Century of Humiliation

To enter the court of the Chinese emperor, thrice bow... ...and kneeling the head to the ground nine times was a must. Napolean said about China that let it be asleep and if it got up, it would shake the world. When the Europeans were in the race to beat one another after the fall of the Roman Empire... ...China was united and integrated at that time. Chinese naval ships would move around the world. For the Chinese emperor, the world outside was of the barbarians. For that matter, the commissioner appointed to deal with them was called the Barbarian Manager. The manager of the jungle people. Zheng He, a Muslim shipman was the last connection of China with the outside world. But his body was eaten up by the fish of the Indian Ocean anywhere. Queen Victoria received a letter from the Chinese commissioner that Majesty Queen Victoria... ...that when selling opium in your country is an offence, why are you getting it smuggled to our country? Besides the traders, the British priests were also running a parallel business. They offered a packet of opium free of cost to the Chinese who who would recite to them a chapter from the Bible. The Chinese were awakened after the British Navy attacked them. The cannons deployed for defence were not checked for 200 years hence they became rusty. The British soldiers fired bullets at the Chinese and recovered the bullet price for the Chinese by levying taxes on them. It was such a humiliation that they call it today "the Century of Humilation". How did China come out of the abyss of humiliation? Does it hold any lesson for us to learn? This is the story going to be told to you. How are you guys! I, Faisal Warraich. 200 years ago from now, the Chinese believed China was a universal state. A global state where the Hon nation is settled with the barbarian or uncivilised state around it. They would call Zhonghua to this Chinese central vision of the Sino-central world. It was commonly called the Middle Kingdom in the English language. Therefore, there was no foreign affairs department in the Chinese courts. It was because the Chinese did not consider anyone else in the world equal to them. This pride of the Chinese emperors was not without basis. As a matter of fact, at that time no one in the world was their match. Not in Asia, Asia, Africa and the Far East, nowhere. After the fall of the Roman Empire, when Europe was in a phase of destruction, China was a thriving, progressive and grand country. For 600 years, from the 8th to the 14th century, Chinese naval ships sailed to ports worldwide to trade and do diplomatic work. However, under the cloak of trade, they would not occupy any region. It was simply because they did not consider anyone capable of becoming their party. For their Zhonghua, the Middle Kingdom was the best. That was why, they did not occupy any land nor let anyone occupy them. In the last leg of this golden era of China its maritime expeditions were at their prime. At the beginning of the 15th Century a Muslim Admiral Zheng He took a large naval fleet to the outside world. Admiral Zheng He belonged to a Hui Muslim family in Henan province. His birth name was Ma He. 'Ma' was the substitute meaning of 'Muhammad'. Ma He was brought to the Ming Court, the royal court, in his childhood where was castrated to bar him from reproducing. The emperor was renamed Ma He, Zheng He for his intelligence and skill in maritime expeditions in due course of time. He was sent far and wide for trading and diplomatic missions. From 1404 to 1424, in 20 years, he undertook six sea voyages. His fleet comprised 200 ships, 28,000 crewmen and a separate sizeable navy for their security. Yongle emperor of the Chinese Ming dynasty, patronaged his adventure. In his maritime voyages, Admiral Zheng He sailed to Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Iran, the Red Sea up to East Africa. On every journey, he would give and take gifts and then report to the emperor's court. He brought many animals including elephants, giraffes, zebras, tigers and ostriches to China from his travels to Africa and India. As a mark of good relations with the 30 global states, hundreds of their representatives also came to China with him. They became permanently settled in the coastal areas of China. He would also take steps to preserve the sea routes. So, till the 15th century, China was well connected with the world and a prosperous and thriving state. Then a major change came when the Zhonghua Emperor, Yongle, died in 1424 CE. The succeeded emperor of Zhonghua did not favour the naval missions. They believed these diplomatic missions and adventures were a waste of money and time. He was also enticed by the courters who wanted to use the money inside the state instead of sea voyages. Particularly, the money should be spent on defending northern China from where the Mongols were invading. So the new emperor set on fire the maritime maps, blueprints of the ships, and other materials of Zheng He. Work was stopped on the under-construction naval ships and they were abandoned in the sea to become rusty. Zheng He, who had become an iconic figure in China, was now a disappointed and discarded person. 