Show Notes
In 1834, Britain sent a man to China almost perfectly unsuited to the job... only to forbid him from actually doing it. William John Napier, naval officer, socialite, & dilettante with no experience in diplomacy, trade, or China, arrived at Canton convinced he was destined to break open the Qing Empire by force of his will alone. But he would not get quite the war he wanted. Nor the recognition he imagined. Nor the vindication he believed history owed him. Which is not to say he got nothing at all...
Time Period Covered:
January-October, 1834
Major Historical Figures:
The Qing Empire:
The Daoguang Emperor (Aisin-Gioro Minning) [r. 1820–1850]
Lu Kun, Governor-General of Liangguang [1772–1835]
The British Empire:
King William IV [r. 1830-1837]
William John Napier, 9th Baron Napier, Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China [1786-1834]
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston [1784–1865]
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey [1764–1845]
Major Sources Cited:
Fairbank, John K. Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast
Platt, Stephen R. Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age.
Wakeman, Frederic, Jr. “The Canton Trade and the Opium War,” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 10.
Wakeman, Frederic, Jr. The Fall of Imperial China.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from The History of China
The leaves are blood-red once again, the coffee’s back to hot, and somewhere in old China, the dead begin to stir restlessly. Grave robbers, well-diggers, strange hobbyists... plenty of folks out there far too willing to go sticking a spade into dirt it doesn't belong. And, of course, consequences ensue...
In the summer of 1861, the strangest siege of the war took shape on the banks of the Yangtze. As Heaven itself sent forth cosmic signs – of victory or disaster, no one could be quite sure – an imperial army had a rebel city completely surrounded.Only for a different rebel army to surround that imperial ringing army.But they were, all of them, deceived... for somewhere out past the hills, another ring was made...
By the autumn of 1860, the Qing Dynasty had run out of armies to lose. What was left of its war was being run out of a mountain valley in southern Anhui by a half-blind scholar-official who was, at that very moment, politely refusing a direct order from his emperor.
For two days in mid-October, ash fell like snow atop Beijing. All that remained of one of the greatest cultural storehouses in all of human history, put to the torch as an extremely personalized punishment... after everything not nailed down inside it had already been looted off, of course.
A suspicious ship of dubious registry is boarded by Qing marines off Canton, 12 of her crew are taken captive for piracy, and the British allege their flag was hauled down in the process. That last part, at least, was almost certainly untrue... not that that stops it all from spinning entirely out of control.