The Opium Wars: A Liberal Economist’s Dream (as long as he or she was British, of course)

Context The old way! China exported porcelain, silk, spices, tea, all sorts of great stuff too the British Accepted as payment silver or gold, as they didn’t much want anything the British factories made

But wait! The British found that their possessions in Asia, from Afghanistan to India, produced high quality Opium!

The Solution! Export the opium to China in order to solve a terrible wrong – the trade deficit Chinese addicts would consume opium like crazy, and the trade would help for all those things the British still wanted

Rain on the Parade The Chinese government, proving that they had not heard all the great stuff about the advantages of Liberal trade, outlawed the Opium trade

Of course you realize, this means war! The First Opium War ( ) Treaty of Nanjing ceded Honk Kong to Britain, opened five treat ports to European trade, established special rights for foreigners on Chinese soil

The Second! (With … French help!!) Similar issues, ending with the Anglo-French forces defeating the Chinese Atrocities by both sides – Chinese used hostages, and had tortured and executed about 20 Western prisoners

Destruction of the Summer Palace Lord Elgin - yes, the one whom the street and hotel are named after, ordered the destruction of the Summer Palace (after it had been looted by Anglo-French forces) outside Beijing

Some Importance The defeat of the Imperial army by a relatively small Anglo-French military force (outnumbered at least 10 to 1 by the Qing army) coupled with the flight (and subsequent death) of the Emperor and the burning of the Summer Palace was a shocking blow to the once powerful Qing Dynasty. "Beyond a doubt, by 1860 the ancient civilisation that was China had been thoroughly defeated and humiliated by the West." Wikibooboo