I think that the closed door policy played a big role in the opium wars.
Because the Chinese policies surrounding trade were so restricting, Westerners had trouble balancing trade with China. The packet says that, "the British wanted to create a market for their goods in China and get tea cheaper by trading closer to its source." To accomplish this, the British began docking their boats off the coast of Guangdong in order to smuggle opium. During the second opium war, Westerners were angry that they were being denied access to the "walled city" (Canton). The Chinese government promised to eventually open the city, but because of resistance to the west among citizens, this did not happen. The reading says that, "British failure merely intensified British dissatisfaction."
It seems to me that tensions grew, and the opium wars began, because the Chinese withheld Britain's wanted/needed. This was all intensified because Britain was aware of the potential, so they decided to cheat the system.
Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:29 pm Post subject: reply
The opium war started mainly because British wanted more profit while the Chinese disliked how the British was forcing and smuggling opium at the same time.
There are two types of resistance that was going on at the time. First is the government resistance, where the central government of China felt that the control over the trading industry was failing and lacked attention thus providing room for corruption and illegal actions such as smuggling.
The British however saw the potential profit that they could make if they were to acquire a much closer port to the location of where tea is made.
So when China introduced the "Open-Door policy" that limited trading with selective western countries, it fused the fury of the British people, and thus the Opium War began.
Britain and China were both trying to help themselves. Britain wanted to help itself by increasing trade. China wanted to get rid of the opium because it was hurting their society. The easiest way to increase trade for Britain was to trade opium. This conflict of interest was the root of the opium war.
The closed-door policy was China’s attempt at stopping the trade of illegal opium. This policy led to corruption and smuggling. The one port that was allowed to trade could not allow for the opium transfer. When Britain decided that China had to open its ports, the war was started.
In the packet it said a “group suggested that the opium trade should be made legal in the hope that it would be easier to control.” I believe that would have been a better policy and might have prevented the two wars form happening.
British opened the 'closed door' mainly because they wanted higher profit and also to widen their position in east Asia. As everyone knows, China was the strongest and the largest country in Asia region, and British knew that if they start the war under certain pretext and win the war, than their position would be stronger (during that period all the strong western countries were in a race over international colony business). Also formal Chinese luxuries, such as tea, porcelain, and silk, was very popular at the west side of the world. As the western people's demand for those Chinese luxuries increase, the Chinese enjoyed increased the profit, and to make the western society cannot live without those goods, The China decreased the trading amount with the other foreign countries(closed door). However, British weren't stupid enough to just watch China's plan. So, instead of just watching, British decided to counter the plan with the same plan. China was easily enslaved by opium from India, and British keep increased the price until the war happen. Therefore, it was definitely the closed door policy that directly caused the war.
It seems to me though that the Opium War was caused mainly by the West. It actually makes more sense that Western powers WANTED the war in order for them to assert their dominance in the region via military encroachment; then, the West would not have to worry about trading regulations and restrictions that are being inflicted by the central government of China, which really wanted to regulate the amount of influx of western influence.
Provided from the reading that China really did not need to trade with the other countries because the Chinese market as itself is so vast, (pg 5 it was the West which wanted to fight for the trading so that they could get the maximum profit that they are after. In order to facilitate this process of opening China's door to trading, many forms of pressure was exerted; for example, British did not allow their own people to be judged by the Chinese court. Rather, they claimed that, as long as the person accused of lawbreaking was a British, he needed to be judged only by the British law, not that of China.
As ridiculous as this law sounds like, so was the level of boldness of the West that wanted to open up the chance for the trading opportunity. Thus, after continuous attempts to manipulate already corrupted system of China, the West --especially British-- sold opium to the commoners, who then afflicted great amount of damage to the national economy of China.
To conclude, the Opium War could never have occured without the West that harassed China multiple times by manipulating laws and orders, then, having know for years that they were more potent in military power, instigated for the aggression from China to accomplish the mission of making China to subdue to the western rule for trading.
