6/20/2023 0 Comments Benjamin burnham sea of poppiesThe treaty is known to the Chinese as the Unfair Treaty. The British, needless to say, were less than amused and used their fleet and its considerable firepower to strongarm the Chinese government into a treaty, the Treaty of Nanking, that would eventually lead to the colony of Hong Kong, along with several open trade seaports. He excluded the British from the ports and destroyed about 20,000 chests of opium, worth millions even with the monetary value of those days. In 1839 the Chinese government, alarmed by the increasing number of opium addicts, installed commissioner Lin Zexu to solve the problem. “Oh! just, subtle, and mighty opium! that to the hearts of poor and rich alike, for the wounds that will never heal, and for ‘the pangs that tempt the spirit to rebel,’ bringest an assuaging balm eloquent opium! that with thy potent rhetoric stealest away the purposes of wrath and to the guilty man, for one night givest back the hopes of his youth, and hands washed pure of blood….”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |