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The First Opium War

© Maria Christensen

Unil the 18th century, opium use in China had consisted mostly of medicinal purposes. By the early 1800s, however, millions of Chinese had become addicted, and the illegal drug thrived through black market trade.

Captain Charles Elliot and Commisioner Lin Zexu

The main purveyors of opium were the British, though merchants from the United States and other European countries also participated in the trade. One chest of opium contained around 135 pounds of the substance, and the importation of chests grew from 5,000 in 1821 to 35,000 in 1837.

Captain Charles Elliot, the British chief superintendent of trade in Canton, put pressure on the Chinese government to legalize the opium trade. Meanwhile, the fatality rate caused the Emperor of China to appoint an official to oversee deaths.

Commissioner Lin Zexu had battled the problem of drug use in the provinces of Hubei and Hunan, and he now attempted to eliminate opium. He blockaded the foreign community, stopped trade, ordered Chinese servants to leave, arrested a leading foreign dealer, and demanded that the merchants surrender their inventory of opium.

After 47 days, Captain Elliot handed over 20,283 chests to Lin, who destroyed them. In a 1839 letter to Queen Victoria, Lin made the assumption that the British government was not involved in the opium trade, and pointed out that it would be in the best interests of both nations to stop. The letter never reached England, however, and the messenger was murdered by sailors.

The Treaty of Nanjing

The situation escalated until the British sent a naval fleet to China and made their headquarters in Hong Kong. War began in November, 1839. The Chinese were technologically no match for the British, and the military was poorly trained for such a showdown.

In August, 1842, the Treaty of Nanjing officially ended the brutal war. The treaty, among other things, handed Hong Kong over to the British, opened new ports, guaranteed extraterritoriality, and granted Britain "most favored nation" status. 

Recommended Resources 

For more information about the First Opium War and Chinese history, see Ranbir Vohra's China's Path to Modernization.

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