10 years later when he was on a voyage to India, he died on the way. Admiral Zheng He, a great shipman of great China, spent his life in the sea and his body was disposed to the sea. The fish may have fed on him. The Chinese maritime expeditions were also buried with it. Today a replica of his ship is showcased in an artificial lake on the coast near Yangzi River in Nanjing. A park and a museum are also named after him in China. A mosque in Indonesia is also in his name as he is seen as a great protector and diplomat in the Far East. Zheng He's symbolic grave is also in China which, however, is without his corpse. After the death of Zheng He, the Chinese court cut itself off from the outside world for the next 400 years. First, the Court closed the sea routes and then also limited the land routes. Chinese were set to fortify the China wall to defend against the Mongols' attacks and focussed on their increasing population. For the sale of tea and silk, China had some connection with the world, but the emperor and court's literary and diplomatic links... ...were totally severed from Asia, the Far East, Africa and Europe. The Middle Kingdom, the great Zhonhua, was isolated from the world to have equally great losses in future. Europe had an industrial revolution and was progressing fast but China did not get any share in it, rather it was unaware of it. Although China urgently needed new ideas after its population grew fast during the era of prosperity. China, whose population was limited to 60 to 70 million for centuries, increased from two to three times from the 14th to the 18th century. The Western world also faced the same situation. Here population also grew fast due to the Industrial Revolution and riches. Along with this situation, Chinese products were also in high demand with them. The rich Europeans had a great liking for Chinese silk, tea and porcelain pots. This increased the demand for these articles exorbitantly. To benefit from this high demand, China had kept a window open even in this policy of isolation. For international trade, China allocated a port named Guangzhou or Canton. Apart from this port, goods could not be exported or imported from any other route in China. There were certain other ports but they were specific for the great China trade or transportation of goods from nearby islands. It is like Korea etc. Besides the exclusive nature of the Canton port, China took another step. It was that China did not get currency for the sale of its goods to foreigners, mostly the British and the Dutch. China would get silver coins from them. It resulted in the accumulation of European wealth, white gold, which means silver, in China. It highly improved the Chinese economy. But it was going into loss to the Europeans. It was because China did not buy anything from them to pay them back the silver coins. So, it created a huge trade balance. Europe did not have also any product to make China anxious to buy. Although China might have made trading policy with Europe during the industrial era had it not isolated itself. However, the Chinese royal court did not have any interest in it. In short, there was a huge balance of trade entirely in favour of China. This yawning trade imbalance highly frustrated the British Crown. This English court found a horrible solution to it. To get the silver wealth back, Britain employed illegal means... ...smuggled a black-coloured paste, which was inhaled to a peaceful sleep. It was called opium. The Bengali military officers forced the Indian farmer to cultivate opium and it was kept full in huge stores. Then the opium was filled in the chests and smuggled illegally to China. A chest contained 60 to 65 kilograms of opium. The British Royal Court and the East India Company decided to sell it to China for silver coins so that the silver wealth could be retrieved. It meant that although by illegal means, a decision was made to turn the trade imbalance with China into a profit. It was not only illegal smuggling but also an extremely immoral act. Because, like China, opium was also banned in Britain with the death penalty on the violation. But King George III was getting it done in league with the Company. Opium smuggling was a lucrative business which also attracted some Chinese youth hence a network was created. A supply chain was established and the Chinese youth began to get an uninterrupted supply of opium. The Chinese youth added to the burden on their country, already facing population problems and a source of income for the enemies. The youth would spend the whole day idly in teahouses and at crosses puffing and sniffing opium and daydreaming. Britain smuggled opium to China at an enormous industrial scale which destroyed the Chinese economy and the youth. By the mid of the 18th century, 15 tons of opium was smuggled to China which increased from two to three times by the turn of the century. In 1840 CE, Britain smuggled to China 3000 tonnes of opium... ...and it was earning about £ 6 million from the illegal smuggling of opium to China. China was paying itself to lose its youth. Along with it, the silver coin reserves were also depleting as the opium trade was carried on them. And in the copper currency of China. This trade resulted in a fast devaluation of the Chinese copper currency. The value of the silver coins rapidly went up. The farmers would earn in copper currency but they were to pay taxes in silver currency. So a new problem cropped