This episode looks at the rise of the East India Trade Company through the triangle trade between British India, Qing China, and the British Isles. Opium fueled the Company’s rise. It took a combination of opium smugglers, Free Trade ideogues, and 19th century Christian missionaries working together to bring their reign in Guangzhou to an end.
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In the second episode of the “mini season” on the Opium War, we’ll look at how the highest officials of the Qing Empire debated the problem of opium in the 1820’s and 1830’s. Specifically, what was the best way to prevent trading of Chinese silver for foreign opium? Some advocated harsh crackdowns, while others wondered why not just legalize it?
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The name “Opium War” was first given to the war by a British newspaper opposed to the conflict. It was a derogatory label that implied the great British Empire, emancipator of slaves, was being lowered to doing the bidding of a bunch of British drug dealers selling opium mostly grown in British-controlled regions of India by a giant, private corporation.
In this episode, we’ll discuss how the war might just as easily go by the less catchy name “Silver Crunch War of 1839”. A global silver shortage combined with the unique vulnerabilities of the Qing economy to the resulting increase in silver prices will drive the Daoguang Emperor to crack down on a bunch of unruly British drug dealers.
*Image by: Numismática Pliego – Numismática Pliego, CC BY-SA 3.0
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In this episode, a young Hong Xiuquan fails the provincial exam in Guangzhou for the third time. The experience breaks him, and his family fears for his life. It’s then, as his family fears he might be dying, that a group of small children in golden robes, a host of angels, and a giant rooster come to whisk him away on a journey that will change his life forever.
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In this episode, we get to know Hong Xiuquan and the world he grew up in. Hong’s early life was defined by his experience as a Hakka in Southern China, aspiring to join the ranks of the Confucian scholar-officials.
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The White Lotus Rebellion at the end of the 18th century foreshadows the later crisis of the mid-19th century.
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This episode we’ll look at the rise of the Qing, China’s last imperial dynasty. We’ll look at some of the major decisions Qing rulers made in the dynasty’s first 150 years. The reigns of Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong will rule China for a combined 140 years, during which it was the most powerful and populous state on earth. But it’s also in this period that many of the seeds of its calamitous 19th century were sown.
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At the beginning of the 17th century the Ming empire was the largest and most powerful on earth. But in a newly global world they soon found themselves tied to the whims of global trade and a silver mountain half way around the world.
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This episode we’re going to take a bit of a scenic detour to learn about early policies of Ming expansionism and the tremendous voyages of Zheng He.
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Popular conceptions of Chinese history usually follow the lead of Confucian ideology that held that China was the eternal “Middle Kingdom”, always existing in its essential essence at the center of the world. Dynasties may rise and fall, but China remains China, a country that has been around for more than two thousand years.
Well, that’s wrong. It’s what they wanted you to believe. But it’s wrong.
Since we’re going to be spending most of season 1 in the Chinese Qing empire, it’s important to understand how this myth is wrong and learn a more about China. In this episode we’ll learn about China’s geography, languages, and take a lightning tour of China’s early dynastic history.
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