1
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how

2
00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:14,040
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

3
00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:17,079
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy. And as most

4
00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:20,520
Speaker 1: of you know, Katie and I love Victorian literature and

5
00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:24,759
Speaker 1: nineteenth century British novels and poetry, and we were talking

6
00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:28,600
Speaker 1: about it recently. The character of the opium addict or

7
00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:31,840
Speaker 1: the opium eater so many helps up a lot, doesn't it.

8
00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:34,400
Speaker 1: And for a while I thought that was just sort

9
00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:36,360
Speaker 1: of the easy thing to go to, like I need

10
00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:38,600
Speaker 1: an extra character. Who should I put in? I know,

11
00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:41,720
Speaker 1: the opium eater. But then I realized it was an

12
00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:46,919
Speaker 1: actual problem in British society, a major problem in Victorian England.

13
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,680
Speaker 1: There were a lot of opium addicts. But it turns

14
00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:54,240
Speaker 1: out that is nothing compared to the problem the Victorians

15
00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:58,200
Speaker 1: forced on the Chinese at the same time. So let's

16
00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:00,920
Speaker 1: talk about opium history and how it got to China

17
00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:04,080
Speaker 1: and Britain in the first place. Opium is great for

18
00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,920
Speaker 1: relieving tension and pain. Not that we're recommending this, because

19
00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:11,120
Speaker 1: we're absolutely not, but that's why it became popular. The

20
00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:13,880
Speaker 1: ancient Assyrians used it as a pain killer. So did

21
00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:16,920
Speaker 1: for century Greeks, and there don't seem to be any

22
00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:19,840
Speaker 1: addictions in those old stories, and that maybe because of

23
00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:22,520
Speaker 1: how they were taking it, which was in pills or

24
00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:26,880
Speaker 1: added to drinks. Turkish and Arab traders brought opium to

25
00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:30,080
Speaker 1: China in the sixth or seventh century, but the seventeenth

26
00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:34,360
Speaker 1: century marks when we learned how to smoke it. Helpful

27
00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:39,040
Speaker 1: Westerners had seen Indians smoking tobacco in pipes and thought, hey,

28
00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:41,360
Speaker 1: why don't we add a little opium to the tobacco,

29
00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:45,080
Speaker 1: realized it was fantastic for what they were looking for,

30
00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:48,560
Speaker 1: and quickly got addicted and brought it over to China,

31
00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:51,880
Speaker 1: and the Portuguese started making a killing bringing opium from

32
00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:55,000
Speaker 1: India to China. In the seventeen hundreds, the West is

33
00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:59,920
Speaker 1: using opium laudanum and paregoric in those wonderful quackery kind

34
00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,480
Speaker 1: of patent medicines, and in sevente it's a huge problem

35
00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:06,960
Speaker 1: in China, and the emperor at the time outlaws the

36
00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,840
Speaker 1: sale and the smoking of opium. But it doesn't end,

37
00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:13,360
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk a little bit about why

38
00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:15,880
Speaker 1: and how it got there, which would be thanks to

39
00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:20,080
Speaker 1: the British so the British have a very unequal trade

40
00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:22,960
Speaker 1: relationship with the Chinese. And part of this has to

41
00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,639
Speaker 1: do with the Manchu emperors believing that the Middle Kingdom

42
00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:29,880
Speaker 1: already had everything it needed, they don't need to import

43
00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:33,560
Speaker 1: stuff from the British. But that's a pretty valid belief

44
00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:35,280
Speaker 1: in a way. On the one hand, you have the

45
00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:38,839
Speaker 1: British who are obsessed with tea there they can't get

46
00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:43,640
Speaker 1: enough tea from China, and Columbia University actually estimates that

47
00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:46,760
Speaker 1: the average Londoner spent five per cent of the total

48
00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:49,280
Speaker 1: household budget on tea, which is a lot more than

49
00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:51,400
Speaker 1: I spend on my earl, Greg, I don't know about

50
00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:55,320
Speaker 1: pretty hefty price. And it's not just tea. They can't

51
00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:01,120
Speaker 1: get enough of the China where the sciences, candy, silk. Meanwhile,

