there is always that one mediator who always tries their best to get a peaceful agreement but the two sides pride and stubbornness always get in the way. Captain Elliot was a good man from this story and Lin Zexu is a man who was looking out for his people
Thanks for recognizing the role played by mediators! In fact if the Chinese had agreed to buy something the British had to offer, this whole war wouldnt have happened!
@@ecoideazventures6417 except trade is supposed to be well... trade! Both sides needed to see value in what each other brought to the table. If China doesn't see value in British goods, what gives the British authority to rob them of that free will?
Three points to add (I teach history at a British University) 1. Many Chinese traders wanted opium...but not for its properties as a drug. Trading in silver was hard, while trading in copper meant carrying bulky, heavy, low value currency. Opium fell neatly in the middle for many: it was easy to carry, didn't spoil, and could easily be weighed and divided up into blocks of different values. Thus is had a value beyond addiction, increasing demand despite anti-consumption measures. 2. Lin Zexu's burning of the opium: The day he started (June 3) is now Anti-Smoking Day in Taiwan. The day he finished (June 26) is 26 June is now the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. 3. The burning of the Opium was only partially effective - as Opium had flowed in, prices fell and some traders no longer looked to it for profits. When Lin Zexu burned the stockpiles, the price shot up, making it a more tempting commodity for many.
I have a question after watching the video, might i ask you? Was opium useage legal in the UK at the time or was it only legal for people to do it in their eastern colonies?
China had banned opium, so the British created a market in India and let smugglers do the rest. This was not okay. ----- Support the show on Patreon and tell us what you'd like to learn about! bit.ly/EHPatreon
could you logically argue that thing like this is a reason why not to buy weed from places like mexico? (note:i'm concern about the weed, not the mexicans)
As a recovering addict. 8 yrs clean. I LOVE lin. He handles dealers as a crime and addicts as medical issue. This dude is centuries ahead of the world as ND it's awesome.
It should be noted he used this as an opportunity to force the addicts into labor as part of their treatment, and to seize assets from the dealers for money. The end results were postive, but the motives were free labor and free goods
I studied a bit of the Opium war at uni and would like to say that there are some discrepencies here. For one the amount of Opium siezed and burned is generally considered to be Comically overstated by the merchants. They knew that if they said more opium then they would get more cash from the government. These people were not "losing" the money either. They were not being compensated for the drugs they had brought into the country, but most of them were stinking rich anyway.
Inquiry : Was the incredible demand for tea in Britain in this pre-hygenic era possibly based on the fact it was 'healther' than the drinking water, because they boiled the water to make tea?
Drinking problem, as in not drinking tea was a problem. All water had to be boiled to prevent diseases. So in practice, it was either tea, or beer. As in, once you are out of breastmilk, you start drinking beer.... thats a drinking problem.
I like the new direction you guys are taking with EH, with more focus on the politics and economical interrelations rather than war tactics. Great work!
Sam W That's not what I'm trying to say; I do believe you that they maybe didn't define it or name it as a drug, but they propably were aware of the potential of addiction, for example. It has nothing to do with the time or culture you're living in, the effect is still the same: A rush and a possible addiction. For example; in our times, Medications and Alcohol are sometimes not considered as drugs, but an alcoholic or someone who's addictet to painkillers is a junkie, just like from any other drug, no matter what the culture says.
As they said, it's in the name. It's like saying the "Democratic People's Republic" of Korea. The official name of North Korea despite it not being any of that.
What do you mean? The way I understand is that the chinese grievances were that - bloody hell! - it's a drug and that now our citizens spend their money buying that from smugglers which the government couldn't tax. Whereas nowadays it's like: OH HELL NO! IT'S A DRUG! Oh, and it's making the users poor while the smugglers get rich and there's a raise in criminal rates and whatnot... And uh yeah, that's not a real difference in legitimacy, is it?
+Henri Grohn The way the Chinese understood it was that opium was causing massive addiction and making the populace unable to do ANYTHING productive. You can't have drug addicts who literally cannot work.
@@xavierreichel8254 no kidding kiddo it is not like the confiscation being done by LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY who make the law. What an apple to apple comparison.
Please do a video on Queen Min/Empress Myeongseong of Korea? The way she tried to make changes but continually struggled against people of power around her is just one of many things that makes her life so interesting (and frustrating.)
After the Brexit announcement the other day, I find this series to be very timely because the tea problem that helped to drive this piece of history still exists and is going to become a problem again over the course of the next few years.
That actually might be a lie; personally I found no reference of Lin Zexu ever forcing people into rehabilitation; only arresting people and destroying opium.
So this is gonna sound weird but why was the action of Lin sezux considered an "illegal seizure of British goods"? The traders knew opium was illegal in China and Lin was an agent of the government so how can the seizure and destruction of explicitly illegal goods by the government be illegal itself?
2:53 I really appreciate that E for everyone. I never knew I was so interested in history. Thank you for these videos. New subscriber. Just create history courses like this for school lol.
+Cao Mengde - While it is true that the First Opium War started the period known as the "Century of Humiliation", it does have to be mentioned that Qing China had started to collapse politically and economically well before the 1840s...
+Cao Mengde IMO it started declining after the Kangxi Emperor, though the Qianlong reign wasn't too terrible and was mostly just propping up the status quo and not much negative change, little fringes of corruption started getting nestled in during his reign that would eventually tear the empire apart. RIP China's last great dynasty, too bad they're now operating under the Communist dynasty with the Jinping emperor. Honestly the similarities between Dynastic China and the PRC is pretty stark, especially given the harsh bans on criticising the ruling elite and all of the cliques.
To an extent, the war led to a higher exposure of Western influence in China (they forced us to open up 5 trading ports, one of them became Shanghai), which kind of started our modernisation movement.
I'm sure this comment section is ripe with civil, intelligent discussion about the historical period presented to us and not an ounce of vitriol mustered against anyone within it.
"Your country is 67,000 miles away from China. However, merchants who are seeking to increase their income come to do business here. China's wealth is solely in the interests of merchants. In other words, the wealth taken by merchants is only China's proper share. But what rights do they harm the Chinese people with poisonous drugs? I ask if the question is allowed. Where is your conscience?" in the letter of the written LZX
I love all your shows on history and everything. I was wondering if you would do something on the United Irishmen rebellion. I really find the rebellion quite interesting.
I had to read that letter to Queen Victoria in my highschool world history class. The basic arguement was "we would never do this to you, why are you doing this to us then?" in case anyone was wondering.
British merchants holed up in an opium warehouse for a month and a half while the Chinese government tried to break in and raid the place. I would watch a movie about that.
I remember hearing a story from around this same time period where they holes up in a trading warehouse. The westerners were outnumbered 10p to 1 and still managed to survive with minimal causalities while the chinese took extremely heavy casualties since a bunch of the untrained conscripts just charged in with melee weapons and got some grapeshot from a cannon for their troubles
HeWhoWearsGlasses () Less than stellar? China isn't the culprits in this. I do agree that the Three Kingdoms Era should be covered as well, and I think it probably will.
I love James's vacant stare and smile for the first 27 seconds of this video. Something must be very interesting offscreen to the right. (I'm guessing assembling the Sistine Chapel's ceiling out of Jelly Bellies.)
Eddie Torres weird that you mentioned poppy here reminded me of that weird “controversial” pop artist with a resembling name. Things start making more sense now…
I still have a bit of issue with Anzac Day in New Zealand pressuring me to buy fake red poppies for a gold coin donation to pin 'proudly' onto my shirt to commemorate the glorious fallen dead at Gallipoli. I'm living in New Zealand right now, by the way. I mean, I get that poppies were the last flowers the veterans saw before they died and it's a long tradition, but it's a very bitter symbolic tax to pay for me. Usually, I just pay my due and ask them to keep the poppy, or give it to someone else. It's rather distasteful for me to go around with the raw products of opium 'proudly' emblazoned on my chest to display my patriotism and honouring of my new homeland. But the British were not the only ones to have faux Pas in China. Soviet Russia invited the Chinese delegation to Moscow, kept Mao waiting, invited them to a ballet which they called the 'Red Poppy', which was a fictitious account of drunken Russian sailors rescuing the Shanghai branch of the Chinese Communist party from political persecution and murder, which never happened, implying Chinese Communists are damsels in distress needing rescuing by uncouth Russian sailors who can't even control their own drinking. Predictably, it didn't go down well, with most of the delegation walking out halfway through, some able to stomach a bit more than others. Not to mention a fantastic feast Stalin invited the Chinese delegates to, which did wonders for the rewarming of relationship between the two sides... Until the Russian hosts decided to charge the Chinese guests for the meal, a big no no in terms of Oriental hospitality. Long story short, Chinese-Western relations have always been strained at the best of times, fraught with thin ice, quicksand and other hazards of misunderstanding and differences in cultural cues and understanding, which is still happening today. God help us all, lest we get WWIII out of this nonsense.
plus the English empire was actually stimulating the increase of addicts, they were not jsut "supplying for existing ones", they were convincing people to consume the drug and become addicts. Nothing against those who want to use this shit, but they should surelly be prohibited from incentivising other to start consuming too.
Well... TBH you can't compare opium to cannabis or even alcohol since I guess that's what your thinking about. That's a very, very potent drug and there are reasons why it's still forbidden in most countries. But it's true opium isn't a very well-known drug in the west, we mostly know it as... heroin. You see why they had a hard stance against it?
Yupp, opium and heroin have very similar addictive qualities. Imagine if Russia or China today started selling mind-blowingly huge quantities of heroin through smugglers in the USA, THAT'S the reason the Chinese emperor and his ministers reacted the way they did, for a VEEEERY good reason!
Opium is a crude form of heroin, which is in turn a crude form of morphine if I remember right. Morphine has legit medical uses as a very strong painkiller, though even there the possibility of patients getting addicted to morphine exists. So it's not like the refined version of the drug is banned from all legit uses, the issue is that the drug is so strong that it shouldn't be used recreationally. If it was, we'd see a large portion of our population turn into hopeless addicts with no objective in their mind except to take more morphine/heroin/opium, much larger than what we see today. That's how powerful this stuff is. It should be extremely regulated for only medical use, as things are today.
