imperialism 1800‐ 1914: south asia, asia

Imperialism 1800‐1914: South Asia, Asia

Impact:Asia

(Qing Dynasty)

Qing Dynasty: 19th Century

Qing Dynasty: Early Global RoleWestern Europe and Global Trade:

‐ China drawn into ‘global systems’ through maritime trade

‐ increasingly with Britain but other European powers also involved (Dutch, later Germans among others)

‐ 18th century, companies like Dutch and British East India Companies, dominating ‘world’ maritime trade from New Worlds to Old…

[see ‘Impact: India’; video ‘Story of India’ last lecture]

Qing Dynasty: 18th ‐19thCenturiesThe “Canton System” (1757 – 1842):

‐ Qing Dynasty wished to limit direct influence ‘foreigners’: mid‐18th C. established Canton System

‐ designated Chinese merchants to handle trade ‘Hong’: directed by Chinese official ‘Hoppo’ representing Emperor

‐ trade with foreigners confined to Canton, river‐port at confluence Han and Yangze Rivers

‐ Hoppo oversaw affairs of both sides

“Canton System”

“Canton System”

Canton River Port 1840s

“Canton System”

“Hong” Merchant, CantonHong Merchants lived Opulent Lives

“Canton System”

Lavish Living:House of ChineseMerchant, Cantonc.1840

“Canton System”

Problems:

‐ For Europeans: too limiting ‐‐wanted direct access to interior markets

‐ 1790s missions (McCartney, Amherst) to ‘Open Up’ market failed

‐ Britain’s trade: imports ceramics, silks ‐‐ but most of all, tea

“Canton System”

18th Century Tea Plantation, China

“Canton System”: Problem of Tea

Canton Riverfront:100,000 houseboats home to Cantonese

“Coolies” carrying tea in forefront‐small crafts then delivered boxes to clipper ships lying downriver


Crushing Tea Leaves (above)

Tea Carriers (right):136 kilos each


Porters in CantonCarrying Tea toShipper


European Merchants sampling tea (China, 19th)


“Tea Clipper Cutty Sark” – famous for role tea trade with China


Unloading Tea atEast India Docks,London (1877)

40,000 Packages =20,000 Pounds in Weight


Tea‐Drinking Europeans: both tea and porcelain originally arrived from China; British potteries began to compete

“Canton System”: Problem of TeaRobert Fortune: sent not only to collect plants for nursery cultivation but to learn ‘process’ for making tea ‘corporate espionage’

“Besides the collection of tea plants and seeds from the best localities for transmission to India, it will be your duty to avail yourself of every opportunity of acquiring information as to thecultivation of the tea plant and the manufacture of tea as practiced by the Chinese and on all other points with which it may be desirable that those entrusted with the superintendence of the tea nurseries in India should be made acquainted.”

[from “The Great British Tea Heist”, ‘Resources’]


Botanist Robert Fortune: travelled to China after Treat Nanjing; on behalfEast India Company, brought tea plant to India 1848

“Canton System”: Problem of TeaProblems:

‐ China not interested in what Britain had to offer in return

‐ demanded silver in return for tea

‐ posed balance of trade issues for British

“Canton System”: Problem with TeaProblems:

‐needed to find something Qinq wanted as much as British wanted tea

‐ Answer : Opium

“Canton System”: Problem with Tea‘Opium for Tea’:

‐ British East India Company: monopoly on trade in tea and opium

‐ opium grown, processed in British India [noted in video ‘the Story of India’]

‐ some returned to England [see ‘laudanum’, below], but:

‐most was destined for China

“Tea for Opium”

Chinese Opium Den, 19th Century

“Tea for Opium”

The ‘Tea for Opium’ Route

“Tea for Opium”

Indian Workers Processing Opium (n.d.)

“Tea for Opium”: Problem SolvedProblem Solved: for British East India Company

‐ silver paid into China for tea was then being ‘paid back’for opium

‐ Company basically kept silver in China

‐ Ledger books [as shown in Indian context, ‘video’] showed actual flows: ‘terms of trade’ quickly shifted in favour of BEIC – and Britain

“Tea for Opium”

Opium Imports from India to China:

One Chest = (apprx.) 140 pounds

1773 1,000 chests

1790 4,000 chests

early 1820s 10,000 chests

1828 18,000 chests

1839 40,000 chests

1865 76,000 chests

1884 81,000 chests (peak)

“Tea for Opium”Problem created: for Qing Emperor, Economy

‐ his regime seeing net outflow of silver for addictive drug

‐huge profits to BEIC

‐accelerated ‘push’ to expand import business

“Tea for Opium”Problem created: for Qing Emperor, Economy

‐ undermined Canton system : bribes, ‘commissions’normal part of business

‐ quickly corrupted officials, hongmerchants

‐ corruption spread into Imperial palace itself!

