The Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another

By Frank Sanello and W. Travis Hanes III

Book Overview

A fascinating look at the other side of the Opium Wars

In this tragic and powerful story, the two Opium Wars of 1839-1842 and 1856-1860 between Britain and China are recounted for the first time through the eyes of the Chinese as well as the Imperial West. Opium entered China during the Middle Ages when Arab traders brought it into China for medicinal purposes. As it took hold as a recreational drug, opium wrought havoc on Chinese society. By the early nineteenth century, 90 percent of the Emperor's court and the majority of the army were opium addicts.

Britain was also a nation addicted--to tea, grown in China, and paid for with profits made from the opium trade. When China tried to ban the use of the drug and bar its Western smugglers from it gates, England decided to fight to keep open China's ports for its importation. England, the superpower of its time, managed to do so in two wars, resulting in a drug-induced devastation of the Chinese people that would last 150 years.

In this page-turning, dramatic and colorful history, The Opium Wars responds to past, biased Western accounts by representing the neglected Chinese version of the story and showing how the wars stand as one of the monumental clashes between the cultures of East and West.

"A fine popular account."--Publishers Weekly

"Their account of the causes, military campaigns and tragic effects of these wars is absorbing, frequently macabre and deeply unsettling."--Booklist

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1402201494
• ISBN13: 9781402201493
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic account that is still very relevant today!!

Excellent account about the Opium Wars.The authors are excellent in bringing the details without leaving any stone unturned.The book shows how hypocritical the British and the Chinese people are when it comes to dealing with a problem that is so obvious.I found particularly interesting the fact that many Chinese people in important positions in the Goverment were opium addicts.Also several emperors were addicted to Opium even though they knew that the addiction was killing many of its subjects.The account is well written and once you start reading this book you wouldnt be able to put it down.....Great Work!!

A Solid History of a Shameful Period

The Opium Wars is a well written chronicle of the shameful period in the nineteenth century when Great Britain sank to the level of an international drug cartel. The British Empire forced China's Qing Dynasty to allow huge shipments of opium into its territories in order to reduce Britain's huge trade deficit. The details of how Britain contributed to the decline of China are astounding but well documented. A particularly interesting aspect of this book are the numerous references to and comparisons with present day issues and situations. The writing is scholarly but highly readable. Those who read it will have a better understanding of a less than glorious period of British history and a new appreciation of the anger and distrust China still feels towards the West as a result.

Clear and To the Point

I bought/read this book for a research paper for a Politics of East Asia class I took this last semester (Spring 03). It gives a very good account of the causes of the wars. It is not a military strategy book so don't expect details of the battles, but it goes into great detail about the negotiations and behavior on both sides; it gives accounts of the battles just not detailed strategies. After I read it I loaned it to my father to read and he enjoyed it as well. I recommend writing down the names of the 'players' as you come across them because the British colonial hierarchy plays a major role and after a while you'll be bombarded by names that you may not have heard for a while. It is a bit long, but it is to the point and well written - buy this book and you won't be sorry.

The Great Helmsman just said no

This well written narrative describes the roots and actions of the two Opium Wars (1839-42, 1856-1860) fought primarily between Great Britain and China. It?s not a pretty story, and it?s not a story familiar to many Americans.The gist of the problem for the British was that Britain had an insatiable demand for tea and silk, but there was virtually nothing the Chinese wanted to import from Britain. Therefore British traders in Canton imported opium from British-owned plantations in India, creating millions of Chinese opium addicts (including the emperor himself). Not only did drug dealing more than offset their negative balance of payments, it eventually generated nearly 10% of British tax collections.The first Opium War erupted in 1839 when the Chinese officials ?got serious? about suppressing the opium trade and resulted, among other things, in the British navy and numerically small but well-armed ground troops opening various Chinese ports by force and obtaining possession of Hong Kong. The second Opium War, in which French navy and army forces joined, resulted in the conquest of Peking and the destruction of immense artistic and cultural wealth when the Summer Palace complex was looted and burned. In fact the words ?loot? apparently came into the English language in the first Opium War from a Hindi word ?lut?. Queen Victoria even named a Pekinese dog sent to her from the sack of Peking ?Lootie?.Nobody comes off well. The British are uniformly horrible, and the French only slightly better. Americans are not active belligerents (excepting one occasion when a US Navy captain intervenes, despite contrary orders, to help the British), but American traders and consuls are involved in drug dealing. And, yes, the Chinese are victimized, but many Chinese grew wealthy as opium importers (the authors describe one Chinese as the world?s wealthiest man), most officials were corrupt, incompetent and uncaring regarding their citizens? welfare, and Chinese soldiers serving in the British army commit as many atrocities as the Brits and Sikhs.While the British ignore this sorry episode and Americans are largely ignorant of it, the Chinese remember Western aggression and their victimization all too well. Opium plagued China for another century, although most was home-grown by 1900. On the eve of World War II 10% of the population was addicted, with 30% of Hong Kong?s population addicted (Not the image of efficient British colonial administration, is it?). Massive opium addiction did not end in China until the Communists brutally cracked down on it after their 1949 victory. The authors conclude, ?The Great Helmsman just said no.?I recommend this book as an excellent overview of 19th Century Western interaction with China and an important piece of knowledge for those who would understand Chinese wariness towards the West since 1949. The few reproductions of paintings and photographs are interesting, but the large scale map of China is inadequate to

The Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corrupt

I thought the book was well written and interesting. It tells an amazing story of China's history. The author includes interesting parallels to the 20th century as well. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about how the British sold Opium to China in the mid 1800s.