as a silver coin ounce valuing 700 to 800 copper coins... ...went up to 2500 copper coins a few years after the opium smuggling. The farmer became unable to pay the taxes. This ripple effect of the opium trade was engulfing China. In 1794 CE, in the central Chinese regions of Sichuan, Hubie and Shenzhen the farmers revolted. In this rebellion, the Buddhist monks of 'white lotus' gave tremendous help. For that matter, it is called the White Lotus Rebellion. The white lotus Buddhist society convinced people that the return of the Maitreya, which means Budda, was imminent. Budda will come and cure every pain. He will also get them rid of royal oppression besides improving their economic condition markedly. Therefore to welcome the Maitreya, it is a must to end the monarchy through the farmers' rebellion. The White Lotus Rebellion was so strong that the Qing royal army took eight years to crush it completely. This civil war lasted from 1794 to 1804. The Qing royal army crushed the rebellion. As per a conservative estimate, from 100,000 to 200,000 Chinese were directly killed in this fight. However, about two million were killed due to the effects of this war. Because crops were destroyed, no cultivation was done due to the civil war, while drought brought famine. This spread diseases which took the lives of one to two million people. It was a horrible tragedy but still a beginning. In the initial days of this rebellion, another nemesis floated from London and reached the Chinese coasts. It was despatched by King George III. In 1793 CE, King George III sent a high-level delegation to China. Apparently, this delegation had come with some gifts on the 83rd birthday of the Chinese Qianlong emperor. But it was just a showoff. Actually, the delegation had come to get a permanent head office in Pieking, currently Beijing, with all royal rights. A head office from where they could handle the opium smuggling all over China as a centre. On the same pattern as in Kalicut port of Calcutta, India they set up Fort William in the name of a head office and then inducted the army... ...for its security and then occupied the whole of India executing this formula. They had come to China with the same textbook. With this objective, Lord Goerge Macartney led a delegation to China. As gifts, the English delegation brought a modern cannon, a mechanical clock a telescope and other articles like this. These gifts were the wonders of the thriving industry in Britain. But the emperor did not pay much heed to this delegation. The emperor even did not understand which scientific advancement had resulted in these gifts. And that, what can the Chinese learn from them. However, the emperor was mindful of not giving permission to the British for a head office with so heavy business rights. The emperor treated the British delegation the same way as a son of the heaven of the Middle Kingdom dealt with the surrounding small states. As per the court traditions, Lord Macartney was required to bow before the emperor thrice ...and nine times kneel his head down to the ground. It was a traditional manner in China to express loyalty and submission to the emperor. Lord Macartney flatly refused to accept the tradition. He said the Chinese emperor could not treat the British representative like ordinary people. The emperor dismissed the conditions of the British delegation and sent them back empty-handed. The English delegation returned to King George III in London which was the second major insult for the King in a short span. Just 10 years ago, in 1783, the British army had lost 13 Colonies in the west to the Americans. The English commander Lord Cornwallis had laid down the arms before American commander Goerge Washinton and... ...after that in the Treaty of Paris, the United States also disowned the British King. After this great insult in the West, Britain again was insulted badly in the East. King George III got mad at this insult and struck back by stepping up opium smuggling to China. The Chinese emperor also spurred policing when he learned about it. The British traders would land at the Canton port specific for foreign trade, and smuggle opium from its adjoining areas. In the 1830s, the emperor appointed here Lin Zexu as a special commissioner. He was tasked to check the illegal opium smuggling and others by all means. Commissioner Lin Zexis settled his office in Canton and announced death for opium eaters and peddlers. However, he was lean towards the foreigners, the British. He felt fault lies in the Chinese and in the importers of opium. He had senseless logic that if the Chinse gave up purchasing the opium, its import would automatically end. When no one will buy, whom the British sell the opium to. It was absolute nonsense as he failed to understand the supply chain system, human lust and instinct. Therefore, his ideas yielded no results. Although he had made the law in the beginning that inhaling pipe would be confiscated whoever possessed it. He also confiscated around 100,000 pipes. Scores of Chinese were arrested and some executed but to no avail. However, with time he learned that unless the supply line of opium smuggling is smashed, the Chinese could not get rid of its addiction. It implies they have to fight the British in any case. But the problem was the British also gained much