L5 & L6: Imperialism in China
Agenda
Objective:
To understand…
1. The history of
European intervention
in China.
2. The troubled
relationship between
Britain and China.
3. How China attempted
to resist European
intervention.
Schedule:
1. Lecture & Discussion
Homework:
1. Read piece on Chinese
Resistance to Imperialism
and be able to describe:
Taiping Rebellion, the
Self-Strengthening
Movement, and the Boxer
Rebellion Due: L5 (Thurs
10/22)
China under the Manchu (Qing)
Dynasty
• China was ruled by the
Manchu (Qing) Dynasty since
1644
• What do you remember about
China under the Manchu
(Qing) Dynasty?
Early Trade Between China and Britain
• China was largely isolationist
• Looked down on Europe and didn’t want to
interact with them
• Chinese restricted European
trade to a single port city:
Canton
• British hoped to trade
manufactured goods for tea, porcelain, and
silk from China
• However, the Chinese were not interested in
European goods. They only wanted silver or
gold
Chinese Emperor Qianlong’s Letter to
England’s King George III (1792)
• In 1792 the King of England sent
an envoy to China to convince
the Chinese Emperor to open
up northern port cities to
British trade
• In response, the Emperor wrote
this letter to the King
• Task
– Read the letter
– Whole class discussion
The British Have a Problem…
• They want to trade with China, but
China doesn’t want to trade with them
• If you were a British merchant, what
might you do about this? How can you
get the Chinese to trade with you?
Britain’s Solution: Sell the Chinese
Opium!
• Opium
– Highly addictive drug
derived from the poppy
plant
• British grew opium in
colonial India
• Use and sale of opium
was illegal in China (and
in Britain!)
The Opium Trade
• British began to forge
links with Chinese
opium dealers
• Started to illegally
trade opium for
Chinese goods
• By 1820, 80% of all
people living in
Canton were addicted
to opium
• Britain essentially was
a huge international
drug dealer
The Opium Trade Discussion
• What is your reaction to British actions?
• We see the British encounter a similar
problem in China to that which they have
encountered in Africa and India: How do we
get the goods/resources we want from this
region? How did they deal with this problems
in (1) Africa, (2) India?
• Why did they choose the particular methods
that they did in (1) Africa, (2) India, (3) China?
The Opium Trade: Discussion
• How is the opium trade a form of control?
What is being controlled?
• Is this an act of chemical warfare?
• Is this an act of cultural warfare?
• Is this an act of economic warfare?
• Is it terrorism more so than warfare?
Letter from Lin Zexu to Queen Victoria
(1839)
• Alarmed by the epidemic of addiction, the Chinese
government attempted to end the opium trade
• Lin Zexu (ambassador for the Chinese government)
wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, the Queen of
England demanding an end to the opium trade
• It is unknown whether the letter ever reached the
Queen
• Task
– Read the letter
– Whole class discussion
The Opium Wars
• Chinese government ordered British merchants to
surrender all opium cargo to government officials
• Britain agreed, but rather than hand it over directly to
the Chinese government, the merchants gave their
opium to British naval officers in Canton harbor
– This made the opium
the property of the
British government
• When Chinese officials
seized it and drowned
20,000 chests of opium,
Britain said they had committed an act of war
The Opium Wars
• War between Britain
and China 1839-1842
– British called it the
“Trade War”
– Chinese called it the
“Opium War”
• Chinese were no
match for the British
navy and were
defeated, despite
much fighting
Treaty of Nanjing (or Nanking)
• Treaty which ended the First Opium War
• Fundamental purpose of the treaty was to
change the trade relationship between China
and England
• Task
– Read the letter
– Whole class discussion
China: Now What?
• Following the Treaty of Nanjing, what
problems is China facing?
• If you were a Chinese government
official, what would you advise China to
do?
• In short, how can China resist
imperialism?
Resistance
• Last night you read about three acts of
resistance by the Chinese people
and/or government: The Taiping
Rebellion, the Self-Strengthening
Movement, and the Boxer Rebellion.
• Today we will discuss these actions and
their efficacy and what they mean for
imperialism more broadly.