What influence did the Opium War bring to China?

in the first half of the 19th century, capitalism in Europe and America was on the rise, the industrial revolution in Britain had been completed, and the industrial revolutions in France and the United States were also developing rapidly. The existence and development of industrial capitalist production need to constantly open up new commodity markets and raw material producing areas. At this time, the Qing dynasty was still dreaming of "going to the country in heaven", and the ruling group of the Qing dynasty was arrogant, closed its eyes and ignorant of the world situation. The Qing government still pursued a closed foreign policy, China was still a self-sufficient natural economy, and China was in a superior position in the legitimate Sino-British trade. At that time, the British government felt that China, an ancient country that had been closed for thousands of years, could not solve the problem by trade alone. In order to reverse the trade deficit with China, Britain shamelessly imported opium to China, which seriously endangered the rule of the Qing government. Daoguang Emperor appointed Lin Zexu to ban smoking, but Lin Zexu's anti-smoking movement became an excuse for the British government to use the "gunboat policy". In order to open the door to China, Britain brazenly launched the Opium War of aggression against China in 184.

First, the harm brought by the Opium War to China

After China was defeated in the Opium War, the Qing government was forced to sign many unequal treaties, such as the treaty of nanking and the Huangpu Treaty, and reached agreements on tariff rates, consular jurisdiction, MFN treatment and other aspects. The Opium War had a far-reaching negative impact on China. The Sino-British treaty of nanking was the first unequal treaty in China's modern history. The Opium War changed the social nature of China, China's territorial integrity and independent sovereignty began to be seriously damaged, and China's self-sufficient feudal economy began to disintegrate.

Second, the objective progress of the Opium War on China's social development

Although China failed in the Opium War because of the incompetence of Emperor Daoguang of China and the corruption, backwardness and closure of the Qing government at that time, China, as a loser, had to compensate for the costs and losses of the war and accept some harsh conditions from foreign countries, and even some conditions directly damaged the integrity of China's sovereignty; But after all, the corrupt, backward and closed gate of ancient China was forcibly opened by British gunboats. Although only a few windows were opened at this time, it promoted the disintegration of ancient feudal and autocratic China, and played a certain role in promoting the development of world civilization in China. The main manifestations are as follows:

-The Opium War forcibly opened the door to corruption, backwardness and closure in China.

In China's feudal and autocratic society for thousands of years, the masses were confined to limited land and lived a self-sufficient and closed life. In the late Qing Dynasty, this closeness, backwardness and corruption became more prominent. When the world is developing, especially after the rapid development of European economy in recent hundreds of years, advanced technology and modern civilization have not only brought improvement to European people's lives, but also brought more freedom and democracy to European people, making the gap between China and the world, especially Europe, even wider. Although western countries used two uncivilized means, opium and cannon, when they opened the closed door of China, China's closed door needed to be opened after all, and external forces could promote this process to a certain extent. In order to plunder China and dump cheap goods, Britain opened the door to China with a gun.

-promoted the development of modern commerce in China.

treaty of nanking stipulated five ports for trade, and opened Guangzhou, Xiamen, Shanghai, Ningbo and Fuzhou as commercial ports successively. The opening and opening of the five cities promoted the commercial development of the five cities at that time. Guangzhou, the old commercial center, and Shanghai, the new commercial center, were the most prosperous, followed by a number of big businessmen in China, such as Wu Jianzhang and Yang Fang of Guangzhou. These businessmen with millions of assets, although some of them were attached to foreigners, were, after all, early businessmen with modern business consciousness in China, and they promoted the development of business in China at that time.

-it has brought western modern civilization and technology.

With the gradual opening of China's doors, some foreign civilizations and technologies, especially some foreign progressive and open democratic ideas and free ideas, have also begun to emerge in Chinese mainland. For example, Wei Yuan, a famous thinker at that time, also studied the process of the Opium War and put forward several principles in foreign relations. The first is to "listen to the foreign countries in the mutual market, and hold the opium to make an initial agreement to exchange the market", which is to allow legal trade and oppose the opium trade. The second is "learning from foreigners to control foreigners". Although Wei Yuan's "learning from foreigners" mainly refers to guns, these ideas of Wei Yuan and others have become the pioneers of China intellectuals who put forward "learning from the West" earlier at that time. Since then, some advanced western technologies and new products have begun to enter China one after another, and China people have begun to gradually understand the western world.

In a word, the Opium War was the starting point for China to be enslaved by foreign capitalism, which transformed China from a feudal society to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and it marked the beginning of modern China history. However, the Opium War also forcibly opened the closed door of China, and China's long-standing policy of closing the country to the outside world was broken. A group of advanced China people began to look at the world with their eyes open, and a new trend of thought emerged to explore western knowledge and learn western military technology to resist foreign aggression. Therefore, in a sense, the Opium War also promoted the disintegration of China's ancient feudalism and autocracy to a certain extent, which was the beginning of China's modernization.