“Tea for Opium”: new ProblemSolution for Qing: end trade in opium

‐ Emperor worked both ‘sides’

‐ issued Local Decree: threatened everyone involved in the use and distribution of opium with death

‐ those identified in decree: accomplices, advisers, participators, receivers, givers (those who deliver the drug), boatmen, buyers, wholesalers, ‘furnace builders’(to prepare opium for use…)

Huge Impact across all social classes!

Qing Response to ‘New Problem’

Furnace Keepers or Wholesale Dealers:Annexed Laws on Banning Opium, July 1839

Whoever shall hereafter open a “furnace,” and connive with and secretly buy opium of the outside barbarians, storing it up for sale, shall, if he be the principal, be decapitated immediately on conviction.

The royal authority shall be respectfully produced and the law executed, were a report is sent to the crown. The head of the offender shall then be stuck upon a pole, and exposed upon the seacoast as a warning to all. The accomplices, advisers, participators, receivers, givers (those who deliver the drug), and boatmen who knowingly receive opium on board their boats for transport, shall be sentenced to strangulation and thrown into dungeons to wait the royal warrant for their execution. The houses and boats of these parties shall be sequestered. . . .

Qing Response to ‘New Problem’Emperor appealed internationally

‐ wrote directly to Queen Victoria to end Trade: ‘sharing rulers’ concern for people’:

“We have heard that in your honorable nation, too, the people are not permitted to smoke the drug, and that offenders in thisparticular expose themselvesto sure punishment. ...”

[see textbook p.795 for differentquotation ‐ would seem to be same letter, send on Emperor’s behalf]

Qing Response to New ProblemBut in fact….

‐ Opium widely used as

medication in England:

“Laudanum”

‐ 1821 “Confessions of an

English Opium Eater”

made dangers of

addiction public but

did not change opinion

on selling it to China

Consequences: the Opium WarsFirst Opium War: March 1839

‐ British merchants asked by Hoppo to give up cargo (genuine fear created by Emperor’s ‘Local Decree’)

‐ negotiations, attempt to imprison leading British trader failed

‐ trade stopped for 6 weeks: finally . . .

‐ 20,000 chests finally delivered as ‘payoff’

‐merchants, ships, cargo released

The Opium Wars

Having confiscated more than, 20,000 chests, close to 3 million poundsraw opium had to be destroyed. Three trenches 7’ deep,150’ long dug: 500 workers dissolved opium in solution water, salt, lime

The First Opium WarFirst Opium War:

‐Emperor’s repeated request to cease trade in opium refused

‐ October: British announced that military naval expedition would reach Canton in spring 1840

The First Opium WarDespatch from Lord Palmerston to the Minister of the Emperor of China: [excerpts]

... It appeared that the Laws of the Chinese Empire forbid the importation of Opium into China, and declare that all opium which may be brought into the Country is liable to confiscation.

The Queen of England desires that Her Subjects who may go into Foreign Countries should obey the Laws of those Countries; and Her Majesty does not wish to protect them from the just consequences of any offenses which they may commit in foreign parts. But, on the other hand, Her Majesty cannot permit that Her Subjects residing abroad should be treated with violence, and be exposed to insult and injustice; and when wrong is done to them, Her Majesty will see that they obtain redress.

The First Opium War. . .

Now, although the Law of China declared that the importation of Opium should be forbidden, yet it is notorious that for many years past, that importation has been connived at and permitted by the Chinese Authorities at Canton; nay, more, that those Authorities, from the Governor downwards, have made an annual and considerable profit by taking money from Foreigners for the permission to import Opium: and of late the Chinese Authorities have gone so far in setting this Law at defiance, that Mandarin Boats were employed to bring opium to Canton from the Foreign Ships lying at Lintin.

The First Opium War...The British Government fervently hopes that the wisdom and spirit of Justice for which The Emperor is famed in all parts of the World, will lead the Chinese Government to see the equity of the foregoing demands [i.e. reparations for the opium that was destroyed and for the cost of sending a British fleet to China]; and it is the sincere wish of Her Majesty’s Government that a prompt and full compliance with those demands may lead to a speedy re‐establishment of that friendly intercourse which has for so great a period of time subsisted between the British and Chinese Nations, to the manifest advantage of both.