Jenkins Nope. It is a mix of "same thing" and "no difference" that originally were expressed by people that for got how the expressions were, and by some who just wanted to abuse the language for comical reasons. However, since then people has seen it and mistaken it for meaning those two things, thereby perpetrating the incorrect wording. However, Same difference do not mean the same thing. Let me demonstrate: A has a value of 1, B has a value of 2. C has a value of 1 as well, and D has a value of 2 as well. Mathematically, there is the _same difference_ between A and B as there is between C and D. Mathematically, there is also _no difference_ between A and C, as well as between B and D. I.e. "same difference" is not the same thing as "no difference" (nor as "same thing" for that matter) even though some uses it incorrectly in that way because they don't know better.
The name "Honourable East India Company" makes me laugh so loud.Just like how North Korea calls itself "Democratic Republic of Korea" or China calls itself 'People's Republic of China"
Thank you for sharing this video, I am actually a Chinese-American when I was growing up I was only told a very short history in 2 minutes. Britain sold tea to China, China got mad and tried to stop them, the British got mad and beat up China and imposed an unfair treaty; beginning the Century of Humiliation. It was always a touchy subject with my parents...
@@WarbossR0kt00fSant0s Which is pathetic considering that China essentially inflicted such humiliation on most of East Asia for most of its history. The point is to be better, not to continue grudges from the past. War and conflict will never end with such mindsets, as China is proving.
@@WarbossR0kt00fSant0s I don't think that's it. Sure Chinese are strongly against illegal drugs because of this history with opium (China has death penalty for drug dealers), but I have to say, most Chinese do not have animosity toward the West for something that long ago. As long as the West don't cause trouble for them, they don't care. But the West continued to cause troubles, major wars the American started at Chinese border: Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghanistan War. it's hilariously obvious what the United States is doing, encircling China and treat it as a threat. Also American government funded "NGO" are always stirring trouble in the name of "freedom" and "democracy". Just leave Chinese out of it.
You refer to the seizing of the British opium stores as illegal, saying that the British traders were outraged at the illegal seizure. But wasn't it expressly legal? Len Zexu had the authority of the Chinese emperor behind him, the sale of opium was illegal in China, and the British traders were knowingly violating this, correct? So why would the seizing of those stores be illegal? I totally get why the traders would be upset about it, but unless there's something I'm missing, they were completely in the wrong, and knew it. Also apologies if this appears to be one giant block of text. Apparently youtube refuses to allow line breaks in my comments right now.
The Prime Minister will resign by October, and a new one will be appointed by the ruling party in the meantime. The pound has experienced the largest fall in value of any currency used by man in modern times and billions were wiped off savings, pensions and stocks. Scotland, which voted remain, is proposing a 2nd Independence vote. One of the governing parties in the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, which also voted remain, has proposed a referendum on Irish reunification. There are increased incidences of racism against immigrants and European migrants being reported. In my city, London, which backed remain, people feel hopeless and pessimistic. We can't vote to secede to anywhere, and we can't change the result. Leave has burnt the whole thing down, and declared itself King of the ashes.
Or it could be the opposite. Leaving the EU seems like the best way to avoid debt since the EU has proved to be very good at gaining debt not loosing it. Heck even a very high ranking official in the EU said it's best days [economically] are behind it. Which... isn't saying much seeing how it didn't really have any prosperous time...
I'm totally sure that dropping the value of the British Pound by 10% is totally going to help the UK pay off its debts. Hint: Literally every country runs a deficit.
Except that they will likely have to pay just as much if not more to the EU budget to gain access to the single market, without which their economy is fucked. Brexit literally makes no sense.
Okay so here's what I don't understand: it's not like China was the only place in the world producing tea. If the British couldn't negotiate better trade terms with China, couldn't they just go to India (which they controlled) or somewhere else?
Also, China did have a monopoly on Tea at the time (the Tea known of at the time is indigenous to China), While all this was going on the British were trying to start cultivation in India (both with imported Chinese varieties and the Indian native Assam tea), but that didn't really get off the ground until the 1850s.
Fascinating to learn how Lin Zexu waged his war on drugs. He threw drug users in to rehab and put the traders in jail instead. How bout that now.
@@ordinarychef no they dont. The Government brings the drugs into the country.
Funny how he had this solution all those years ago and yet USA still doesn’t
Consider the different goals. If what you really need is slave labor and profit, you enslave the addicts and tax the dealers.
giorno giovanna intensifies
thewingedcroc Ronald Reagan would of loved Lin Zexu
I've heard many stereotypes about how the English love their tea. I had no idea they were so understated.
Super duper late but having tried a proper cup of British tea I can understand the high demand. That stuff is so good
@@Grumplebumple Hope you tried yorkshire tea, thats the best.
adam spiffing Brit is that you
adam I agree being a Brit Yorkshire tea is the best despite what Tetly says
@@shrek13241 I've had a fair few cups, I vastly prefer Twinings Earl Grey (though i am open to other options)
When your tea addiction is so bad that you become a global drug dealer to feed your tea habit
Crazy Garrett what’s wrong with that?
