Impact of Imperialism on China
... make the trade in goods, however there was no demand in China for Western goods (Ralph 490). The solution to the trade imbalance was opium. “Chinese had used opium as a medicine and drug, although they began smoking opium after the introduction of tobacco smoking on the 17th Century” (Ralph 490). By 1829 millions of pounds of opium were being imported on a yearly basis. The Chinese paid for opium in hard currency, therefore the balance of trade was a disadvantage to China on the purchase of this opium. The opium trade was illegal and didn’t bring any revenue into China, instead it put money in the hands of smugglers and conspiring officials. After a debate of Qing officials, some who proposed the drug be legal, the government decided on a policy of strict forbiddance and picked Lin Zexuto to enforce this. Lin had written to Queen Victoria in hopes to encourage her to prohibit the making and selling of Opium. To no avail he finally stopped all foreign commerce and ships in the harbor at Guangzhou until they surrendered the opium, which Lin then destroyed (Ralph 491). The British were angry over this interruption in trade and that created a series of events that topped off in the Opium War (Ralph 491). The Chinese did not have the technology and military power that the British had and therefore suffered constant defeats. The defeat of China enabled Britain to inflict its conditions on the trade in China. “By the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 the Chinese government ceded the island of Hong Kong to the British, promised an indemnity for the costs of the war and compensation for the opium chests that had destroyed, and agreed to accord Britain any future concessions made to other nation that is, Britain would have most-favored-nation status” (Ralph 491). The Opium War weakened China and led to foreigners becoming powerful in China. “At the end of the 19th Century the anti-foreign feeling in China was strong” (Dobrahner)”. This attitude came from many causes such as the dividing of China’s most prominent ports and cities into ‘spheres of Influence’ controlled by Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Japan. This was a basis to the rebellion created by Secretary of State, John Hays (Dobrahner). The Boxer Rebellion was the Open Door policy that took all the economic privileges from China and shared them among the great powers also caused the hatred of any foreign power (Dobrahner). The multiplying efforts of the missionaries in China, who were open in their disgust for the Chinese customs, caused much anger and violence. China was being suffocated by stronger imperialistic nations. Thus as 1900 dawned China was swept by a terrorist movement known as the Boxer Rebellion” (Dobrahner). The Boxers threatened an attack on the capital. The officials of the West agreed to cooperate as to suppress promptly and allowing their military to participate in looting. This revolt was not lengthy. “An international relief force of some nine thousand men, under the direction of the United States and all the major European powers fought its way inland from the coast” (Dobrahner). The foreign troops began widespread looting in search of the Boxers. Chinese civilians died due to the fire of both sides. European an...