The First Opium War 1 question Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The First Opium War 1 question - Coursework Example This paper explores the first opium war and the role of the Western powers in spreading and controlling the use of opium in China and other regions in the period. â€Å"During the nineteenth century Great Britain led the Western powers in ‘opening’ China to trade and Christian proselytizing† (Tyner, 2006, p. 25). The trade inequity between the two nations favored China. Britain bought enormous quantities of tea from China, but offered less woolens to the Chinese. This led the Chinese to require transactions to be settled in silver bullion. In a bid to overturn the trade imbalance, Britain started importing opium into China. By 1817, Britain was trading opium for tea in order to offset their trade deficit with China. The Qing government initially permitted the importation of opium by Britain because it encouraged more export of tea from China to England, while creating an indirect tax for the Chinese citizens. Opium was grown in Indian cotton growing regions under the control of British East India Company (Bengal), which traded opium for tea, in China (Ramirez-Faria, 2007). Britain began trading in opium in 1781 with their opium trade growing immensely between 1821 and 1837. The British facilitated the influx of opium in China and other regions by importing large quantities of the commodity to China. In 1834, Free Trade revolutionists ended the monopoly of the British East India Company, which shifted trade into the hands of private merchants and entrepreneurs (Perdue, 2010). Americans brought in Turkish opium, which was of poor quality but cheaper. As such, there was price war leading to low price, but higher sales of opium. Consequently, the Chinese officials stepped in to intercept the transportation of the commodity into China (Tyner, 2006). In order to stop opium from flooding China, a Chinese officer, Lin Zexu, appointed in