Introduction
The East Indian Company was established by the British and then monopolized the trades towards Chinese. As the trades could not fulfil the ambition of the British, they requested for more benefits. However, the Qing court rejected and the relationship between the two countries came to a rapid deterioration. Unfortunately, after the out broke of the war, China became weaker than before.
The following will discuss the difference between Anglo-China treat business and opium and the reason of the out broke of the First Opium War.
Main body
The Qing dynasty forbidden sea trade until the emperor Kangxi unified China from the Ming dynasty in 1684. He then set up eleven ports for trading, including in Guangzhou, Macau, Ningbo, Xiamen, Shanghai, Fuzhou, Chongqing, Nantai, Xiangshanxian, Dinghaixian, Huatingxian in 1685.
However, China did not consider the action as equal trade. Instead, China consider it as a mark of favour towards the foreign traders as China is the Celestial Empire. This attitude towards overseas trading maintained until the out broke of the war.
The trades between the two countries were peaceful in 1684-1757. in 1687, East India Company ships “London” and “Worcester” paid the measurement dues when they
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Therefore, the British government sent diplomats to China for reducing the differences and improve the relationship.The British government experienced three failures in the diplomatic negotiation of requesting the trading opportunities, including Earl of Macartney, Lord Amherst, and W. J. Lord Napier. All of them were rejected due to the indecent manners performed. After the three failures, the British government realised that was not only about business, also diplomatic equality. At that time, the dissatisfaction was already in an extreme level. When Charles Eillot sent as a “new chief superintendent of British trade in China” , the war was already about to
In document 4 Ralph Fitch, a British merchant, is trying to join in on the trade and for the British government to join to be able to obtain more money. They see how the Portuguese is making money and the trade and profits being made between them and China and believe they should join the trade to earn some of the profit. A similar situation goes on in document 7 He Qiaoyuan, a Ming dynasty court official, he try's to convince the emperor to repeal the on foreign trade. He tells the emperor how Chinese merchants are trading there goods for profit and that they could be the ones making the profit instead of others. But in document 8 there was a conflict going, Charles D' Avenant, an English scholar, tells about the restricting Indian textiles.
They acknowledged the fact that both of their countries were plentiful in resources and that they had something that the other country could make use of. In this document, the Dutch wished to expand their trade route to China but choose to go about this by, in my opinion, buttering them up with gifts. In this instance, the Chinese is in control because the Dutch needed them for trade purposes however, I believe that the Dutch is somewhat in control as well because they knew what to do to get the Chinese on bored. They started their letter by talking about God and also congratulating the Chinese on their victories.
The letter states that the Celestial Empire (China) has all the things that it needs in abundance and therefore does not need to trade with the “barbarians” of England. The excerpt goes on to say that because tea, silk, and porcelain are so important to Europe that they would allow a foreign hongs (businesses) in the town of Canton, so that they may be beneficial to China. The letter was written by a Chinese Emperor who may have wanted to be viewed favorably by the British, stating that he was going to let foreign businesses open “as a signal mark of favor”. The
(107-110) After Walpole’s idea to subsidize Georgie, in order to get power on the trade system back, the War of Jenkin’s Ear between Spain and Britain took place Spain opposed to the expansion British is making since British smuggling was eminent already and Spain wanted trade rights European wars were mostly caused by claim of land: France wanted the sugar islands of the Britain Britain restrains the colonies to trade with other countries Colonists continued trading with French and bought cheap molasses from them Britain resulted in passing tax on imported goods called the Molasses Act which made the colonists gain less
India was dominant towards the cotton textile industry trade, which motivated England to take the opportunity of forcibly removing all indigenous competition: “...the British who most fully took advantage of the collapse of the empire. Between 1757 and 1803, they took control of most of India except the Northwest. The result was that the East India Company now administered major sectors of the economy, and quickly reduced the role of the big Indian bankers by changes in taxes and methods of collecting them. ”(Mukherjee) By eliminating any further competition at their weakest moment, England lowered India’s economy and chances of industrializing.