I cant see the problem
And your colonisation habits
SpudFellow selling drugs to feed an addiction.
STONKS
there is always that one mediator who always tries their best to get a peaceful agreement but the two sides pride and stubbornness always get in the way. Captain Elliot was a good man from this story and Lin Zexu is a man who was looking out for his people
Thanks for recognizing the role played by mediators! In fact if the Chinese had agreed to buy something the British had to offer, this whole war wouldnt have happened!
More like looking out for himself. He didn’t understand The british empire is not something you mess with
@@ecoideazventures6417 except trade is supposed to be well... trade! Both sides needed to see value in what each other brought to the table. If China doesn't see value in British goods, what gives the British authority to rob them of that free will?
@@virusj216 precisely, countries dont actually have to take other countries' goods if they dont deem it good for the people
Three points to add (I teach history at a British University)
1. Many Chinese traders wanted opium...but not for its properties as a drug. Trading in silver was hard, while trading in copper meant carrying bulky, heavy, low value currency. Opium fell neatly in the middle for many: it was easy to carry, didn't spoil, and could easily be weighed and divided up into blocks of different values. Thus is had a value beyond addiction, increasing demand despite anti-consumption measures.
2. Lin Zexu's burning of the opium: The day he started (June 3) is now Anti-Smoking Day in Taiwan. The day he finished (June 26) is 26 June is now the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
3. The burning of the Opium was only partially effective - as Opium had flowed in, prices fell and some traders no longer looked to it for profits. When Lin Zexu burned the stockpiles, the price shot up, making it a more tempting commodity for many.
was it somewhat a currency then ?
What a coincidence.......
PavarottiAardvark z
I have a question after watching the video, might i ask you? Was opium useage legal in the UK at the time or was it only legal for people to do it in their eastern colonies?
lol. with your reasoning if someone have illegal drugs on hand... it is not for recreational use but as currency exchange.
"Being the *Honorable* east India company, they would never do that!"
[pause]
"ok, yes they would"
We snuck the “Honorable” in there to bamboozle people
China had banned opium, so the British created a market in India and let smugglers do the rest. This was not okay.
----- Support the show on Patreon and tell us what you'd like to learn about! bit.ly/EHPatreon
So, um...when are you uploading your newest Extra Credits normal episode?
Any good books about this?
Has Walpole worked his ass into this series yet
could you logically argue that thing like this is a reason why not to buy weed from places like mexico? (note:i'm concern about the weed, not the mexicans)
Maybe. ;)
An entire Empire literally started slinging dope to satiate their mother trucking tea addiction.
Reality is stranger and funnier than fiction.
One of the reasons I like history.
@@Amatsaru29
“History sucks, so boring”
-salty ppl who failed a simple memory-logic subject
“[insert all sorts of feckin info]”
Yeah, lol.
*tea*
@@APersonOnUA-camX It's because they never get told the interesting stuff, or are told it in a way that makes it uninteresting.
They literally started an addiction to feed their addiction.
As a recovering addict. 8 yrs clean. I LOVE lin. He handles dealers as a crime and addicts as medical issue. This dude is centuries ahead of the world as ND it's awesome.
It should be noted he used this as an opportunity to force the addicts into labor as part of their treatment, and to seize assets from the dealers for money.
The end results were postive, but the motives were free labor and free goods
Congratulations on your sobriety man, 8 years (now 9 I suppose) is amazing!
This Opium War series is absolutely addicting! Y'all got any more of them Opium War episodes?
I see what you did there
@@spriteman1172 lolol
I studied a bit of the Opium war at uni and would like to say that there are some discrepencies here. For one the amount of Opium siezed and burned is generally considered to be Comically overstated by the merchants. They knew that if they said more opium then they would get more cash from the government. These people were not "losing" the money either. They were not being compensated for the drugs they had brought into the country, but most of them were stinking rich anyway.
Lol
So... basically is like Breaking Bad. But with nations...
Breaking Empires
That sounds awesome.
I'd pay to watch that show
And Tea
Where’s the dam opuim india!
Inquiry :
Was the incredible demand for tea in Britain in this pre-hygenic era possibly based on the fact it was 'healther' than the drinking water, because they boiled the water to make tea?
I mean, maybe
Mabye, or they just really like tea and were willing sell mass drugs to get it
Interesting question, were you able to find some information on it?
Opium in 1830-ish: Rated "E" for everyone
Opium in 2019:
Unless your Chinese
The Opium wars: A British drinking problem causes debt, which in-turn causes them to start distributing drugs to unsavory peoples.
Nicholas Grgas it was a war that caused all of the debt
Drinking problem, as in not drinking tea was a problem. All water had to be boiled to prevent diseases. So in practice, it was either tea, or beer.
As in, once you are out of breastmilk, you start drinking beer.... thats a drinking problem.
Pablo Escobar: I'm the greatest drug dealer that ever existed!
El Chapo: No, I am!
British Empire: Pfffff, amateurs...
I like the new direction you guys are taking with EH, with more focus on the politics and economical interrelations rather than war tactics. Great work!
I just realized that the acronym for the Honorable british East India Compay is HEIC (heckin' snake) and man thats funny
The moral of the story, don't sell drugs kids.
two kinds of people
Opium is not drug at least in the United Kingdom at that time.