52
00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:05,760
Speaker 1: the British the goods. They have to offer our manufactured items,

53
00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:10,800
Speaker 1: which the Chinese dismisses toys they don't really need them,

54
00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:14,280
Speaker 1: and then a lot of woolen goods and most people

55
00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:18,480
Speaker 1: in China don't need these hefty wool sweaters and such

56
00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:22,920
Speaker 1: from Britain. So you have this really imbalanced trade agreement

57
00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:26,720
Speaker 1: where the British are importing tons of stuff from China,

58
00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,640
Speaker 1: and because they can't trade, they have to pay in silver,

59
00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:32,040
Speaker 1: so while their silver is going to China and China

60
00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:35,000
Speaker 1: is not getting anything from them. And so the Brits

61
00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:37,880
Speaker 1: again have been trying for years to open the Chinese market,

62
00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:40,800
Speaker 1: and everything they bring over the Chinese aren't interested in,

63
00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:43,120
Speaker 1: nor are they really interested in dealing with them, and

64
00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:48,240
Speaker 1: they have super strict rules about trade for foreigners. Foreign

65
00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:51,720
Speaker 1: factories are only allowed in Canton, for example, only certain

66
00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:54,560
Speaker 1: ports are open. They can't even enter the cities that

67
00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:57,400
Speaker 1: they're in. So if you're a foreigner trying to break

68
00:03:57,440 --> 00:03:59,680
Speaker 1: into the Chinese market, it's just not going to happen

69
00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:03,640
Speaker 1: for you at this particular time. So enter opium, which

70
00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:06,080
Speaker 1: is how the British finally figure out to wiggle into

71
00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:08,880
Speaker 1: the market because there is a growing demand and the

72
00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:13,920
Speaker 1: supply comes from an English colony, India, So they even

73
00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:17,120
Speaker 1: go as far as offering free samples out trying to

74
00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:20,800
Speaker 1: get people addicted to opium, so that China gets this

75
00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:26,080
Speaker 1: insatiable thirst for opium. Tisk tisk to the British. Yeah,

76
00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:30,120
Speaker 1: and it really gets out of hand quickly. Addictions a

77
00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:33,200
Speaker 1: huge problem by seventeen seventy three, the British have surpassed

78
00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:35,960
Speaker 1: all other sellers are the leading suppliers to the Chinese,

79
00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:40,960
Speaker 1: and by sevent the Emperor outlaws importing and cultivating opium

80
00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:44,479
Speaker 1: as well, because it's again a huge problem and they're

81
00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:46,880
Speaker 1: trying their best to stop it. So how did the

82
00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:50,440
Speaker 1: British get around these laws? Though? While the East India

83
00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:53,400
Speaker 1: Company is of course not allowed to carry opium since

84
00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:57,720
Speaker 1: it's illegal, so they hire these country traders who sell

85
00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:00,960
Speaker 1: opium to smugglers in China, collect golden silver for it,

86
00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,400
Speaker 1: and then hand it over to the East India Company,

87
00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:05,760
Speaker 1: who then takes the golden silver and buys things in

88
00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:08,120
Speaker 1: China that they can sell for a profit in England,

89
00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:12,000
Speaker 1: which is pretty slick East India Company. So the trade

90
00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:16,320
Speaker 1: imbalance has now shifted because of this growing demand for opium,

91
00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:20,920
Speaker 1: which China right, that's depleting their silver stores, right. And

92
00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:23,440
Speaker 1: so China decides that it not only has to save

93
00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:26,240
Speaker 1: its people from opium, it also needs to learn how

94
00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:30,440
Speaker 1: to control the Brits in their country. So in eighteen

95
00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:37,240
Speaker 1: thirty nine, the Emperor designates Commissioner Lynn to sue and

96
00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:42,240
Speaker 1: this is going to be our introduction to pronunciation warnings Um,

97
00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:45,800
Speaker 1: we got a little help from a colleague. But we're

98
00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:48,200
Speaker 1: telling you right now some of these pronunfusions may not

99
00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:53,599
Speaker 1: be correct. Kind emails if you have pronunciation corrections. Anyways,

