Opium war

 

WHY WAS BRITAIN THE DRUG PUSHER IN CHINA

Opium and tea

CHINA would only sell their goods in exchange for silver, and as a result large amounts of silver were leaving Britain.

In order to stop this, the East India Company and other British merchants began to smuggle Indian opium into China illegally, for which they demanded payment in silver.

How did opium spread in China?

British merchants would buy tea in Canton (Guangzhou) on credit, and balance their debts by selling opium at auction in Calcutta, then transport it to the Chinese coast aboard British ships, sell it to native merchants who would sell it in China.

How did opium affect China economically?

The cost to China was enormous. The drug weakened a large percentage of the population (some estimate that 10 percent of the population regularly used opium by the late nineteenth century), and silver began to flow out of the country to pay for the opium.

The Opium War

At the beginning of the 18th century, China has emerged as the global centre for preferred commodities.

At that time, Britain and other European imperialists have amassed huge tons of Gold from African making these Europeans countries very rich and the citizens have developed strong taste for Chinese luxury goods.

By the end of the 18th Century, China had taken nearly a half of all the gold reserves the European countries have stored and more gold were moving out of Europe to China each day due to strong taste for Chinese goods by the European citizens.

The European governments realised that without having a strategy to curb the trend, China will completely collapse Europe. The Europeans decided to plant Opium in large quantities in their colonies and then introduce that in the Chinese society.

European merchants began to send opium to the Chinese Market in 1812 and in no time, the Chinese had become addicted to the European opium.

This singular act saw the Chinese giving back the gold they have collected for a period of 100 years and over from Europe to demand for the Opium in large quantities. Not only were the Europeans taken back their gold, many of the Chinese citizens began to be destroyed through the opium addiction, their production and the economy began to fall rapidly than anyone could have predicted.

When the Chinese government realised the situation, it placed a ban on both the trade and the use of opium in the country.

Unfortunately, this response action had come too late because the people had already become addicted to the substance. Britain saw a weakened society and in 1839 it waged war on the Chinese government, sadly, the citizens of China went to support the British to defeat and destroy China because they couldn't live without opium so they fought their own government in order that the British can supply them with opium.

-The people who exploit us to sustain their luxury living will always have a strategy to keep us in an exploitative state, their strategy may even include destroying us completely, we must think deep and ahead in order to protect our interests.