deteriorate some societies to the point it’s irrecoverable for centuries (see China and opium)
Large imports of opium to China only started in 1822, and while the ‘century of humiliation’ would begin ~20 years later, society was in no way ‘irrecoverable’, it wasn’t centuries, and it wasn’t because of opium.
Opium was yet another weight around the neck of Qing, but it was only a serious issue because the dominant naval power on the globe forced them to accept opium at cannon point and killed them when they refused.
Unless US aircraft carriers start bombing Korea into accepting industrial quantities of heroin, the situation isn’t really comparable.
Opium was being pumped into China since 1700s, not 1822. Something tells me you are not being honest and are downplaying the singular most important tool Britishers used in something called “Opium War”.
the singular most important tool Britishers used in something called “Opium War”.
I don’t want to downplay the horror of opium, but the Opium War was a war.
The reason the British went to war is because the Qing were making progress getting rid of opium. The British needed their gunships to make sure the opium stuck. It wasn’t that opium was such an impossible problem to combat, it’s that the British navy beat them in two wars when they tried.
The opium funnelling was a massive problem, infact the single biggest problem Qing Dynasty rulers had. Christianity was used in conjunction, and the lie of “laissez faire” Western trade was well understood. The goal was to colonise China, the way India was for 200 years, and suck the money out. The money reasoning is simple – India and China were the richest countries in the world, effectively having half of the world’s wealth, because originally only three civilisations existed for thousands of years (Egyptian, Indian and Chinese).
I suggest you check Nathan Rich’s Epic China series. It is incredibly detailed, far more than any historical material you could possibly find and attempt to have the slightest coherent compiling of, or whatever media/history outlets have.
Large imports of opium to China only started in 1822, and while the ‘century of humiliation’ would begin ~20 years later, society was in no way ‘irrecoverable’, it wasn’t centuries, and it wasn’t because of opium.
Opium was yet another weight around the neck of Qing, but it was only a serious issue because the dominant naval power on the globe forced them to accept opium at cannon point and killed them when they refused.
Unless US aircraft carriers start bombing Korea into accepting industrial quantities of heroin, the situation isn’t really comparable.
Opium was being pumped into China since 1700s, not 1822. Something tells me you are not being honest and are downplaying the singular most important tool Britishers used in something called “Opium War”.
I don’t want to downplay the horror of opium, but the Opium War was a war.
The reason the British went to war is because the Qing were making progress getting rid of opium. The British needed their gunships to make sure the opium stuck. It wasn’t that opium was such an impossible problem to combat, it’s that the British navy beat them in two wars when they tried.
The opium funnelling was a massive problem, infact the single biggest problem Qing Dynasty rulers had. Christianity was used in conjunction, and the lie of “laissez faire” Western trade was well understood. The goal was to colonise China, the way India was for 200 years, and suck the money out. The money reasoning is simple – India and China were the richest countries in the world, effectively having half of the world’s wealth, because originally only three civilisations existed for thousands of years (Egyptian, Indian and Chinese).
I suggest you check Nathan Rich’s Epic China series. It is incredibly detailed, far more than any historical material you could possibly find and attempt to have the slightest coherent compiling of, or whatever media/history outlets have.