The Opium War triggered the coveting and devouring of China's territorial resources by the great powers, and China changed from an imperial system of thousands of years to a political system. At the end of the 18th century, Britain exported large quantities of opium to China, reaching more than 40,000 boxes in 1838. The rampant use of tobacco and drugs has caused China's outflow and financial difficulties.
Opium War The trigger for Emperor Daoguang's strict ban on smoking was the "Prince Zhuang Incident", he was the eight iron hat kings in the early Qing Dynasty, and was later dismissed from the prince for smoking opium in the Lingguan Temple. Of course, being dismissed is not entirely about drug use, he also does prostitution, gambling, bribery, collusion and other things. Unlike modern society, ancient China looked at issues more from a moral point of view, followed by political solidarity, and finally economic issues.
At the end of 1838, Daoguang sent Lin Zexu as a minister to Guangdong to ban opium, and the following year in Humen, Guangzhou, a total of more than 2.37 million catties of opium were destroyed, and the British army was repelled many times. In 1840, Britain launched an invasion war under the pretext of destroying opium in China. Before the Opium War, there was only a commercial relationship between China and Britain, but the corruption, bribery and bad habits of the Qing Dynasty at that time became the catalyst for the continuation of this relationship. Anyone involved in this kind of connection, there is no **, there is no one who does not get rich, and it has become a normal phenomenon in officialdom after a long time.
In ancient times, the Chinese emperor was the Son of Heaven and ruled over everything on earth on behalf of "Heaven".。There is no doubt that this concept is not correct, but the superiority of Chinese civilization in East Asia for a long time to maintain a unified dynasty is indisputable, and the strength of the Qing Dynasty at that time made the monarchs of the surrounding countries, for various motives, all subordinate to China, pay tribute to the Qing Dynasty, become vassal states, and be canonized by the imperial court. As for other Western countries that did not want to pay tribute, the Qing Dynasty generally regarded them as "barbarian states outside the country", and contemptuously referred to Western Britain, France, and the United States as "Yi"., did not recognize the existence of a country equal to it, under this concept of the first system, China's understanding of Britain at that time was a chaos. We know that Britain started the industrial revolution in the 60s of the 18th century at that time, centered on the invention, use and manufacture of machines, and achieved the basic completion marked by mechanized manufacturing in the 30s of the 19th century. At that time, the Qing Dynasty used the "first ideology to make China a world, not a part of the world."
Due to the different backgrounds of Chinese culture, the most advanced inventions in Britain at that time were immediately manifested as the most absurd and useless things after the radiation of Confucian teachings. The Opium War, which was a turning point in Chinese history, was a mixture of humiliation, hatred, inferiority, hope and other emotionsThe national sentiment arose spontaneously, and it also put forward the historical mission that China must modernize.