wave of industrialization and modernization in China. Li HongZhang first realizes that better education is the key to a strong nation. He established the strategy of "learn the foreign technology to defeat the foreign enemy."(Holt, 189) Soon math, foreign languages and sciences became standard curriculum in Chinese schools. The Qing government sent over two hundred young students to study overseas, most of them became very influential and prominent figures later, twenty-eight of them became diplomats and ambassadors. These young students helped the Qing government to negotiate treaties with Britain, France and Russia. These negotiations are no longer one-sided even though China was defeated in the war. The Chinese army, under Li HongZhang's reforms became a formidable force. Li HongZhang instructed the Chinese diplomats that "even though we lost the war, we will no longer pay indemnities." He backed up his words by defeating the French army in China. China during this period actually became very peaceful and made a lot of progress in these thirty years. Near the end of the century, China had a very modern army, the fourth strongest navy in the world and the most strong in Asia.
The "Modernization Movement" was the last attempt at reviving the Qing Empire. Although the movement seemed very successful at a glance but it eventually failed when the Japanese navy annihilated the Chinese navy in a decisive battle. At this point the Qing government no longer can really function and simply submitted to every demand the foreign power asks, just to survive. But the "Modernization Movement" left a tremendous amount of influence to the later generations. This was the first time that China tried to modernize herself. The defeats of the Opium Wars sparked this movement and although it failed, but in a way it succeed because it built a very strong basis for the later generations to work from. The Chinese industrialization really started right there, right after the Second Opium War.
The Opium Wars can be seen as a trigger for Chinese modernization. It resulted in much Chinese people suffering and the war was very destructive to Chinese artifacts but it weakened the Qing Empire and allowed the people to eventually overthrow the conservative Qing court. The Qing had a chance to keep itself alive when the young emperor GuangXu became a reformer. But Yehenala destroyed that chance by imprisoning GuangXu and killing all the reformers. It is at this point, the Chinese people lost all hope in Qing's reforms. So even when the Qing government actually started to really implement reforms, the Chinese people did not want to follow the government and only wanted to overthrow it. The Opium Wars opened the Pandora's Box for China, it led to exploitation of China's weaknesses during that period but it also opened the door for China to see the world. Qing's modernization would have been successful if the Qing had an open minded emperor that had long term vision just like Japan did. In fact, Qing did have such emperor but his power was too weak, his reforms were too aggressive and conservative forces were just too strong to overcome at the time. The Opium Wars turned out to be the starting point and one of the causes for almost one-hundred years of Chinese people's suffering and warfare. After the Opium Wars, China never really had a strong government that had any respect from the people.
Bibliography:
Beeching, Jack The Chinese Opium Wars
Harcourt Brace, New York, 1977
Chesneaux, Jean China from the opium wars to the 1911 revolution
Pantheon Books, New York, 1976
Holt, Edgar The Opium Wars in China
Putnam, London, 1964
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