+Sam W
It doesn't matter what it's considered as, it is a substance that is altering your mind and definetly is a drug, a very hard drug, even.
You cannot use modern standards to judge decisions from the past: Opium is considered a drug in UK after the sales skyrocketed in India.
Sam W
That's not what I'm trying to say;
I do believe you that they maybe didn't define it or name it as a drug, but they propably were aware of the potential of addiction, for example. It has nothing to do with the time or culture you're living in, the effect is still the same: A rush and a possible addiction.
For example; in our times, Medications and Alcohol are sometimes not considered as drugs, but an alcoholic or someone who's addictet to painkillers is a junkie, just like from any other drug, no matter what the culture says.
Calling the East India Company Honorable is a joke
It's part of the name
the name is a joke
Pak Huide Yes, but it was part of the official name of the company.
Hence why Dan's voice drips with sarcasm every time he says it.
As they said, it's in the name. It's like saying the "Democratic People's Republic" of Korea. The official name of North Korea despite it not being any of that.
I would say "And oh how little has changed," but at least in the 1790s they had an actual legitimate grievance against the drug trade.
and in the 1790s they also had a tendency to kill hundreds of people in Ireland, just because our annual rebellion was a bit bigger than usual
The grievances against against Heroin and Cocaine aren't legitimate?
What do you mean? The way I understand is that the chinese grievances were that - bloody hell! - it's a drug and that now our citizens spend their money buying that from smugglers which the government couldn't tax.
Whereas nowadays it's like: OH HELL NO! IT'S A DRUG! Oh, and it's making the users poor while the smugglers get rich and there's a raise in criminal rates and whatnot...
And uh yeah, that's not a real difference in legitimacy, is it?
So are you applauding the chinese officials couple a hundred years before for making things worse?
+Henri Grohn The way the Chinese understood it was that opium was causing massive addiction and making the populace unable to do ANYTHING productive. You can't have drug addicts who literally cannot work.
This is by far my favorite Extra History series. I'm struggling to not cheer out loud when I see new episodes in my sub feed.
How can confiscation be illegal if opium is illegal?
Yeah, and how can theft be illegal if you steal from a murderer?
@@xavierreichel8254 no kidding kiddo it is not like the confiscation being done by LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY who make the law. What an apple to apple comparison.
@@xavierreichel8254 I... don't think that works the same way. You might be thinking more of a medieval outlaw than a modern-day murderer.
Tosin Akin I don't see what the problem is, or the need for a distinction. Could you try to explain?
Xavier Reichel i don't think someone being a murderer would forfeit their rights of property...
Pablo Escobar: I'm the wealthiest Drug Lord in the history of humanity.
East India Trading Company: ...
Last time I was this early, the EU didn't have 1GB of free space.
They should have reformatted their hard drive when they had the chance.
LOL
Greoge 13 1GB, as in GigaByte (unit for meassuring memory in a hard-drive) but also short for Great Britain.
+Greoge 13 the English are being arse holes again
No wonder why a non native english speaker like me didn't get it
So...
Anything about Wallpole?
All in due time.
He was the Prime Minister when the war occurred :P
Probably involving the East India Company
About a hundred years too late for him to be directly involved, I'm afraid.
Thanks for pointing that out. I read 1739 on the website by mistake. Oops :P
I love extra credits so much. I can see the effort you guys put into this thing and the outcome is just awesome
Please do a video on Queen Min/Empress Myeongseong of Korea? The way she tried to make changes but continually struggled against people of power around her is just one of many things that makes her life so interesting (and frustrating.)
1:46 "But when there's power and money to be had, it seems that honour isn't worth my spit" - Sir Robard of Talmberg
Thank you for all your hard work on the series. Always stoked to see a new episode posted.
BTW have any of the team read James Clavell's Asian Saga?
Who needs the Starks and Lannisters when you have the Strauns and the Brocks?
After the Brexit announcement the other day, I find this series to be very timely because the tea problem that helped to drive this piece of history still exists and is going to become a problem again over the course of the next few years.
Wow, brexit the other day seems so far in the past haha.
Still buying my tea with ease lmfao
I love the part where Lin Zexu threw the opium addicts in jail to serve time for their.... Oh wait... REHABILITATION??!?!?!! What a silly idea 😂
That actually might be a lie; personally I found no reference of Lin Zexu ever forcing people into rehabilitation; only arresting people and destroying opium.
So this is gonna sound weird but why was the action of Lin sezux considered an "illegal seizure of British goods"? The traders knew opium was illegal in China and Lin was an agent of the government so how can the seizure and destruction of explicitly illegal goods by the government be illegal itself?
Because England said so.
@@danielmitchell6940So what?
2:53 I really appreciate that E for everyone. I never knew I was so interested in history. Thank you for these videos. New subscriber. Just create history courses like this for school lol.
something tells me this affair won't end up well for the Chinese
+Cao Mengde - While it is true that the First Opium War started the period known as the "Century of Humiliation", it does have to be mentioned that Qing China had started to collapse politically and economically well before the 1840s...
