Opium Wars (1839 – 1860) (1 gen 1839 anni – 1 gen 1860 anni)

Descrizione:

Qing banned opium in 1729. Despite this, the Chinese continued to smoke the drug and import it illegally. Sensing its economic potential, the East Indian Company created an opium monopoly in India in 1773. The company offered loans to Indian peasants: they agreed to grow opium and sell it to the company's agents at a predetermined price.

The illegal opium traffic could not have flourished without the involvement of corrupt Chinese bureaucrats and a network of local brokers and distributors. Although another official ban in 1799 slowed the flow of opium into China for a while, the volume increased eightfold by 1839.

In 1838 the emperor sent a special commissioner to Canton, the main center of the trade, to eradicate the influx of opium. In a letter to Queen Victoria of Britain, the commissioner Lin Zexu claimed that China exported tea and silk for no other reason than "to share the benefit with the people of the whole world." He asked, therefore, why the British inflicted harm on the Chinese people through opium imports.

Lin ordered the arrest of the president of the British Chamber of Commerce. After this man refused to comply, 350 foreigners were blockaded inside their own quarters then ultimately convinced the community to surrender $9M worth of opium (which they either burned or flushed out to sea).

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