power by that time. The shock Britain had sustained from the rebellion of the 13 colonies in America and the defeat therein... ...was washed away by defeating Napolean Bonaparte in Waterloo. The British imperial morale was once again in the seventh sky. The British were once again looking at them as a global superpower and posing so. In the 1830s they were selling so much opium in China that its volume had exceeded the official trade. Just in two years, from 1831 to 1833, Britain sold out opium worth $14 million to the Chinese youth. Ten million Chinese had become addicted to opium and one-fourth of them were public servants. Apart from the smugglers and traders, the Christian priests were also selling their products to the Chinese. The priest would give a packet of opium free of cost to a Chinese youth if he recited a chapter from the Bible to him. The church door also provided a shield for that youngster to suck the opium. The priests from Britain, Ireland, and Scotland were also collecting charity in the name of Jesus. Then the British traders started to accept the Chinese products for the opium apart from the silver coins. It meant that barter opium with tea, silk, utensils etc. The emperor and the court were getting nothing as taxes nor imports, exports could be recorded precisely. The special commisser and the Chinese emperor had sleepless nights. However, China did not want a direct fight with the British traders. So, Lin Zexu wrote to the 20-year-old Russian blood British Queen Alexandria Victory. The original copy of this letter still exists. The English translation of it is available in Howard University's online Library. Lin wrote to the Queen "Majesty Queen, I have learned the opium smoke is strictly forbidden in your religion... ...and the harsh death punishment is given to the convict of this crime in your own country. Now how is it possible that a thing banned in your country by the law of the land and religiously is being exported to others. How would you feel if a country endeavoured to make your people addicted to smoke and opium? On behalf of the commissioner, in fact, urged the Queen to stop the opium smuggling to China. But the British did not even bother to reply to the letter let alone check opium smuggling. Rather the opium that earned the British traders $14 million in two years, during the early period of Queen Victoria... ...reached $18 million annually. It was the time for China to act. In 1839, Commission Lin Zexu warned all foreign traders... ...to surrender to the government all opium chests within three days. The trader not complying with this order would be punished with death. The commissioner also incentivised the foreigners with a reward according to the number of chests deposited with the government. The British traders did take care of this order and laughed it out. Then the commissioner showed his muscles and arrested two opium smugglers and executed them publicly. Worried of this situation, some British traders handed over a part of the chest to the commissioner. The commissioner it was just two percent of their total opium production. This infuriated the commissioner and using his full imperial authority, he surrounded the famous British Thirteen Factories. Around 3,000 British and other employees were there who were surrounded and supplies to them were cut off. In other words, they were all taken prisoners by the Chinese. The siege continued for six weeks until the British handed over about 20,000 chests filled with opium to the Chinese authorities. Commissioner Lin Zexu hired 500 workers to dispose of this opium. Three deep pits were dug out near a nullah. The opium was dumped into them and salt and chemicals were laid on them which dissolved the opium in the water and befouled its chemistry. The water was kept in these pits for two feet till the opium was dissolved and its chemistry was destroyed... ...and then it was drained into the nullah for transmission to the sea. For 22 days this job was carried out consistently to destroy the whole quantum of opium in 20,000 chests. The opium impounded by the commissioner from the British was worth £2.5million. Along with the traders, the British Queen was also earning substantially from opium smuggling. The British Crown was a direct beneficiary. So, the Queen and the British were highly angered terming it, an extreme insult and humiliation. They said the addicts and opium eaters checked those from smuggling who defeated Emperor Napolean in Waterloo. They inflicted loss in millions of pounds. Jesus Christ so such an oppression. On the streets of London and Manchester, gentlemen in coat-pantaloon came to demand punishment of the Chinese. It was even though the opium trade and consumption was a serious crime in Britain under the law. Queen Victoria decided to declare war on China. In 1839, Queen Victoria sent George Elliot to teach a lesson to the Chinese. He was accompanied by 16 steel-made naval ships and 4,000 soldiers. The Queen gave him written to keep the blockade of the Chinese ports to halt all trade until they accepted six conditions. The first demand was the return of the entire amount of opium the Chinse destroyed... ...or they must pay for it at the market rate. Secondly, the damage amount is paid for the British factories that were surrounded for six weeks. Thirdly, the