Uh oh, the train just left the station (I’m getting whiplash).
It wasn’t just the British, the Americans were deeply involved in the Opium trade in China.
The British East Indies Company monopoly on opium produced in India gave them a monopoly on the China trade as well. So, Americans got their opium in the trading port in Smyrna (a Greek city on the Aegean coast of present-day Turkey). Yes, American China traders demand for opium fueled the growth of the opium crop that left many countries, including Afghanistan, dependent on the crop. No different than the greed that made the American south dependent on slavery and cotton.
While ginseng was another multi-million-dollar trade product in China, American China traders paid pennies for it in Appalachia. Yes, Appalachian root doctors remained dirt poor, while China traders who sold their products, got filthy rich.
That we hear so little about the source of our president’s wealth drives me batty. So let’s fix that.
American merchants smuggling opium from Turkey into China, included Warren Delano Jr. (grandfather of President Franklin D. Roosevelt) – and – Francis Blackwell Forbes (great-grandfather of 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry).
By the time, the Chinese emperor forbid opium imports, almost one in four of his citizens were addicted. In response, the British declared war and attacked China in 1839. In 1842, China lost the first opium war and ceded Hong Kong, four other islands and five ports to British control. The British also demanded “REPARATIONS” for the destroyed opium to the tune of $21-million (about $800-million in today’s dollars).
14 years later, the Chinese tried to stop opium imports again. In response, Britain and France joined forces and attacked China again. The second Opium War ended in 1860. This time, the British demanded China expand the “trade” in coolies (aka slaves) to British colonies. They also demanded China cede another 10 ports to British control, pay both British and French expenses for the war, legalize the opium trade and grant Christian missionaries and merchants the right to travel freely in China.
The terms of peace were too high, and another round of fighting broke out. After British and French forces ransacked the Summer Palace and occupied the Forbidden City, the Chinese emperor signed the treaty.
The Chinese call the next one hundred years, the “Century of Humiliation”. I dare say, China will not endure another humiliation – would you, would I?
That's it. I'm done. I swear.
