Global Impact: Britain and China in the First Opium War (Abigail Fachtmann)

Destroying the Chinese War Junks in Anson’s Bay, Jan. 7th 1841, Edward Duncan, 1843

The First Opium War between Britain and China represented a new era of free trade and globalized economic relations, albeit without full inclination from all participants. Into the nineteenth century, Chinese tea was extremely popular in Britain but British goods were not appealing to China. Following the zero sum game of the capitalist world economy, Britain could not abide with importing Chinese goods without exporting their own. They found their profitable export in opium which British merchants bought from Bengali producers in India and sold to Chinese consumers at high prices. Opium addiction skyrocketed and Britain gained the economic upper hand over China. The Qing decided to confront this unwanted trade by seizing British opium imports, but Britain militarily retaliated with greater force. This “gunboat diplomacy” resulted in the unequal treaties that forcefully opened the Chinese market and allowed for British occupation of certain Chinese ports.