100
00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:59,000
Speaker 1: Commissioner Lynn is appointed by the Emperor as the Imperial Commissioner,

101
00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:02,440
Speaker 1: and he's authorized do whatever is necessary to end the

102
00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:05,919
Speaker 1: traffic of opium. And he does some things you might expect,

103
00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:09,120
Speaker 1: like rounding up the opium addicts and forcing them into treatment,

104
00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:12,880
Speaker 1: punishing domestic drug dealers, and the domestic drug dealers were

105
00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:17,200
Speaker 1: punished pretty steeply. Um. But he also goes to Canton

106
00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:20,599
Speaker 1: where he seizes the opium off of ships and dumps

107
00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:24,360
Speaker 1: it into the sea. And this radical act happened at

108
00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:27,039
Speaker 1: the same time as the murder of a Chinese villager

109
00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:32,520
Speaker 1: by drunk sailors. All of this got tensions brewing, and

110
00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,880
Speaker 1: the British government won't hand over the sailors who killed

111
00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:38,240
Speaker 1: the Chinese man to the Chinese government because they didn't

112
00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:42,240
Speaker 1: trust the government, which of course makes the Chinese angry.

113
00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:44,640
Speaker 1: So things aren't going well. And about the same time,

114
00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:47,919
Speaker 1: Commissioner Lynn says that China will completely cut off trade

115
00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,360
Speaker 1: with Britain if the opium stuff doesn't happen, and in

116
00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:55,599
Speaker 1: February forty the Brits decide to hell with it. That's

117
00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:57,640
Speaker 1: the end of it. They're getting their military involved and

118
00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:00,440
Speaker 1: they're going to get in that market. So Lord Ormerston,

119
00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:03,839
Speaker 1: the British Prime Minister, initiates war, and this is the

120
00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:07,719
Speaker 1: first opium war in China. He wants full compensation for

121
00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:12,240
Speaker 1: the opium dumped in the sea. But there's a problem

122
00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:16,120
Speaker 1: with this war. China's a severe disadvantage because of the

123
00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:19,120
Speaker 1: British gun power right, and the British Royal Navy is

124
00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:23,720
Speaker 1: absolutely fantastic, and the Chinese military simply isn't equipped or

125
00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:26,120
Speaker 1: trained to be fighting against the sort of thing they're

126
00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:30,560
Speaker 1: fighting against. In June eighteen forties, sixteen British warships show

127
00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:33,840
Speaker 1: up at Hong Kong. A man named Charles Elliott starts

128
00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:37,000
Speaker 1: negotiating for the Brits and there's an agreement in January

129
00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:39,920
Speaker 1: eighteen forty one, but both sides hate it and neither

130
00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:42,000
Speaker 1: one of them wants to go with it. And in

131
00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:44,920
Speaker 1: May eighteen forty one, the British attack the walled city

132
00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:48,560
Speaker 1: of Guangzhou Canton and get a six million dollar ransom

133
00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:51,400
Speaker 1: and the Cantonese check them back, but again, the navy

134
00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:54,160
Speaker 1: is simply too good and the Chinese don't have an

135
00:07:54,200 --> 00:07:58,400
Speaker 1: effective way to fight back. They're offering rewards for British heads,

136
00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:02,720
Speaker 1: but it's just not happening. And the tricky British propaganda

137
00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:06,760
Speaker 1: of the time was putting it across like this that

138
00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:09,480
Speaker 1: they weren't there to fight the Chinese people. They were

139
00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:12,320
Speaker 1: just there to fight the Chinese government and the soldiers

140
00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:16,680
Speaker 1: who abused the people. And opium question out of it entirely,

141
00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:19,080
Speaker 1: and there were some riffs in society that they could

142
00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,520
Speaker 1: play off at the time, definitely well, there were also

143
00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:26,080
Speaker 1: riffs in the British society about this war. I think

144
00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:29,080
Speaker 1: Katie and I initially went into this thinking that British

145
00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:32,000
Speaker 1: people were all raw raw about the opium war and

146
00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:35,400
Speaker 1: trading with China, but that's not the case. A lot

147
00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:38,120
Speaker 1: of people are against it and they see it as