Joined: 02 Nov 2011 Posts: 7 Location: United States
Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 8:48 pm Post subject:
Illegal trade of any sort is very interesting in any context, not just in terms of the illegal trade between China and England. If trade is completely illegal, there's a lot of reason to break that law. But if the trade is legal, but with some form of restriction. Many more people will conform to the restrictions and therefore that which is being controlled while the illegal trade will be so great, that it's impossible to deal with that overflow of illegal goods.
Now to bring this back to China and the Opium Wars, I believe the wars are connected to the English trading into the country, they wanted to trade with China for a similar reason we want to trade with China today. It's a huge power simply because of the massive populations, that many people means even more potential profits.
i think you can definitively say that the opium wars were a result of china's closed door policy. the qing dynasty trade regulations greatly favored domestic goods over foreign, as such foreign goods had much higher tariffs and taxes than goods from Asia. the British fist started opium smuggling to even the playing field with the Chinese. then when the Chinese reacted by using military force to shut the opium trade down the British declared war and destroyed their shipping fleets and fishing industry, they then used the threat of further destruction of china's economy to force china open and to fix tariffs on foreign goods.
I agree that the Closed Door Policy definitely can be rooted as a cause for the Opium Wars. Because of China’s reluctance to trade with westerners, and their lack of interest in western products, western merchants had to begin to deal in goods that they knew would prove to be popular (even if illegal). The smuggling of opium by American and British merchants proved instantly popular among China’s male population, firstly those young men who could afford it, but eventually men from every social and economical background were smoking opium.
As Daniel said, it was also the conflict of Britain and American needing to smuggle opium to get their money’s worth out of trade with China, and China’s sale of goods to the west being outdone by the opium smuggling that sparked the “war” aspect of the opium crises. I’m not sure I would go so far to say that the smuggling was forced by the British, only because they were simply trying to work around the obstacles China had set up relating to trade.
In the seventeenth century, the West looked at China and its culture as sophisticated and attractive. Yet into the nineteenth century China was no longer the powerful, developing nation, and British were well aware of that. With their advanced naval power for foreign trade, when British wanted more profit from the trades with China, they knew that they"had the power to force acceptance of its terms" (Reader, 35) Not having much items to sell and make big money with, they made most profits through opium trade and wanted more. To China and its government, growing opium addiction (especially for the government officials and scholars, those of the higher classes) and the smugglers became a nuisance that threatened the established social order. They had to resist, and despite the opposing groups, decided to follow the "hard-line party" and closed their doors against the foreigners. Thus the tension grew between the Britain's eagerness for larger profit, and China's growing hostility towards the "barbarians", breaking off into the first Opium War which opened up five ports of China. Although China's closed-door policy did raise the tension between the two countries, the British wanting bigger profits, more freedom and power in China, wanting to expand their foreign market, became the main cause of the Opium War.
I believe the closed door was a factor that led to the Opium War. During this time period, China wanted to avoid influence from the West at all cost. To do this, they created a closed door policy, which affected their relationship with Britain. Britain took note of China's policy and created a scheme to trade Opium illegally in China. It was interesting to see the British take advantage of the people in China and their weakness for Opium. Had China agreed to trade with the West, I highly doubt this war would have existed.
Joined: 04 Jan 2012 Posts: 6 Location: Deadfield, MA
Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 10:48 pm Post subject:
Britain wanted to expand and opium trading made them a lot of money. Banning opium importation and domestic production was a huge blow to the British. China's closed door policy's purpose was to ensure China would not be completely taken over by Western influence. It is possible to say that the Opium Wars were caused by the closed door policy but not 100 percent. They were caused by the problems that opium caused. China wanted to fight the addiction and problems that it was causing and Britain wanted to use the crop for profit. It should be obvious that the opium was the main cause of the war, the closed door policy could potentially be a close second though _________________ "If you're not violating the honor code at BYU, it's not worth doing"- Daniel Tosh
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
it was the West which wanted to fight for the trading so that they could get the maximum profit that they are after. In order to facilitate this process of opening China's door to trading, many forms of pressure was exerted; for example, British did not allow their own people to be judged by the Chinese court. Rather, they claimed that, as long as the person accused of lawbreaking was a British, he needed to be judged only by the British law, not that of China.
