Approach(鸦片战争.docVIP

St. Bonaventure College High School Asian History (China) Topic Five: The Opium War -- An Analytical Approach（鴉片戰爭 -- 分析牲探討） Basic Reading: Immanuel Hsu, Ch. 8, p. 220-231 Suggested Readings: Li, The Political History of China, p. 43-46 Chang, Commissioner Lin and the Opium War, A Preview Tan Chung, China and the Brave New World, Ch. 1 Fairbank, Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast Greenberg, British Trade and the Opening of China, p. 104-112 (The last two books tell you the economic nature of the war, the first the historical background, the second the role of Commissioner Lin and the last the three theories about the nature of the war.) Major Points to cover: Most of us know the basic knowledge about the war -- its causes, course and results. But do we carefully think about its nature? Why is it known as the First Anglo-Chinese War in some historical books but the Opium War in others? Does the different use of terminology to the same historical event have something worth discussing? It has become an academic controversy on the nature of the war: What were the main factors of the war? Was the war inevitable? How did the contemporary governments conceive the war? Why were their conceptions at variance with each other? A. M. Greenberg claimed that the war was just a collision caused by an aggressive greedy occidental imperialist power on a self-contained old-fashioned oriental power struggling to protect itself. “The men directing British policy at the time were not of more than average cynicism. They were helped in overcoming moral scruple by an appreciation of the size of the material interest. “(p. 104) 1. What were the “material interest” accrued from the opium trade with China? a) Direct ways: an important source of regular income to the British Indian Empire( a resource for the homeward investment to Britain. met the “annual drain” made up for the economic loss due to “company trade” an essential and permanent element in