148
00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:43,040
Speaker 1: uh something to be ashamed about forcing opium, a drug

149
00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:48,199
Speaker 1: that is illegal in England, onto the Chinese. It's denounced

150
00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:52,400
Speaker 1: in Parliament by a young William Gladstone as an unjust

151
00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:56,560
Speaker 1: and inequitous war, and he even accuses the Prime Minister

152
00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:59,959
Speaker 1: of fighting a war to protect an infamous contraband traffic,

153
00:09:00,559 --> 00:09:04,360
Speaker 1: and there's outrage on the pulpits and in the press

154
00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:07,680
Speaker 1: in America and England. Actually, the outrage is so strong

155
00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:11,120
Speaker 1: in America that a lot of the merchants, they're kind

156
00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:13,840
Speaker 1: of back off from it, Uh, get out of the

157
00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:17,640
Speaker 1: trade entirely, even though we've been selling the Turkish stuff

158
00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:19,839
Speaker 1: to China as well. This is when we started to

159
00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:22,839
Speaker 1: back off. Commissioner Lynn was also trying to push this

160
00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:26,520
Speaker 1: moral argument. He wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, and

161
00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:30,680
Speaker 1: it's uncertain if she even read this, but in it

162
00:09:30,840 --> 00:09:35,199
Speaker 1: he was very frank, surprisingly frank for writing to Victoria.

163
00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:38,080
Speaker 1: He writes, the wealth of China is used to profit

164
00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:41,200
Speaker 1: the barbarians. That is to say, the great profit made

165
00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:44,240
Speaker 1: by barbarians is all taken from the rightful share of China.

166
00:09:44,559 --> 00:09:47,680
Speaker 1: By what right do they then, in return use the

167
00:09:47,679 --> 00:09:50,760
Speaker 1: poisonous drug to injure the Chinese people? Even though the

168
00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:54,120
Speaker 1: barbarians may not necessarily intend to do us harm, yet

169
00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:56,880
Speaker 1: in coveting profit to an extreme, they have no regard

170
00:09:56,960 --> 00:10:00,360
Speaker 1: for injuring others. Let us ask, where is your con chance?

171
00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:04,120
Speaker 1: And I'm sure Victoria loved her people being called barbarians.

172
00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:07,480
Speaker 1: But you can't underestimate the human cost of what was

173
00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:11,559
Speaker 1: going on at the time. The Chinese end up losing

174
00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:15,600
Speaker 1: the war. Elliott's successor, Henry Pottinger, captures several of their cities,

175
00:10:15,640 --> 00:10:20,040
Speaker 1: including Shanghai, and at Nanjang they give in. And this

176
00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:24,320
Speaker 1: is where the Treaty of Nanjang assigned in August forty two.

177
00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:26,720
Speaker 1: It's the first treaty ever signed by China with any

178
00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:29,719
Speaker 1: European power, and it's the first of what's known as

179
00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:32,800
Speaker 1: the Unequal Treaties. And there's a reason for that, beginning

180
00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:36,520
Speaker 1: a century of such treaty. Right, China gives Hong Kong

181
00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:39,959
Speaker 1: to Britain. They also open more ports to British trade,

182
00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:43,400
Speaker 1: They agree to equal official recognition, and they pay an

183
00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:47,160
Speaker 1: indemnity of twenty one million dollars um. Some of that

184
00:10:47,280 --> 00:10:51,079
Speaker 1: was payment for the opium that Commissioner Lynn had destroyed.

185
00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:53,640
Speaker 1: And they also give the right of British citizens to

186
00:10:53,679 --> 00:10:56,520
Speaker 1: be tried by British courts, and they lower tariffs. And

187
00:10:56,920 --> 00:11:02,320
Speaker 1: this is especially awful part other Western countries quickly demand

188
00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:07,160
Speaker 1: their own privileges after seeing you, So, yeah, we want

189
00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:10,000
Speaker 1: to be able to trade too, And everybody jumps in

190
00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:12,600
Speaker 1: to get their piece of the pie. To be part

191
00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:15,679
Speaker 1: of the most Favored Nation clause. That's what everyone wants.

