What was the First Opium War?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
October 22, 2002
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killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading—>Click here.
Cultivation of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum Linnaeus) in India started with its introduction during the age of the Silk Road. Opium was a thriving business when the British gained control over the subcontinent. By 1831, British-controlled India had a worldwide monopoly on opium.
The largest market for opium was China where it is estimated that millions of people, possibly twenty-five percent of the population, were addicted. The Qing (Manchu) Dynasty made opium use illegal and attempted to halt the opium trade. All ports except Canton were closed to foreign ships. (The tincture of opium, laudanum, was also used liberally in the U.S. and Europe, but hidden in patent-medicine elixirs.)
American and British merchants built fleets of clipper ships simply to handle the opium transport especially smuggling into China. Opium was purchased in India by ship owners and sold in Canton.
"Everyone made vast sums of money--the East India Company, the merchants who bought and transported the goods, the Chinese middlemen, and the Hong merchants (a guild that enjoyed the foreign trade monopoly at Canton) who dispensed the opium throughout China." (Walter Lewis and Memory Elvin-Lewis,
Medical Botany, 1977)
The Qing [ching] government realized the staggering loss of goods and currency. Emperor Tao-Kuang sent his viceroy, Lin Tse-Hsu, to halt the opium trade. The viceroy burned all opium found in warehouses and on British and American clippers, estimated at 2,640,000 pounds.
The British sent ten thousand troops to back the smugglers. The First Opium War lasted from 1839 to 1842. China lost. Tao-Kuang was forced to sign the Nanjing Treaty; five ports were opened to foreign trade, ship owners were reimbursed for lost opium, and Hong Kong became a British colony.
The Ships List has a beautiful page on the Baltimore Clippers. To view photographs and learn more about these ships, click on the link:
http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/descriptions/baltimore.htm
Series: | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | | 5 | | 6 | | 7 |
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
What flower caused China to lose Hong Kong? Plants that Changed History - July 15, 2001
What did the beautiful opium poppy give and take away? Herbal Folklore - August 20, 2001
What Chinese plant gives us so much more than just food? Plants that Changed History - 10/02/01
What was the First Opium War? Plants that Changed History - October 22, 2002
How did a ban on tobacco lead to opium smoking? Plants that Changed History - October 15, 2002
What was a pain-killer of last resort? Herbal Folklore - October 14, 2002
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