Question 1
Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages and explain which you think is more
convincing as an explanation of the impact of the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) on China.
Passage A
The Treaty of Nanjing of 1842, the first of what came to be known in China as the ‘unequal treaties’, ceded Hong Kong to Britain and opened to foreign trade the ports of Amoy (now Xiamen), Foochow (now Fuzhou), Ningpo (now Ningbo) and Shanghai. As well as being compensated for the narcotics seized by the commissioner and being allowed to continue the opium trade, British citizens were granted immunity from Chinese law. Humiliating as the experience was, the emperor did not appear worried. He told a mandarin that the foreigners were ‘not worth attending to’... Since they had no aspiration to take the Mandate of Heaven, the foreigners did not present a fundamental menace and would, it was assumed, leave in due course.
So the [Emperor’s] court went along with what became known as the treaty port system, granting concessions to foreigners to establish settlements, with their own administration and courts… The result was an ‘informal empire’ of foreigners in a country that was too big to be colonised, but could be exploited economically.
A disproportionate role in China’s troubles would subsequently be attributed to this intervention. Post‑imperial Western guilt exaggerates the responsibility of foreigners for China’s woes… The effect of their arrival was certainly significant, but it was often indirect… The country’s primary troubles stemmed from domestic sources, not the British warships that routed the imperial junks on the Pearl River. Nor was it foreigners who held back economic and material modernisation; on the contrary, their concessions in Shanghai were the most advanced part of the nation, while Chinese visitors to Hong Kong returned impressed by conditions in the colony.
Adapted from J. Fenby, The Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power 1850 to the Present, published in 2008
Passage B
The Treaty of Nanking [Nanjing] set the tone for the remainder of the nineteenth century during which China would be unable to set its own tariffs and, eventually, European officials would be appointed to collect duties. In 1860 the French and the English even occupied Beijing in order to enforce new treaties that increased the number of open ports by nine. Large areas within the ports were leased in perpetuity to foreign governments and these, with their inhabitants not answerable to the Chinese legal system, began to resemble international cities that were joined onto the Chinese mainland. Also as a result of these treaties, embassies and legations were established and Christian missionaries were allowed to preach across the empire. As for opium, the situation got worse. Trade in the drug was made legal in 1860 and continued to expand for several decades…
The import of opium increased after the treaty but so, too, did the import of European and American manufactured goods, especially textiles of which China began to import more than she exported. The impact on the people of the empire was immeasurable. Weavers and other craftsmen faced ruin while countless numbers of porters and boatmen lost their livelihoods because the inland transport system that for centuries had carried goods to and from Guangdong was rendered redundant. To pay for these imports took silver, and, added to that, was the indemnity that the empire owed to the British. As the price of silver increased, the tax burden to pay for it fell, as usual, on the peasants. To make matters worse, there were famines as a result of neglect of proper irrigation and corruption among officials became rife.
Adapted from G. Kerr, A Short History of China: From Ancient Dynasties to Economic Powerhouse, published in 2013
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