emperor should guarantee that no British citizen will be put to such trouble in future. The fourth insulting condition was seeking a Chinese island along with its populace permanently for the British. The fifth condition was related to ending the Chinese monopoly on Canton--a Chinese land. The sixth condition wanted reparation for the losses incurred on the British traders by the acts of commissioner Lin Zexu. With those disgraceful conditions, the British reached to surround Canton in the summer season. Commodore James Bremer was leading this naval force. It was the first time that the Chinese were confounded to see the preparations of the British navy. They came to know that the cannons deployed to defend the port had been unchecked for 200 years and had turned rusty. The Chinese navy had worn-out wooden ships compared to the steel-made advanced British ships. The British cannons in time bisected the Chinese ships. The British ships were also much faster than the Chinese. The guns with the Chinese at the seashore were also obsolete and operators were untrained soldiers. The British naval fleet kept the Chinese coasts surrounded for a total of three years. During that, many coastal cities, settlements and forts were destroyed. The Chinese emperor would repeatedly send his officers to deal with or fight the British. These officers were called managers of the barbarians. Chinese emperor, the son of heaven, still regarded himself as the ruler of the universal, Middle Kingdom. Who has a disorderly world around settled by barbarians and he only is civilised. His world perception was away from reality. As such the emperor was to repeatedly replace managers of the barbarians for their failure to manage the so-called barbarians. The failed managers of barbarians were treated very badly. Because, the emperor would banish any, and execute others while anyone was held by the British and imprisoned in India. It was a weird era of Chinese helplessness. The British navy in three years made so many attacks on the Chinese coastal areas... ...that the Chinese were reduced to only see their defeat. The British ships had reached Taiwan above Canton and beyond it, up to the origin of the Yangtze River. Chinese forces failed to fight anywhere and proved a sand of wall. In June 1842, Shanghai also fell to the British. Another important historical city, Nanjing went out of the hands of the Chinese. The entire maritime trade of the Chinese was besieged by the British and at their mercy. The Qing court took time to understand that the isolation policy had taken them back much in warfare also. In August 1842, the Chinese surrendered and got ready to talk on terms set by the British. The British General Hugh Gough summoned the Chinese officials at HMS Carnivallas and got them to sign the surrender Treaty of Nanking. The victorious British made the Chinese accept the conditions more shameless than the six laid down by Queen Victoria. As a result of the Treaty of Nanking, China surrendered to the British a small island of Hong Kong near Canton. Now instead of one exclusive port, five major Chinese ports, namely Canton,... ...Amoy, Fujian, Ningbo, and Shanghai were opened for the British trade. To mend for the losses of the British traders, they were given 21 million silver tails which were then valued at $ 21 million. The royal surety was also given to check any forcible action with the British in future Good behaviour with the British in the Chinese court was also a made a must. Next year a condition was added to bar application of the Chinese law to the British residing in China. Any complaint against the British would shared with the British representative who would deal with him according to their own law. The Chinese will give Britain the status of the Most Favourite Nation. It was to give all facilities available or could be possible in future to the British traders. The Chinese emperor, the mighty Chinese emperor, the son of the heaven, ruler of the Middle Kingdom... ...tasted the fruit of the Chinese isolation policy after centuries. The Chinese Middle Kingdom syndrome, the grandeur of the past, was washed away... ..at the deck of the ship named after the defeated commander against America, MHS Carniwallas. The Chinese century of humiliation had started. The outside attacks were not the only doomsday, the Chinese also had internecine conflicts. A Chinese thrice failed in the civil service examination dreamt that... ... a woman told him that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ. He woke up and announced his holy kingship in China. As many as 70 million Chinese gathered under his banner. He became their saviour and mentor. As he was affiliated with the Christian faith, American, British, German and Dutch forces... ...also began to secretly support him. The Chinese Century of Humiliation is going to become darker... ...which we will talk over in the next vlog. Must watch. Earlier we showed you the rise and fall of three grand civilisations and empires in the world. See here the rise and fall of the Roman Empire to know how the nations progress and then turn to destruction. Here is the complete story of the establishment of the Muslim Andalus and its end. Here is the complete story of the Ottoman Empire from its formation as the superpower to the decline.