192
00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:18,959
Speaker 1: And oddly, considering that this entire war is about opium,

193
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:22,240
Speaker 1: opium is not mentioned anywhere in this treaty, and this

194
00:11:22,280 --> 00:11:24,600
Speaker 1: will come back to haunt us, as we'll see a

195
00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:28,480
Speaker 1: little later. This treaty also sets up the Treaty ports system,

196
00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:31,280
Speaker 1: which means that in treaty ports, Westerners weren't subject to

197
00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:33,640
Speaker 1: China's laws. They could do their own things, that up

198
00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:37,640
Speaker 1: their own legal situation, and pretty much do things however

199
00:11:37,679 --> 00:11:40,360
Speaker 1: they wanted. The major treaty ports in China were Shanghai

200
00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:43,880
Speaker 1: and Guangshu. But however, this is the one thing the

201
00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:47,559
Speaker 1: Chinese did keep. Foreigners still weren't allowed in the interior

202
00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:51,280
Speaker 1: of China. So the First Opium War is over, but

203
00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:54,840
Speaker 1: the problems aren't over because opium is still an issue.

204
00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:57,880
Speaker 1: The question of opium isn't resolved in the treaty at all. Right.

205
00:11:57,960 --> 00:12:00,000
Speaker 1: Trade is still an issue, and the Chinese are still

206
00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:02,599
Speaker 1: very unhappy about having the British in their country, and

207
00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:05,680
Speaker 1: the British are unhappy because they still don't have all

208
00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:08,439
Speaker 1: of the rights and the wages they would like exactly.

209
00:12:08,880 --> 00:12:11,320
Speaker 1: So a man named Chi Yang is put in place

210
00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:15,439
Speaker 1: as Imperial Commissioner, and he believes in appeasement. So things

211
00:12:15,559 --> 00:12:19,360
Speaker 1: run smoothly for a while, but trade doesn't increase the

212
00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:22,680
Speaker 1: way the British thought it would, and again the opium

213
00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:25,760
Speaker 1: things still isn't settled. Yeah, you'd think with this sweet

214
00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:29,120
Speaker 1: treaty they've worked out that, you know, everything would be

215
00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:32,600
Speaker 1: more conducive to higher opium trade, but that doesn't happen now,

216
00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:35,600
Speaker 1: and the question of whether foreigners should be allowed into

217
00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:39,080
Speaker 1: the walled city of guang Jou still isn't settled. After

218
00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:42,000
Speaker 1: the treaty was declared open, but it never happened because

219
00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:45,480
Speaker 1: the Chinese are really resistant to letting the barbarians as

220
00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:48,520
Speaker 1: they thought of them, into their walled city. And the

221
00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:50,880
Speaker 1: Cantonese finally promised the British they could come in in

222
00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:53,880
Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine, but they really aren't happy about it,

223
00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:59,000
Speaker 1: and as eighteen forty nine approaches, the protests begin because

224
00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:02,160
Speaker 1: no one wants British in there. The British give in

225
00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:05,920
Speaker 1: the Beijing Court grants temporary entrance, but the Cantonese have

226
00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:08,679
Speaker 1: won this round and I can't help rooting for China

227
00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:12,200
Speaker 1: at this point, and there's a lot of xenophobia in China,

228
00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:16,000
Speaker 1: a lot of anti foreign sentiment, and it only grows.

229
00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:19,880
Speaker 1: And with the anti foreign sentiment comes anti government sentiment,

230
00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:23,840
Speaker 1: and some of this ends up carrying into the Taiping Rebellion,

231
00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:28,480
Speaker 1: which is a radical political and religious at people that

232
00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:31,640
Speaker 1: goes on from eighteen fifty to sixty four. And Katy

233
00:13:31,679 --> 00:13:33,800
Speaker 1: and I might want to talk about this some more later.

234
00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:35,920
Speaker 1: It's we're not gonna give you too much, want too

235
00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:38,360
Speaker 1: much away, But it's a pretty wild thing. It takes

236
00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:44,200
Speaker 1: an estimated twenty million lives, and it permanently alters the

237
00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:48,320
Speaker 1: um Qing or Manchu dynasty and the way that the

238
00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:51,720
Speaker 1: Chinese government has worked for so long. But an interesting

239
00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:55,280
Speaker 1: thing about the Taiping Rebellion is their very anti Opium.