+Cao Mengde IMO it started declining after the Kangxi Emperor, though the Qianlong reign wasn't too terrible and was mostly just propping up the status quo and not much negative change, little fringes of corruption started getting nestled in during his reign that would eventually tear the empire apart. RIP China's last great dynasty, too bad they're now operating under the Communist dynasty with the Jinping emperor. Honestly the similarities between Dynastic China and the PRC is pretty stark, especially given the harsh bans on criticising the ruling elite and all of the cliques.
To an extent, the war led to a higher exposure of Western influence in China (they forced us to open up 5 trading ports, one of them became Shanghai), which kind of started our modernisation movement.
British may not intend it at first but their Opium war basically starts making China going downward spiral
El chapo: I'm the biggest drug cartel in the world!
Britain: Hold my tea, mate
as a Hong konger it's interesting to see the western view on opium War
even though the facts match, it gives me different insight😃
That sarcastical undertone everytime the *honorable* East India Company gets mentioned. :D
I'm sure this comment section is ripe with civil, intelligent discussion about the historical period presented to us and not an ounce of vitriol mustered against anyone within it.
I still amazes me that flavoured hot water had such an impact on nations and overall history.
Watch the one about coffee, it’s crazy!
I am a Hongkonger and I loved how you guys mentioned it in the description!! Keep up the good work guys!!
I just love all the extra history videos.
Hey! I appreciate what you guys do. Thanks for making stuff. Thanks for creating content!
"honorable"east india company
Honor:😱😶🙈
"Your country is 67,000 miles away from China. However, merchants who are seeking to increase their income come to do business here. China's wealth is solely in the interests of merchants. In other words, the wealth taken by merchants is only China's proper share. But what rights do they harm the Chinese people with poisonous drugs? I ask if the question is allowed. Where is your conscience?" in the letter of the written LZX
see *@hock41* above
I find this fascinating, thanks for illuminating this topic.
I love all your shows on history and everything. I was wondering if you would do something on the United Irishmen rebellion. I really find the rebellion quite interesting.
I had to read that letter to Queen Victoria in my highschool world history class. The basic arguement was "we would never do this to you, why are you doing this to us then?" in case anyone was wondering.
5:08 Here in Brazil a similar case involving British sailor happened too around those times.
British merchants holed up in an opium warehouse for a month and a half while the Chinese government tried to break in and raid the place. I would watch a movie about that.
I remember hearing a story from around this same time period where they holes up in a trading warehouse. The westerners were outnumbered 10p to 1 and still managed to survive with minimal causalities while the chinese took extremely heavy casualties since a bunch of the untrained conscripts just charged in with melee weapons and got some grapeshot from a cannon for their troubles
@@arthas640 they didn’t learn anything from the pirate queen
I wish Extra History episodes comes out on a daily basis.Comment if you do too.
I don't think they can work that fast. D:
no. That'd probably lead to the content being rushed and the animators would want to murder everyone.
Salahudin I aggre man
Quality should always win in a debate like this case we have here.
I want it too,but the thing that makes extra history is special that it comes out just once a week
British merchants: hey man can we buy some food?
Qing: lmao no
“Illegal seizure” of illegal drugs in a country that didn’t need nor wanted this problem?...wow
Lin Zexu, we need you here, in Brasil!
Our teacher made us watch this video.
Everyone loved it.
Do the Three Kingdoms Era in China please
The three kingdoms period has been so heavily fictionalised that it would take a lot of time and effort to do an accurate Extra History of it
HeWhoWearsGlasses () Less than stellar? China isn't the culprits in this. I do agree that the Three Kingdoms Era should be covered as well, and I think it probably will.
Chinese warring states would be better, basically it was precursor to Sengoku Jidai
Way too complicated my friend.
The entire world could be completely different if British people just weren’t so addicted to tea.
Yeah they would have conquered heaven if they weren’t so distract it with tea
I love James's vacant stare and smile for the first 27 seconds of this video. Something must be very interesting offscreen to the right. (I'm guessing assembling the Sistine Chapel's ceiling out of Jelly Bellies.)
2:02-2:08 Best part of the video, had me laughing pretty good. That little 'C'mon!' at the end just great.
Things I've learned today: Tea is a highly addictive drug. And Lin Zexu greatly overestimated how much use of force you can get away with.
Wait, Poppies can make drugs...*goes to check backyard garden*...*cuts off poppy plants* *never again.*
Eddie Torres weird that you mentioned poppy here reminded me of that weird “controversial” pop artist with a resembling name. Things start making more sense now…
I still have a bit of issue with Anzac Day in New Zealand pressuring me to buy fake red poppies for a gold coin donation to pin 'proudly' onto my shirt to commemorate the glorious fallen dead at Gallipoli. I'm living in New Zealand right now, by the way. I mean, I get that poppies were the last flowers the veterans saw before they died and it's a long tradition, but it's a very bitter symbolic tax to pay for me. Usually, I just pay my due and ask them to keep the poppy, or give it to someone else. It's rather distasteful for me to go around with the raw products of opium 'proudly' emblazoned on my chest to display my patriotism and honouring of my new homeland.
