The Treaty of Nanjing: The Turning Point of the Opium Wars

Charles Dai Kriti Devasenapathy Kimberly Ding Amy Jian Ashrita Raman

Junior Group Website

Can a single commodity bring an entire nation to its knees? We wouldn't have thought it possible, especially when the nation in question is China, an empire that survived a thousand years, seemingly resilient, supposedly unbreakable. But two centuries ago, the addictive drug opium devastated China, causing two wars that ultimately resulted in a series of humiliating treaties and concessions. How did this occur? What happened next? To answer these questions, we investigated the connections between the state of modern China and the cultural, economic, industrial, and political dynamic of China in the 19th century. The Opium Wars were too broad to research thoroughly, so we focused specifically on the Treaty of Nanjing, a result of the First Opium War. We first examined the treatys terms and circumstances; then, once we better u nderstood the treaty, we researched, interviewed experts in the field, and borrowed books from the Rutgers library system to develop our thesis. We then constructed our website with images and quotes from our research. Important sources included the books we borrowed from the Rutgers library: China from the Opium Wars to the 1911 Revolution and Modernization and Revolution in China: From the Opium Wars to World Power. With these, we examined the connection between ancient and modern China, which helped us understand the impact of the Treaty of Nanjing on China today. Another valuable source was The Search for Modern China by Dr. Jonathan Spence, who we later contacted for an interview. It was recommended by a Columbia University professor, Dr. Madeleine Zelin, and a National History Day judge; it allowed us to

connect the Treaty of Nanjing to technological and industrial aspects of Chinas path to modernity. After the regional competition, we collected new information and reformatted our website. We merged two pages, deleted another, and edited the site to better support our thesis. The Treaty of Nanjing was a turning point in history not only because it impacted Chinas economy, industrial power, and social welfare, but also because it introduced cultural expansion and communism to China. Before the Opium Wars, China existed in a state of isolated intellectual stagnation brought on by Confucian disapproval of merchants, trade, and industry. But the Treaty of Nanjing, by forcing open Chinas trading ports, sent Western merchants into the country, and with them, foreign ideas and technology, which triggered the industrialization of China. Traders from the West also introduced ideas such as Marxism and Communism, which appealed to Chinese peasants, especially compared to the oppressing Confucian dynasty system that existed at the time. They began a series of rebellions that changed China greatly. The Treaty of Nanjing ultimately caused Chairman Maos Cultural Revolution, the establishment of the Communist Party of China, and the industrialization of China; its effects still influence the nation today.