Causes of the Opium War
Historians have christened the wars fought between China and Britain from 1839 to 1842 and from 1856 to 1860 as “The Opium Wars”; however, the Opium Wars really were not about opium. Even President John Quincy Adams asserted, “The seizure of a few thousand chests of opium smuggled into China by the British government was no more the cause of the Opium War than the throwing overboard of the tea in the Boston harbor was the cause of the North American Revolution” (Chung, 1). In fact, one may argue that China’s tributary mentality, the “Canton System of Trade,” and imperialistic aggression caused the so-called “Opium Wars.” The Chinese name for China, Ch’ung Kuo, meant “Heavenly Middle Kingdom,” or more accurately: “Center of the World.” The Chinese had developed a tributary mentality, a belief that China, as the Middle Kingdom, was the center of the civilized world and that all countries that desired relations with it must behave deferentially. Consequently, there was little room in China’s world-view for the idea of independent equal nations. Moreover, China’s foreign policy prior to and during the Ch’ing Dynasty was dominated by a sense of innate superiority. In fact, when King George III dispatched Lord Macartne
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Middle Kingdom, Trade Canton, Revolution Europe, System Trade, Canton System, Ching Dynastys, Finally Chinese, China Historically, Opium Wars, Canton Chinese, canton system, system trade, tributary mentality, canton system trade, opium wars, middle kingdom, chinas tributary mentality, chinas tributary, foreign trade, tributary mentality canton, mentality canton, imperialistic aggression, duties levies, opium wars opium, mentality canton system,
Approximate Word count = 917
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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