A Look Back at the Opium War

Paper Summary:

The Opium War of the mid-nineteenth century was a pivotal event in modern Chinese history as it marked both an end to China's isolation from the rest of the world, and also the beginning of China's long period of subjugation to the Western imperial powers. However, the argument that opium was the cause of the Opium War is to implicitly apply twenty-first century standards of morality to describe a nineteenth century imperialist war. This paper will argue that, although opium was one of the causes of the Opium War, the drug trade was actually a secondary element in the conflict. The primary cause of the conflict was the Chinese imperial government's ignorance and arrogance with respect to the challenge presented by the British.

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