240
00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:59,560
Speaker 1: They are. It's actually a Christian rebellion. Um the leader

241
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:03,360
Speaker 1: believes that he's the son of God, which surprisingly that

242
00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:07,000
Speaker 1: does not mean Jesus. He believes he's Jesus younger brother.

243
00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:12,280
Speaker 1: But he's very anti Opium. And all of the Taiping's

244
00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:18,080
Speaker 1: credos are really Old Testament. It's not about New Testament

245
00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:24,080
Speaker 1: style forgiveness and such it's um, anti opium, anti alcohol,

246
00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:30,840
Speaker 1: and tobacco, prostitution, foot binding. So this radical social and

247
00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:35,680
Speaker 1: government change is happening also leading up to the Second

248
00:14:35,680 --> 00:14:38,640
Speaker 1: Opium War. Right, so there's this huge social rift that's

249
00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:41,560
Speaker 1: going on from eighteen fifty to eighteen sixty four, that's

250
00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:44,840
Speaker 1: how long the Typing rebellion lasted. And the West steps

251
00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:48,040
Speaker 1: in again and helps put the rebellion down because they're

252
00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:51,480
Speaker 1: afraid that the China the typing we're advocating, would be

253
00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:55,120
Speaker 1: even more resistant to Western influences. So we're very good

254
00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:58,080
Speaker 1: at looking after and their anti opium, which you know,

255
00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:01,040
Speaker 1: really wouldn't help us trade all about. At the end

256
00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:03,960
Speaker 1: of the day, and this is when the Second Opium

257
00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,240
Speaker 1: War starts. You thought it was over, but it's not.

258
00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:10,560
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty six, Chinese officials get on the ship Arrow,

259
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:14,760
Speaker 1: which was Chinese owned but British registered, and they charged

260
00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:18,080
Speaker 1: the crew with piracy and smuggling and lower the British flag.

261
00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:20,760
Speaker 1: And the Brits want to get more trading rights in

262
00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:24,240
Speaker 1: China anyway, so they basically used this incident to start

263
00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:27,440
Speaker 1: the fight, and the French joined forces with the British

264
00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:31,479
Speaker 1: using is their excuse the murder of a French missionary

265
00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:34,480
Speaker 1: in the interior of China. But it's really not about

266
00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:37,720
Speaker 1: the missionary that it's about the opium in the trading.

267
00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:40,760
Speaker 1: The Russians and Americans get in on the game and

268
00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:44,360
Speaker 1: send their representatives, and military actions against China start. In

269
00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:47,840
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven. Guangzhou is occupied, the Dagou for it

270
00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:50,680
Speaker 1: is taken and the Chinese are forced to sign the

271
00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:54,240
Speaker 1: Treaties of Tianjin, which call for residents in Beijing, for

272
00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:57,960
Speaker 1: foreign envoys travel in the interior, and freedom of movement

273
00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:01,160
Speaker 1: from missionaries, as well as opening of new ports. And

274
00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:03,960
Speaker 1: they're also forced to legalize the import of opium in

275
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:07,480
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty eight, which is just I mean not to

276
00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:10,560
Speaker 1: be able judging about history, but seriously so, the Chinese

277
00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:15,160
Speaker 1: unsurprisingly refused to ratify these treaties, which are even more

278
00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:20,040
Speaker 1: inequal than the earlier ones. So in retaliation, the Allies

279
00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,720
Speaker 1: capture Beijing and then plunder and burn one of the

280
00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:27,080
Speaker 1: emperor's palaces. You want, Main Garden. So in eighteen sixty

281
00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:29,840
Speaker 1: the Chinese signed the Beijing Convention saying that they will

282
00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:33,400
Speaker 1: in fact observe the treaties, and during this time Russia

283
00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:36,720
Speaker 1: has also maneuvered its way into a nice beneficial place

284
00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:41,080
Speaker 1: to be by acting as China's buddy throughout these various negotiations,

285
00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:43,800
Speaker 1: and China seeds to Russia the territory between the Surre

286
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:47,360
Speaker 1: River and the sea, so everyone but China gets what

287
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:49,680
Speaker 1: they want. Yeah, so out of the second Opium more

288
00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:54,160
Speaker 1: we end up with more foreign privileges, Christians being allowed

289
00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:59,000
Speaker 1: to come in and evangelize um, and a kind of

290
00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:01,680
Speaker 1: threat to the more all in cultural values of China,

291
00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:06,760
Speaker 1: right because Confucianism was what they were observing at the time.