But the British were not the only ones to have faux Pas in China. Soviet Russia invited the Chinese delegation to Moscow, kept Mao waiting, invited them to a ballet which they called the 'Red Poppy', which was a fictitious account of drunken Russian sailors rescuing the Shanghai branch of the Chinese Communist party from political persecution and murder, which never happened, implying Chinese Communists are damsels in distress needing rescuing by uncouth Russian sailors who can't even control their own drinking. Predictably, it didn't go down well, with most of the delegation walking out halfway through, some able to stomach a bit more than others.
Not to mention a fantastic feast Stalin invited the Chinese delegates to, which did wonders for the rewarming of relationship between the two sides... Until the Russian hosts decided to charge the Chinese guests for the meal, a big no no in terms of Oriental hospitality.
Long story short, Chinese-Western relations have always been strained at the best of times, fraught with thin ice, quicksand and other hazards of misunderstanding and differences in cultural cues and understanding, which is still happening today. God help us all, lest we get WWIII out of this nonsense.
So you're telling me the strict 'no tolerance' drug policy ended up resulting in massive loss of human life? Whaaaaaaaat?
Well, at least he pushed rehab instead of jail for addicts.
plus the English empire was actually stimulating the increase of addicts, they were not jsut "supplying for existing ones", they were convincing people to consume the drug and become addicts. Nothing against those who want to use this shit, but they should surelly be prohibited from incentivising other to start consuming too.
Well... TBH you can't compare opium to cannabis or even alcohol since I guess that's what your thinking about. That's a very, very potent drug and there are reasons why it's still forbidden in most countries. But it's true opium isn't a very well-known drug in the west, we mostly know it as... heroin. You see why they had a hard stance against it?
Yupp, opium and heroin have very similar addictive qualities. Imagine if Russia or China today started selling mind-blowingly huge quantities of heroin through smugglers in the USA, THAT'S the reason the Chinese emperor and his ministers reacted the way they did, for a VEEEERY good reason!
Opium is a crude form of heroin, which is in turn a crude form of morphine if I remember right. Morphine has legit medical uses as a very strong painkiller, though even there the possibility of patients getting addicted to morphine exists. So it's not like the refined version of the drug is banned from all legit uses, the issue is that the drug is so strong that it shouldn't be used recreationally. If it was, we'd see a large portion of our population turn into hopeless addicts with no objective in their mind except to take more morphine/heroin/opium, much larger than what we see today. That's how powerful this stuff is. It should be extremely regulated for only medical use, as things are today.
Good stuff! I'd love to watch one on the Second Opium War.
This is great series so far
United States is heavy breathing. Like this never happened again. EVER!
+Jenkins
More like a mutually antagonist relationship.
Jenkins. *Same thing or No difference.
actually the same thing is happening in the US now, only in reverse, China is the biggest supplier of drugs to the USA
+Palora so is the CIA. Helping to trafic narcotics to the US.
Jenkins
Nope.
It is a mix of "same thing" and "no difference" that originally were expressed by people that for got how the expressions were, and by some who just wanted to abuse the language for comical reasons.
However, since then people has seen it and mistaken it for meaning those two things, thereby perpetrating the incorrect wording.
However, Same difference do not mean the same thing.
Let me demonstrate:
A has a value of 1, B has a value of 2.
C has a value of 1 as well, and D has a value of 2 as well.
Mathematically, there is the _same difference_ between A and B as there is between C and D.
Mathematically, there is also _no difference_ between A and C, as well as between B and D.
I.e. "same difference" is not the same thing as "no difference" (nor as "same thing" for that matter) even though some uses it incorrectly in that way because they don't know better.
Always remember: the dutch V.O.C was even bigger then the east India company
Why are so many wars started by a single murder?
Vengeance on that murder
The vengeance for that revenge kill
Vengeance for that revenge kill for the first revenge kill.
Basically revenge caused it.
4:58 I think this may be the funniest moment in all of extra history XD
Nobody:
Britain: TRADE WITH US WE NEED TEAAAA
China: Ehh we just chilling boys
Britain: So you have chosen *HEROIN*
This is so much better than reading from a textbook tho
I believe the Chinese term for opium is still "black foreign mud"
no. it's 鸦片. 鸦 meaning crow meaning black. And 片 meaning drugs. so it just meant black drugs
It's pronounced "yapian," so I think it might just be a phonetic loan from "opium."
The name "Honourable East India Company" makes me laugh so loud.Just like how North Korea calls itself "Democratic Republic of Korea" or China calls itself 'People's Republic of China"
actually it's their English name China and Korea mention their own country differently from Inggris
These are always delightful. Right now though, I just want to stop and have people appreciate the "OFFICIAL" British Government answer at 5:00
Thank you for sharing this video, I am actually a Chinese-American when I was growing up I was only told a very short history in 2 minutes. Britain sold tea to China, China got mad and tried to stop them, the British got mad and beat up China and imposed an unfair treaty; beginning the Century of Humiliation. It was always a touchy subject with my parents...
That's honestly why China is so bitter with the West right now.
@@WarbossR0kt00fSant0s Which is pathetic considering that China essentially inflicted such humiliation on most of East Asia for most of its history. The point is to be better, not to continue grudges from the past. War and conflict will never end with such mindsets, as China is proving.