‘Dispatch’ assured armed conflict would follow: First ‘Opium War’ 1839 ‐1842

The First Opium War

First Opium War 1839‐42: ‘Nemesis’ against Chinese Junks

The First Opium War

East India Co. Nemesis Steamer &Other BoatsDestroyingChinese WarJunks inAnson’s Bay(Jan. 1841)

The First Opium WarTreaty of Nanjing 1842: [see ‘Add’l Rdgs’]

‐ demanded compensation/reparations as perPalmerston’s original decree

And Much More: among them…

‐ opening of four more trading ports

‐ right for Christian Missionaries to operate

‐ secession of Island of Hong Kong to British

Signing Treaty of Nanjing 1842

Nanjing TreatyNanjing Treaty : critical in shaping second half 19th

Century:

‐ aggravated regional, ethnic, economic grievances against Government [point made in Textbook pp.797‐800]

‐ genuinely ‘cost’ Government: affecting economy (already in trouble) – reparation costs for opium destroyed plus British war costs (‘indemnity’) equaled 21 million oz. silver

‐ resulted in ‘reform government’: generating reactionary forces


Century:

‐ for British (and other foreigners): first of several degrading, humiliating agreements they were able to impose

‐ each round of treaties brought new privileges to foreigners

Most significant: 1860 Emperor forced to legalize importation of opium

Nanjing Treaty

Impact of Treaty:

One Chest = (apprx.) 140 pounds

1773 1,000 chests

1790 4,000 chests

early 1820s 10,000 chests

1828 18,000 chests

1839 40,000 chests

1865 76,000 chests

1884 81,000 chests (peak)


Century:

‐expansion of ‘foreigners quarters’: former limited river‐front occupation became ‘mini‐colonization’

‐Neighbourhoods created: ‘pockets’ where foreign merchants lived at ease, outside Chinese regulations

‐ poor Chinese drawn into surrounding areas: provided services (domestic labour, laundry, prostitution….)

Nanjing Treaty

Shamian Island:Forced Concession to BritishAnd French—’western buildings’, neighbourhoods

Nanjing TreatyLonger‐Term Consequences:

‐weakened government [see below]

‐‐ allowed for outlying provinces to achieve autonomy or independence

‐ encouraged engaging with ‘foreign powers’ as allies

Nanjing TreatyLong‐Term Consequences:

‐ from 1865 Britain gained control of territories along Indian frontier

‐ British encouraged Tibetan independence (which succeeded in 1912)

‐ French intervened late 19th C. : encouraged Vietnamese Court to end tributary relations with Qing

Long‐Term Consequences

Nanjing Treaty1856‐60: Second Opium War *

– seemingly staged incident with British/pirate ship ‘Arrow’

‐ 1860: British and French forces marched on capital: Emperor fled, son signed treaty to end conflict

‐Treaty forced more capitulations: most critical ‐‐ British right to sail warships up rivers

‐* [Textbook does not refer to war by name but describes it, p.797]

Second Opium War: ‘Arrow War’

Burning of European Factories during “Arrow War”, Canton

Second Opium War

British Lord Elgin Arrives in Canton after Defeat of City:orders destruction of Summer Palace

Second Opium War

French and British Looting Old Summer Palace 1860

Nanjing TreatyGlobal Political Consequences:

‐ provided opportunity for Russia to eat away at northern margins of empire

‐ 1858, 1860, 1864: acquired territory in exchange for assistance in Second Opium War

Nanjing Treaty

Russian ‘gains’ from military assistance during Second Opium War

Nanjing Treaty: Outcomes

Two Domestic Political Reactions

‐ Reform

‐ Rebellion

Each responded to and engaging with these fundamental changes to Qing society

Nanjing Treaty: OutcomesReform 1861:

‐military rallied behind 5yr‐old Emperor’s son with concubine Cixi [next Dowager Empress]

‐ goal: preserve Confucian values by acquiring Western military technology

‐ institutional reforms: creation of Foreign Affairs, providing for Foreign Diplomats to reside in ‘Capital’ city –previously forbidden

Nanjing Treaty: OutcomesReform 1861:

‐modernizing of army, navy: required purchase of armaments from and setting up of factories with help of Europeans

‐ Led to period of accelerated ‘co‐operation’ with Europeans

‐ Ended abruptly 1870: ‘Tientsin Massacre’

Nanjing Treaty: OutcomesTientsin … and consequences:

