Imperial Twilight - Stephen Platt

Question 1

Lord Macartney visit at Qianlong era (1792/1793)- 3 forces at work in China:

• Population explosion (doubled between 1740 and 1790 due to long peace and stability)
• Limited govt income (due to no increase of land tax by following Kangxi’s will)
• due to above 2 forces, govt can’t expand governance and can’t employee a growing number of scholars into bureaucracy.

Answer 1

Result in:

• non- governance at rural area
• systematic corruption (for scholar to get job and make up investment on their term of appointment)

Which led to revolt.

Question 2

The Americans benefited so much from the war precisely because British fought it. (

Eg. Treaty of Wanghia - 望夏条约就是在南京条约的基础上实现的）

Answer 2

The more bellicose the British (later the French) became in China, the more the Americans would profit as the neutral party.

(美国的崛起多次有赖于欧洲列强的争斗，之后的一战和二战同样帮助了美国）

Question 3

The Opium War was not part of some long term British imperial plan for China but rather a sudden departure from decades of generally peaceful and respectful precedent.

Answer 3

If Charlie Elliot had not let his panic get the best of him when he so dramatically overreacted to Lin Zexu’s threat. Or if Lin Zexu had Ben more open to working with Elliot; if they had cooperated on their shared interest in bringing the British opium smugglers under control. We might avoid Opium War.

Question 4

Few take aways:

Answer 4

1) 鸦片战争并非历史必然，有很多巧合的个人因素，如Elliot的过激反应和林则徐的强硬措施；

2）在中国的鸦片贸易在英国国内也是有巨大争议的。最终通过战争决议的主要论点也是建立在保护国民人生安全，而非鸦片贸易的正当性上的；

3）东印度公司贸易特权的突然停止，个人鸦片贸易者的迅速进入，而同时英国在中国代办缺乏管束个人贸易者的权利，以及缺乏和中国官方进行有效外交沟通渠道，都导致了矛盾的激化。

4）英国两次失败的外交努力（Marcartney和Amherst）没能建立起外交渠道，但让英国更清楚了解了中国衰败的实际实力，打破了对中国传统的敬畏之心。