S01E13 The Opium War: War Because Drugs

Chinese Revolutions: A History Podcast

The Opium War: War Because Drugs

This week, we talk about the Opium War and cracking China open for revolution. We won't go into great detail about the war itself, but we'll look at how it made things possible for revolution in China.

Our narrative relies for just one more episode on Imperial Twilight by Stephen Platt.

Actually Doing the Crackdown

Even though Charles Elliot promised to turn 20,000 chests of opium over to the Chinese government, it's not because he was overawed by imperial authority. As the panic of being blockaded in the Canton foreign settlement wore off, he became angrier and angrier as the crisis dragged on.

Lin Zexu did not appreciate the wounded pride of a cornered British aristocrat who had nothing left to lose. Elliot was externally complying with Chinese demands but secretly writing back to London for a battle fleet to show the Chinese what's what.

The British traders who received Elliot's unauthorized IOUs knew he didn't quite have the authority to promise to repay them for the confiscated opium, but they also knew the British government provided the best opportunity to get ANYTHING back for what they had to give up. They certainly had no hope of remonstrance with the Chinese government.

Britain Decides to Go to War

Trade was Britain's jugular vein. No trade, no anything else. At once, letters started pouring in from people invested in the opium trade demanding to know how and when they might be repaid by the British government. Also the legal trade for tea and other above board products had stopped.

Britain was also still paying off the former owners of emancipated slaves and paying down debts from the Napoleonic Wars over 20 years previous. So they resolved to make China pay for it.

The Opium War

The British went to war to preserve their prestige in Asia. They kept India by continuing to look powerful, so they didn't want to let the Indians get any ideas that British power might be slipping. It wasn't to get opium legalized—indeed, one of the guys recommending against legalizing opium had a lot to gain from continuing to smuggle it.

The war fractured divides already in motion in China: Han against the ruling Manchu, merchants against officials, militia against locals. The emperor's inability to appreciate the scope of the war and how to win weakened China's response.

The 1842 Treaty of Nanjing opened five Treaty Ports for British trade, gave Hong Kong Island to the British as a permanent colony, and forced China to cough up for the cost of the war and the cost of the opium confiscated by Lin Zexu.

Because of the Opium War, foreign powers would play a deciding role in Chinese politics until 1949 and will play a vital part in our narrative.

If You'd Like to Support the Podcast

1. Subscribe, share, leave a rating.
2. Give once, give monthly at www.buymeacoffee.com/crpodcast
3. Subscribe to the substack newsletter at https://chineserevolutions.substack.com/

Also...

Please reach out at [e-mail] and let me know what you think!