@@WarbossR0kt00fSant0s I don't think that's it. Sure Chinese are strongly against illegal drugs because of this history with opium (China has death penalty for drug dealers), but I have to say, most Chinese do not have animosity toward the West for something that long ago. As long as the West don't cause trouble for them, they don't care. But the West continued to cause troubles, major wars the American started at Chinese border: Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghanistan War. it's hilariously obvious what the United States is doing, encircling China and treat it as a threat. Also American government funded "NGO" are always stirring trouble in the name of "freedom" and "democracy". Just leave Chinese out of it.
*looks at Chinese opium crisis*
*looks at American opioid epidemic*
We feel u China, we feel u
And that little barren island grew up to become Albert Einstein.
I can't wait to show this to my Chinese wife! Finally a non biased view of British history. Bravo :)
Hanz up how is this non biased
"Honourable" East India Trading Company
Weilord Bubblebath Wei that’s there fucking name dipshit
Andrew Black The emphasis
Weilord Bubblebath That is there name not him being biased
As someone that speak Chinese I must say your pronunciation of Lin zexu is on point. Excellent work.
this video is going to get me extra credits in my assignment💕
You refer to the seizing of the British opium stores as illegal, saying that the British traders were outraged at the illegal seizure.
But wasn't it expressly legal? Len Zexu had the authority of the Chinese emperor behind him, the sale of opium was illegal in China, and the British traders were knowingly violating this, correct? So why would the seizing of those stores be illegal? I totally get why the traders would be upset about it, but unless there's something I'm missing, they were completely in the wrong, and knew it.
Also apologies if this appears to be one giant block of text. Apparently youtube refuses to allow line breaks in my comments right now.
leftknee17 you are right but I think he was talking about the sailors thinking it was illegal
I wasn't sure it was possible to hate my own country more than I do right now. You've surprised me once again, Extra Credits.
The Prime Minister will resign by October, and a new one will be appointed by the ruling party in the meantime. The pound has experienced the largest fall in value of any currency used by man in modern times and billions were wiped off savings, pensions and stocks.
Scotland, which voted remain, is proposing a 2nd Independence vote. One of the governing parties in the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, which also voted remain, has proposed a referendum on Irish reunification.
There are increased incidences of racism against immigrants and European migrants being reported. In my city, London, which backed remain, people feel hopeless and pessimistic. We can't vote to secede to anywhere, and we can't change the result. Leave has burnt the whole thing down, and declared itself King of the ashes.
Just dandy.
Hegemony and unity is the bead and butter of today's uk.
Its worse when you realize the replacement for Cameron will most likely be Boris.
Ginger Biscuit
May is more likely.
badflamer ...Right before they collapsed into nothingness.
Hey, quick question: how does lye "burn" opium? I'm super curious how this science works!
i hope there will be more on this particular topic o.o I really liked it
I've been waiting for the Opium Wars to come up for what feels like forever. I'm so excited!
Woo! I was only 50 seconds late!
... :( ur right
wut.
I'm a Kentuckian fan of the first and second Reichs.
God try, though. XD
Good*
I'm guessing they had translators during this entire war with the different countries and language barriers.
Hey- The english debt is coming back to us! Brexit..
Or it could be the opposite. Leaving the EU seems like the best way to avoid debt since the EU has proved to be very good at gaining debt not loosing it. Heck even a very high ranking official in the EU said it's best days [economically] are behind it. Which... isn't saying much seeing how it didn't really have any prosperous time...
Hey things the British used to do during this period are being done again. Speaking of which it's been a while since we invaded you frogs....
I'm totally sure that dropping the value of the British Pound by 10% is totally going to help the UK pay off its debts.
Hint: Literally every country runs a deficit.
The rich were against it, you seem to misunderstand who wanted this, it wasn't the rich it was blue collar and old people who wanted to leave mostly.
Except that they will likely have to pay just as much if not more to the EU budget to gain access to the single market, without which their economy is fucked. Brexit literally makes no sense.
"Wait what? No we won't, wtf?"
Lmao hilarious
I love these history lessons.
Seems like they didn't learn their lesson about fighting war about tea
These animations are too cute tho.. : )
GIVE ME MORE OPIUM !
Great info as usual, I wish school had told us this...
My grandfather said Lin Zexu is my ancestor and it is proven through my family's genealogy.
Okay so here's what I don't understand: it's not like China was the only place in the world producing tea. If the British couldn't negotiate better trade terms with China, couldn't they just go to India (which they controlled) or somewhere else?
Also, China did have a monopoly on Tea at the time (the Tea known of at the time is indigenous to China), While all this was going on the British were trying to start cultivation in India (both with imported Chinese varieties and the Indian native Assam tea), but that didn't really get off the ground until the 1850s.
Step 1:
Sell drugs
Step 2:
Start a war
Step 3:
Lose your honorable position
Step 4:
Enjoy your deals
2:34 Pablo Escobar would be proud
man this series is as addicting as opium. i should probably save up the episodes to bench watch them later.
James just keeps smirkin' at all dat sweet sweet opium. >.>