Re: Opium Wars
Typically the Opium wars were no different to a host of other Colonial wars around the World.
Thing to bear in mind here is that most people think China has always been this massive unified super-sized country. But it was not always one unit.
Now firstly the Wars, there were two Opium Wars took place around the same time that the British were invading the Sikh Kingdoms in India and continued throughout the era of the 1857 Mutiny... only ending in 1860 a couple of years after the Indian mutiny.
Secondly the Chinese Qing dynasty was never actually a representative of the majority of Chinese people, the Ching were Manchurian Tartars that had taken control so they were never popular in the first place. Also the Chinese at that time were still in major isolation from the rest of the World and had on the whole experienced none of the mass total wars or concentrated firepower that the Europeans had become so adept at.
Furthermore the Chinese were victims of the British and Americans who started the trade of Opium imported from Benares and the poor Chinese had no obvious solution except to try and stop this smugglers trade. The British and French as well as thier Americans allies worked together and had modern well trained troops at thier disposal as well as plenty of Bengali Sepoys and pirates. The Chinese millitary were far outdated and simply had no choice but to accept the harsh terms of several following treaties which led to the loss of important areas such as Hong Kong.
The Chinese state was further struck by rebbelion in Southern and Western Provinces were native Uighur and Hui Muslims rose up to fight the dominant Han people who they saw as invaders... add further religous chaos by Foriegn backed and armed Christian rebels and China was basically uprooted the same was India.
Just as it seemed that China might yet recover from this... the First World War later broke out and Japan, which served on the Allies team in World War one, not only defeated the Russian fleet in the Pacific but also invaded Chinese Manchuria and held most of this territory throughout the first and Second World War.
Only with the rise of Communism in the 20th Century did China fight back and to be honest the Chinese have come a very long way now to the point that they have more man power and resources than anyone ever dreamed of.
In future wars China can make more than enough use of the sheer size of its man-power and capacity to produce. We might joke at poor, cheap quality chinese goods. But in the Second World War the Germans had the position of the USA today they had the best weapons and training but the allies produced way more... so in the end numbers won. Quantity beat quality.
In Africa the US has not made much effort over the years to help local people, wheras despite the exploitation of these places by the Chinese in Africa, at least the Chinese set up organic farms and help somehwhat in local affairs whereas the US just wants to sieze objectives like resources and ensure those who rule the land are in thier pocket. China does the same but it tries to work with the people it exploits wheras only now in the 21st Century has America even started to consider helping the lowet levels or grass roots.
Stratecally speaking the Chinese are slowy rising to the challenge and they are not stupid, thier culture and nurturing is far more older and advanced therefore capable to adapt to long term developtments whereas the Americans and thier like are mere experts for less than 200 years. The Chinese had mastered foriegn relations before Christ was born. The principles still aply today so the Chinese and most Asians still have the edge in long term survival they just need to unlock thier real potential.
