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The Chinese Opium Wars. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-122730-2. Fay, Peter Ward (1975). The Opium War, 1840–1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century and the War by Which They Forced Her Gates Ajar. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1243-3. Gelber, H. (2004).
The Treaty of Nanking was a step to opening the lucrative Chinese market to global commerce and the opium trade. The interpretation of the war, which was long the standard in the People's Republic of China, was summarised in 1976: The Opium War, "in which the Chinese people fought against British aggression, marked the beginning of modern ...
The book arose from research Ghosh conducted on the historical opium trade and its relation to India and China while he was writing his fiction novel series, the Ibis trilogy. [1] [2] In it, Ghosh discusses the history of tea, the Opium Wars and links between colonialism and the modern opioid crisis. [3] [4] [5]
Depiction of British opium ships off the coast of China in 1824 by William John Huggins.This period of history provides the inspiration for the Ibis trilogy.. The Ibis trilogy is set to the backdrop of the opium trade in China during the 1830s, which was causing widespread addiction in the country, but was a lucrative endeavour for British and American merchants.
Historical accounts suggest that opium first arrived in China during the Tang dynasty (618–907) as part of the merchandise of Arab traders. [10] Later on, Song Dynasty (960–1279) poet and pharmacologist Su Dongpo recorded the use of opium as a medicinal herb: "Daoists often persuade you to drink the jisu water, but even a child can prepare the yingsu soup."
In 1839 matters came to a head when Chinese official Lin Zexu tried to end the opium trade altogether by destroying a large amount of opium in Canton, thereby triggering the First Opium War. In response to Zexu's actions, in January 1841 the Royal Navy bombarded Chinese positions near Canton and landed troops ashore in several locations.
Over 40 war junks were further up the river. [3] [5] As the steamers advanced, the Chinese batteries opened fire, which the British vigorously returned with shells and rockets. Modeste sailed within 300 yards (270 m) of the shore and fired broadsides before the other ships joined the cannonade. The Chinese forces made a determined resistance ...
Julia Lovell FBA (born 1975) is a British scholar, author, and translator whose non-fiction books focus on China. Lovell is professor of Modern Chinese History and Literature at Birkbeck, University of London. Her works on the Opium Wars (The Opium Wars: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China) and Maoism (Maoism: A Global History) were widely ...