‐ French Diplomats causing problems: in retaliation, two French Nuns executed

‐ French active in Indo‐China: 1885 controlled territory on Chinese border

‐ war over Tonkin: French victorious, forced full capitulation: recognition French claims

Nanjing Treaty: Outcomes

1874

1881

1884

French‘Conquest’ ofIndo-China

Nanjing Treaty: OutcomesRebellions:

‐ huge population growth during Qing Dynasty: from 1644‐1800 more than doubled

‐ 1850: more than 400 million

‐Landlessness growing: permanent floating population of unemployed and homeless

‐“infanticide” (especially of females) increased [textbook 796‐8] with complex social, economic consequences

Nanjing Treaty: OutcomesRebellions:

‐ growing discontent with seemingly ‘excessive accommodation to Europeans’

‐Following on several earlier local/regional rebellions

‐Most significant built on religious differences: in Qing empire this meant both Islam and Confucianism

Taiping RebellionTaiping Rebellion (1850‐64): ‘Great Civil War’ [Texbook p.798]

‐ Hong Xiuquan (leader): failed Civil Service exam – only way into administration

‐ spent time Canton: absorbed Christian message from missionaries

‐ believed himself to be ‘younger brother of Jesus’: destined to drive Qing dynasty out of China

Hong Xiuquan: Leader

The Civil Service Exam (above)

Hong Xiuquan as ‘leader’

Taiping RebellionTaiping Rebellion (1850‐64): ‘Great Civil War’

‐ charismatic: played on various economic and social grievances

‐ attention to oppression women: among social measures, many directed to women (ending feet binding, forced marriage, concubinage)

‐ also: ended slavery, torture, worship of ‘idols’ and opium smoking

Taiping Rebellion

Taiping RebellionEnding of Rebellion: consequences

‐ British and French came to aid of Qing government in 1856 (following ending Crimean War)

‐ still took until 1864 to end rebellion

‐ devastating impact on ‘common’ population, rural and urban

Taiping Rebellion

Taiping Rebellion

Retaking of Nanjing from Taiping ‘Rebels’, 1864

Taiping Rebellion: OutcomesTaiping Rebellion Defeated:

‐ 20‐30 million lives lost during war “bloodiest Civil War of all time” [Textbook “one of the bloodiest wars in world history”, p.798]

‐provoked other rebellions, including an important Islamic‐based destabilization in frontier regions

‐worrying to Russia and Western Powers: each had their own vested interests to protect


‐ devastated agriculture, leading to long term hunger and famine in many areas

‐ depopulation, refugees streamed to cities that could not feed them

‐ parts of country did not recover until 20th century

Consequences usually overlooked in ‘geo‐political’analyses!


‐ Empress Dowager Cixi supported changing institutional structure

‐ ‘decentralization’: promised to transition empire into active partner in global politics, economics

‐ ‘self‐strengthening’ movement [textbook p.798]: active support for education in America

Taiping Rebellion: Outcomes‐ Provoked reaction from ‘traditionalists/conservatives’: “copying Western practices was compounding defeat”[texbook p.799]

‐neither Foreign interests nor Domestic struggles for power allowed for needed gradual transition

‐Push in late 1890s (following Sino‐Japanese war in which Qing defeated again) [Textbook, p.799] constitutional monarchy [like ‘Young Ottomans, Young Turks and counterparts in Europe] provoked strong reaction

Taiping Rebellion: OutcomesBoxer Rebellion:

‐Empress Dowager suppressed movement, imprisoned Emperor

‐Gave strength to ‘Boxers’: movement attributing country’s economic, political weaknesses on ‘Foreigners’

‐Had huge domestic support: enough to support seige of foreigner’s ‘neighbourhood’ in capital

Taiping Rebellion: OutcomesBoxer Rebellion:

‐ created unprecedented ‘Foreign’ response (including Japanese who had ‘interests’ in Qing territory): united military forces to lift seige

‐Qing forced to pay indemnity of 450 million oz silver

‐Suspend civil service exams: hit at core of power/class structure of Qing Dynasty

‐Ultimately more important than loss of territory per se

Decline of Qing DynastyTextbook asks:

“ Was China’s decline in the nineteenth century due more to internal problems or to Western Imperialism?”

‐provocative: but simplistic

‐What is clear is that there was an ongoing interaction between the impact of imperialism, the shape of ‘domestic’ (internal) problems, and the longer‐term consequences ….

imperialism 1800‐ 1914: south asia, asia

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