The Opium War

The Anglo-Chinese, or Opium War was the most humbling defeat China ever endured. In the 1830's, the British ran the most massive drug cartel that ever existed...that could put any of those of the 20th century to shame. Columbian drug lords have not yet accomplished, and hopefully will not, the devastation on a people for simple expansion of an empire; and tea.

India, of English rule, was the place of choice for the British to grow massive quantities of opium and ship it to Canton, China in exchange for tea and Chinese manufactured products.

This exchange resulted in a China filled with drug addicts as opium dens propagated the country. After 1836, this trafficking was illegal in China, but British traders bribed Canton officials in order to keep the door open and the opium flowing.

The effects were devastating to the Chinese population, resulting in massive tribulation and hardship. The Chinese imperial government began to shut down the opium parlors en masse in 1836.

Lin Tse-hsu, a moral official, became appointed Imperial Commissioner at Canton. He was diligent in stopping the opium trade at the British source. He took office in 1839, and within 2 months had shut down all opium trafficking and destroyed stores of the narcotic. Lin Tse-hsu wrote Queen Victoria of England, requesting all British opium trade to cease as it was disallowed in England and took advantage of impoverished countries.

The British and Chinese, having no formal treaty, could not come to an agreement. Each country proposed to handle the situation with severity.

In November, 1839, Chinese junks attempted to turn away English merchant vessels. English warships were sent to China in 1840. The Chinese were indefensible against the English on land and sea, and suffered severe consequences.

In 1842, the Chinese were forced to agree to peace under the Treaty of Nanking. Opium trade more than doubled for the next three decades after the treaty. The British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue, signed in 1843 reinforced the Treaty of Nanking and allowed the ports of Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai, to be open to British trade and residence. Hong Kong was also ceded to the British. Later, in 1858 the Chinese were forced to accept the Treaty of Tianjin, which allowed France, Russia and the United States similar privileges.

I assumed, when watching more modern Western movies, the Chinese grew the opium which allowed U. S. citizens to visit opium dens, where they would lie on a cot and smoke a pipe of opium. Drugs rendered from opium, such as Laudanum were available to buy without a prescription.

It wasn't until I was researching this article, that I realized the Chinese didn't grow the opium...it was traded for tea. It almost destroyed a country as large as China.

A disgraced Lin Tse-hsu was sent to a remote appointment in Turkestan.

(source cited: http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/OpiumWar)