The barbarians have defeated us. "Our swords and spears were no match against the Westerners. They surprised us with their swift ships and accurate weapons. "We did not stand a chance", said a devastated Chinese soldier on China's defeat. The final scene, which determined our defeat was when a British fleet sailed up the Yangtze River to Nanjing(1). Since we had accepted the fact that the British military was more powerful, (2), our Manchu dynasty had no other alternatives, but to make peace at last, bringing the Opium War to an end.

The war itself lasted from 1839 till now, but our struggle with opium has existed long before. When our situation with opium got out of hand, our Manchu dynasty finally felt they had to take action. It tried to tackle the opium situation the traditional way, which was very slow in progress. We also refused to treat the Westerners as foreign nationals. The "traditional way" included A debate, which was called upon among local mandarins and senior officials of the central government, in order to find a solution. The solution was to stop all of the opium trafficking going into China, so an imperial statute in thirty- nine articles was enforced in 1839.

Next, Emperor Tao-kuang ordered Commissioner Lin Ze-xu (right) to Canton to make sure the new laws were enforced, which he did so on March 25, 1839. (3) He gave the foreigners two choices. They had to either leave China with their opium back to where they came from or they had to hand over all their shipments of opium over to Chinese officials to be destroyed. If they do not choose either, we would close all Chinese trade with foreigners. (4) The foreigners had to sign a binding pledge not to bring any more opium into China in the future. (5)

Also, during this time, in the summer of 1839, Special Commissioner Lin Ze- xu wrote a letter to Queen Victoria of England explaining his side of why he wants the opium trafficking stopped. In the letter he writes, "Suppose there were people from another country who carried opium for sale to England and seduced your people into buying and smoking it; certainly your honorable ruler would deeply hate it and be bitterly aroused." (6) The letter includes other very good points, which could have changed the queen's view on the opium trafficking if only she had received the letter.

Even with the continuous threat to close down all trading, the "rebels" (7) still refused to hand over their opium chests, so Lin Zu- xe had to order his troops at Canton to barricade the foreigners. Three rows of our armed patrol ships lined up in the river opposite the trading houses for 45 days until the British traders finally gave in and handed over their opium. (8) Then, on June 3, Commissioner Lin oversaw the dumping of over 20,000 chests of opium into the sea (top left) for the next two weeks. This action made the British very angry and marked the beginning of the Opium War. (9)

Following this, on July 12, a very unfortunate incident took place. One of our villagers got killed by a group of drunken Brits. This occurrence brought about a huge controversy on how the murderers should be tried. "Disagreements between Chinese and British were no longer simply disagreements with trading companies such as the British East India Company; they were disagreements with the British East India Company; they were disagreements with the British government, which had the military power to back up its complaining citizens, even when they were far from home." (10) Captain Elliot, a British navy commanding officer believed they should be tried under British jurisdiction, but Commissioner Lin disagreed. He wanted the murderers to be tried under Chinese law instead, so he ordered to cut off the foreigner's foods and put poison in their Freshwater springs in order to get Captain Elliot to hand over the killers and bring them to justice.

Subsequently, on August 21, it was learned that a twenty- eight gun British frigate joined these foreigners (above right). This did not intimidate Commissioner Lin, however, because he believed that his Chinese warships were still superior to the British navy. (11) He was totally oblivious to the fact that his army was weak and had fallen far behind everyone else. "People say that our junks and guns are no match for the British But they do not know!" says Commissioner Lin, proving his false sense of superiority.(12) Soon after, our Chinese junks got severely beaten up. The British merchant ships and the British Navy had far deadlier and more accurate weapons in comparison to our people's guns and weapons. "I have never seen canons on ships before or guns so accurate", says a soldier who survived the attack.