292
00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:11,160
Speaker 1: And allowing someone to come in and threaten your moral

293
00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:13,760
Speaker 1: and cultural values that way well, and not to mention,

294
00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:17,359
Speaker 1: the imperial rule by this point has just been battered.

295
00:17:17,840 --> 00:17:21,480
Speaker 1: They have fallen every time when they come up against

296
00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:26,240
Speaker 1: the British. So they're at a at a threat two

297
00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:29,760
Speaker 1: forces from their own people. And in case you're wondering

298
00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:33,640
Speaker 1: what happened with Opium, the trade routes just keep on

299
00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:36,359
Speaker 1: keeping on. As I put in my notes, um, we

300
00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:38,639
Speaker 1: had figured out how to get morphine from opium and

301
00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:41,560
Speaker 1: around eighteen o four and use it on soldiers during

302
00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:43,600
Speaker 1: the Civil War, and so end up with plenty of

303
00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:46,439
Speaker 1: addicts of our own, and we figure out heroin in

304
00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:50,639
Speaker 1: eight which quickly becomes very popular and still is. But

305
00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:53,920
Speaker 1: in the early nineteen hundreds, China starts to get control

306
00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:57,919
Speaker 1: of opium trade, at least within its borders, and the

307
00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:00,800
Speaker 1: country signs the Ten Years Agreement with India in nineteen

308
00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:04,280
Speaker 1: o seven, which basically says that China forbids the cultivation

309
00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:08,000
Speaker 1: and consumption of opium and India agrees to cease exporting

310
00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:11,440
Speaker 1: it completely in ten years. So by nineteen seventeen we've

311
00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:16,280
Speaker 1: pretty much stopped that. Yeah, but by night Burma gains

312
00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:21,320
Speaker 1: independence and they're all about producing the opium. And this

313
00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:25,600
Speaker 1: even goes into the beginning of communism in China. When

314
00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:28,800
Speaker 1: the communists come to power in nineteen forty nine, they

315
00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:33,800
Speaker 1: stop all the opium business, completely shut it down, but

316
00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:37,320
Speaker 1: it just moves elsewhere. In the sixties and seventies, that's

317
00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:40,160
Speaker 1: when the Golden Triangle comes up the border of Myanmar,

318
00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:44,879
Speaker 1: Laos and Thailand, and the UN starts a drug control

319
00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:47,159
Speaker 1: program to limit activity in the area, but they just

320
00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:50,080
Speaker 1: switched to mess and the opium goes to Afghanistan and stuff,

321
00:18:50,160 --> 00:18:53,240
Speaker 1: and we know about the wars there too, so opium

322
00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:58,720
Speaker 1: just keeps on ravaging people across the centuries here and oddly,

323
00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:01,200
Speaker 1: some of the most popular articles on the how stuff

324
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:03,960
Speaker 1: Works Health channel are the drug articles. So if you'd

325
00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:07,199
Speaker 1: like to learn how math works, or crack cocaine, or

326
00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:10,640
Speaker 1: the dangers of using marijuana, come to our homepage at

327
00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:14,800
Speaker 1: www dot how stuff works dot com. For more on

328
00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:17,639
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works

329
00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:20,800
Speaker 1: dot com. Let us know what you think, send an

330
00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:24,000
Speaker 1: email to podcast at how stuff works dot com, and

331
00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:25,680
Speaker 1: be sure to check out the stuff you missed in

332
00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:28,160
Speaker 1: History Class blog on the how stuff works dot com

333
00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:28,720
Speaker 1: home page