Between 1763 and 1775, there were three ‘Imperial Crises’ which occurred between the British and the American colonists. The conflict that was produced during this period arose through an undefined balance of political and economic power between the two parties. In 1763, Britain had just concluded the French and Indian war and was left with an immense and almost crippling debt of around 140 million pounds sterling (“Turning Point In American History”). In Britain’s eyes, the most effective way to reduce this debt was increased taxes. Unfortunately, the people of England were already massively overtaxed, which meant the last option for the British was to tax the American colonists.
Unfortunately, this thinking prevented the Chinese from learning from western technology and science. As a result the West was able to easily defeat the Qing in key battles such as the Opium War in 1839 to 1841. In contrast to the Ottomans, the Qing was unable to compromise with the West and Europe forced its way into China. However, both societies were influenced by Western methods, despite attempts to restore traditional ideology and campaigns by both Chinese
Although both India and China were colonized by the British, there were many differences between the two countries and the effects imperialism had on them. In the 1600s, the British East India Company gained trading rights for the Mughal empire which was in modern day India. As the Mughal empire lost power, the East India Company
Agriculture was a major part of most Chinese people’s daily life and they were satisfied with their lives. Many people did not want to be influenced by industrialization and the western ways of Europeans. This did not matter to the Europeans however, as they wanted the silk, tea and porcelain that was only coming from China. According to Tao He’s article, British Imperialism in China,
This means that if this was the purpose of his trade voyages, then Zheng He succeeded in his mission. However, as mentioned previously, this took a lot of resources and in result, China turned to isolation in the year of 1433 (Beck). Commerce is linked to the building of the Chinese empire because Zheng He, a Chinese Muslim, went out to share gifts to show Chinese superiority.
“Let me now just briefly introduce the topics of Inoue’s chapters. Interested readers may find some more to their taste than others” (Fogel 48). Little did Fogel know, most of his readers probably lost interest after reading the rest of his article. He completely switches from attempting to locate evidence for an argument into a complete critical review of Hiromasa’s book, “Crisis for the Chinese Empire.” Fogel goes on to analyze Hiromasa’s for the next four pages of his article, as an attempt to strengthen his own points.
How This Relates to Imperialism Britain and France had already forced China to open up the trade and create new ports so they could import opium into China. The effect that Britain and France 's imperialism was that Great Britain 's success in the opium wars might foreclose or further limit Americans access in the China market, this urged the federal government to take action in the early 1840s. Congress responded by appropriating funds for a major diplomatic mission, and President John Tyler ordered that a small naval squadron to emphasize U.S. strength. the Chinese government was willing to sign a treaty with the United States, which included a most-favored-nation provision. The Treaty of Wanghia, signed in 1844, gave Americans the same rights of access and trade that China had already granted to England and France.
However, outside nations colonized and took parts away from the Qing Dynasty. Another way European nations display a terrible impact
During the period between 1450 and 1750, European traders started to get more involved in Chinas and Japan's politics. One similarity between China and Japan in their relations with European traders is that in both countries european traders were welcomed at first, however the relationship soon turned sour. In China, the Qing dynasty sold limited trading privileges to European powers but confined them only to Guangzhou. The British was not satisfied with this arrangement, so they asked for more trading rights. As a result, In a letter to King George III Emperor Qianlong states that the chinese had no need for British products.
In 1895, Japan took over a large part of China and so did the Europeans in the late 1890s due to China’s leaders’ lack of power to control their nation by opening up its doors for them to trade and them taking an advantage of it. Many of the US business and government leaders worried they were not give equal opportunity to trade with them so they proposed the Open Door Policy with China. The policy stated all nations will be allowed to trade freely in and with China. Europeans this to be the benefit of the US and would take away their power in China so they did not accept. Later European accepted the Open Door Policy after more than 200 foreigners were killed in the Boxer Rebellion.