After these attacks, Commissioner Lin had been reporting back false reports to Emperor Tao- Kuang. He had repeatedly proclaimed that we have won, when reality, we were crushed. However, the truth soon revealed itself when the British ultimately defeated us in this "barbarian affair". The Emperor was enraged with his commissioner's deception and wrote, "You have caused this war by your excessive zeal." He goes on with, "You have lied to us, disguising in your dispatches the true color of affairs. Instead of helping us, you have only caused confusion to arise. Now, one thousand unending problems are sprouting. You have behaved as if your arms are tied. You are no better than a wooden dummy. As we think about your grievous failings, we become furious, and then melancholy."(13)

We lost the Opium War to the barbarians because we were drenched with our false sense of superiority and disdain towards other countries that we had not spotted our weakness. (14) The barbarians took advantage of this and smacked us with a quick, hard, and unexpected victory, which has hurt us to great depths. (15) "We have developed slowly over the ages, but have still believed that we were superior. Since the Opium War, we have lost this false sense of superiority and in turn have realized that our nation is behind. "We must improve our military, learn to make more efficient guns and canons, and improve shipbuilding even if it means copying the barbarians.", said a respected Chinese General. We are now realizing that we need to work on being the most powerful and are finally heeding to the fact that we have to modernize. We need to take steps forward to improve ourselves. "We must learn from our mistake and never again underestimate our opponents.", says an intellectual

Before we saw everyone else in the world as "barbarians" and thought ourselves as the superior beings of the world. Now, because of the Opium War, we are now convinced that we are no longer the "Heavenly Middle Kingdom". Our defeat is humiliating and has left our nation weaker in the sense that there is social instability. "It collapsed the old Chinese economy, and created social chaos
and uprisings, and generated political instability" " The unemployment group swelled and became increasingly poor as the price of food increased" (16)

However, this war is very beneficial to us in the long run. It has physically opened us up to the rest of the world, economically, socially, politically and ideologically. Western political ideas, social structures, and in some areas,
technology are now pouring into the country. Before the war, we had isolated ourselves from the rest of the world, keeping only a small trade port running in Canton in order to protect ourselves. We felt the need to protect ourselves because our rule in China was weak, and could not take the chance of allowing foreign powers in to overthrow it. The war "awakened China from its fantasies and exposed it to the reality of progress." and has given us "the desire to catch up"(17)We thought we were far more advanced as human beings than everyone else in the world. The Opium War has been our eye opener. It "exposed the inadequacies of Chinese social and political structures" and is forcing our economy to quickly evolve" (18)

Our battle with opium began long ago when people rapidly fell into it's addiction. People became lazy and our currency became inflated. This was a serious social and economic threat, which we should have took action on immediately. Instead, we allowed the situation get out of hand and allowed the barbarians to make us vulnerable. We sat around debating what we should do about the matter for 2 years, when we really should have been improving and building up our military, preparing our men to crush the barbarians and force them out of China. Our failure to do so and our arrogant attitude is what caused our defeat in the Opium War

Text Sources

1.)Jackson J. Spielvogel, World History The Human Odyssey ( United States: West Educational Publishing, 1998), 768-769

2.) Steven Warsha, China Emerges (Berkeley: Diablo Press Inc., 1994) 57-58, 61-62, 88, 202

3.) Chrastina, Paul. "Emperor of China Declares War on Drugs" [http://www.oldnewspublishing.com/opium.htm] January 2002

4.) Eileen H. Tamura, Linda K. Menton, Noren W. Lush, and Francis K.C. Tsui, China Understanding its Past (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998), 97- 101

5.) Chrastina.

6.) Jackson J. Spielvogel, World History The Human Odyssey ( United States: West Educational Publishing, 1998), 768-769

7.) Warsha. 57.

8.) Tamura, Menton, Lush, Tsui. 97

9.) Chrastina.

10.)Tamura, Menton, Lush, Tsui. 98

11.)Chrastina.

12.)Ibid.

13.)Ibid.

14.)[xtang@engineer.com] "The Opium War and the Opening of China" [http://historyliterature.homestead.com/files/extended.html]

15.) Warsha, 57.

16.)"The Opium War and the Opening of China"

17.)Ibid.

18)Ibid.

Image Sources

1.) Dumping Opium in Sea

Danehip Entertainment Inc., "The Opium War", http://www.instantweb.com/d/danehip/opium/setting.html

2.) Boat

CNN "Trade war: Britain acquires 'a barren rock'", http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9706/hk97/past/opium.wars/

3.) Lin Ze- xu

CNN "Trade war: Britain acquires 'a barren rock'", http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9706/hk97/past/opium.wars

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