The idea of the Opium War carries a great deal of meaning in modern memory. For many flavors of Chinese nationalist, it is the beginning of their century of humiliation at the hands of exploitive foreigners. For the British, it is another milestone on the road to the heights of Empire. But that is how it all looks in retrospect. For those who directed the armies of the war, and those who fought in it, the engagement was a confusing mess, where neither side seemed to have much understanding of what the other side wanted or why it was fighting the way it did.

In this episode, we’ll go through the main war, the classic leaders & battles, to understand as best we can what those who directed the war’s engagements thought they were doing and why.

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