When you have nothing to offer in a trade, offer opium? That was the mantra Britishers followed in 19th century in their trade with China. China ran a trade surplus with Britishers for more than 100 years and so to make this trade a profitable venture the Britishers grew poppy in Indian and sold it in China, illegally.
Julia Lovell's 'The Opium War' is a detailed work on the Opium Wars that Manchu China fought first with Britain (1839-42) and then with the coalition of Western powers led by France and Britain (1856-60), its causes, its implications and its profound influence on the evolution of Communist China and its very existence. The Britishers had fought many unjust wars, first Afghan war (1839-42), annexation of Sindh and later Burma (1826-1885) and Opium wars are few examples. The Opium wars are stigma not only on British people but also on Indians and Chinese alike. We Indians are guilty in equal measure if not more because we were the ones who cultivated Opium, traded Opium and fought under British banner against fellow Asians. China was sandwiched between two group of "foreigners", the Manchus (who established Manchu Qing Empire in 1644 by overthrowing the Han Ming dynasty, Manchus came from the Manchuria) and the Britishers who enslaved the Chinese by the power of Opium. The Manchus tried hard to check this menace but they were completely outdated in science, technology, military tactics and ammunition, they did not get the full support of Hans as well. The causality ratio between Chinese and British soldiers in first Opium war was as one sided as 100:1, this clearly shows the overwhelming military dominance of Britishers and failure of a country who gave gunpowder, silk, paper etc to the world.
The defeat in Opium wars and the unjust treaties of Nanjing and Tianjin had left a deep scar on the psyche of Chinese soul and the resulting anger in the Chinese people (eg the Boxer revolt on 1900-01) against these grave injustices gave rise to the idea of Yellow Peril in the minds of western intelligentsia. Various books were written in late 19th and early 20th century warning the western people that Chinese had not forgotten the shame of the Opium wars and they were getting ready to take revenge. This strand has been getting stronger and stronger specially after the founding of PRC on 1st Oct, 1949. Instead of apologizing for the grave injustice heaped on the Chinese people, a set of western intellectuals tend to warn people about the rise of China and the decline of Western civilization; the Western Civilization that was founded mainly by the loot from Asia.
This book is a good read but Julia loses the plot in the end and joins the stream of regular writers who write offhand notes on China in every other newspapers.
Recommended (6/10)
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