Secure Imperial Twilight: The Opium War And The End Of Chinas Last Golden Age Formulated By Stephen R. Platt Manuscript

round up.

I learned the Opium War in school many years ago, This is what I learned: In, British imperialists, armed with gun boats and cannons, succeeded in forcing China to open its door, In the century followed, the history of China is a history of humiliation as well as a journey of modernizationfirst reluctantly, then deliberately, Which aspect, the humiliation or the modernization, dominates China's official narrative depends on the political climate,

Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age is a new take on the topic, The book covers the period from lateth century untilwhen the Nanjing Treaty was signed, Its focus is what had lead to the war, The actual war only takes up a single chapter, It includes narratives and analysis of the two failed British diplomatic missions to China theLord Macartney's mission and theLord Amherst mission, the Canton factories the trading site between Qing empire and Western countries, the Hong merchants 广州十三行, the opium smuggling, British Eastern Indian Company and the end of Eastern Indian Company's monopoly in China trade.
The book also paints a picture of the decline of Qing Empire: the corruptions, the inefficiency and inability of imperial management, the internal turmoils especially the White Lotus Rebellion 白莲教起义 and Ching Shih and her Red Flag Fleet 郑一嫂和红旗帮海盗.


I find the book informative, The author explains nicely what had caused the war, Was it because of the opium trade, the trade in general, or the imperial pride In retrospect, the Opium War seemed inevitable, but according to Stephen Platt, it almost didn't happen.
I never knew that just before the War, the opium trade was almost legalized by the Qing Emperor, It is fascinating to read the varieties of public opinions in Britain and the very close vote in the British parliament, Sir George Staunton, the first Western scholar on China, a long term criticizer of the opium trade and an opponent to the violence against China, voted for the War.
According to the author, although British government continued to play a role in the opium trade after the War, the even more widespread opium abuse in China by the lateth century, an image forever pinned China as the sick man of Asian, was more or less an interior problem.


The author explains the difference between the US and Britain and later France in their relationship to China, The US, a newcomer to the China trade, was friendlier, more practical and willing to help, To my knowledge, this is a widely accepted view among Chinese officials and many optioned thinkers, Even Chinese Communism Party viewed the US in the same light until after the WWII,

The book is wellwritten and easy to read, A lot of complex, colorful characters, To name a few:
Thomas Manning, a British explorer
Sir George Staunton, the boy who answered Emperor Qian Long in Chinese, and the translator of the Qing Law Code
Charles Elliott, an abolitionist and wellwisher, whose panic contributed to the start of the War
Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China, a translator and writer of the first bidirectional ChineseEnglish dictionary
Karl Gützlaff, a Protestant missionary, a linguistic genius and a Spy.
His journey to Tibet makes a very interesting read,
Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Minister, a cunning, coldblooded strategist

The two big bad guys directly involved in Canton trade and the War were William Jardine and James Matheson.
Lord Napier was rather comical,

The players on the China sidethe three emperors 乾隆嘉靖道光, Lin Zexu 林则徐, Deng Tingzhen 邓廷桢, Howqua伍秉鑑 and the opinions among Chinese intellectualsare covered but with less details.
Is it because of the lack of original materials The war was very much onesided, Because of the very little coverage of the war itself in the book, the suffering of the ordinary citizens of China brought by the Opium War is skipped too.
The author blames Lin Zexu for his inflexibility, which I disagree, In his opinion, cultural misunderstanding played an important role, which I agree,

Although the author has convinced me that the Opium War almost didn't happen, I still believe the clash between the Western countries and the China in theth century was inevitable.
China would have been forced to open its door no matter what,

And do you know that John Murray Forbes, the famous American railroad magnate, merchant, philanthropist and abolitionist, became rich by investing the half million dollar entrusted to him by Howqua, the most important of the Hong merchants in the Thirteen Factories I wonder what happened to the money after Howqua died.
And Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Sir J J, the famous Indian merchant and philanthropist who turned Mumbai into a metropolis, got his fortune from the opium smuggling to China Here is a highly focussed and readable account of the events that led to a genuinely historyshaping war.
The book starts slowly and appears to meander aimlessly while discussing almost anything the author could lay his hands on in the first third of the book.
The entire narrative suddenly tightens considerably as the timeline moves closer to the actual war,

Like in any war, there were many causes behind what simplistically appears to be a fight over the right to sell drugs, The author chooses the bag of events he believes were the most critical some indisputable like those inin Canton or the instigations by Jardine and Matheson.
However, the Imperial Twilight's real focus is on causes the author deems relevant but are not as accepted by other historians, Numerous happenstances caused events that were never inevitable nor necessary starting from Britain developing a taste for tea to the trade deficit and outflow of silver.
The author rightfully wonders about the roles of the kowtowlinked events,

The author's interpretations must have caused a stir amongst other experts, He loosely connects everything with the White Lotus rebellion, which most would deem too far, He throws far more weight behind the Staunton's and other translators of the era, something quite unique compared to the mainstream view, For example, the Wiki entry on the first opium war does not mention George Staunton, nor does the entry on George Staunton mention the Opium War.
For the author, their influence was pivotal, so much so that some chapters read like a biography on the fatherson duo,

As is a habit amongst many Western depictions of key war events starting the Opium War to the Second World War like in the movie Dunkirk, the book is almost blind to the roles played by events in India as well as Indians, including those living in Canton.
Jeejeebhoy is mentioned, and So are the production centers of Malwa/Bengal, but only in passing, Far more space is devoted to the Americans and other Europeans with far more peripheral roles, For a more refreshing take on how the events of the entire region led to the pivotal events in Canton, Amitav Ghosh's fictional accounts in the Ibis trilogy cover far more relevant ground.
This is a wonderful book on the Opium War between Britain and China in, It takes the perspective of both Britain and China and shows the contingent and often unintended chains of events that led to the war, which is seen as so importantyears later.
Platt follows some key characters along in the story but also shifts back and forth to the big picture and global politics effortlessly, This follows Ghoshs recent trilogy of novels on the war and Ujifusas book on the Opium Clippers Barons of the Sea, The writing is superb and the narrative and interpretations are thoughtful, Britain has not fared well in recent histories involving the Empire, That continues here to some degree, but the contingencies that muddy some interpretive waters are also present, Platt also covers the role of American traders in Canton, I did not expect such a fine and rich book,

I had not realized that this was a prequel to Platts book on the Taiping Rebellion, Now I want to read it soon, I read this over two months when waiting for a bus, having lunch

in the canteen or just before sleeping, This is from my start of year WWreading arc, which proved to be much wider this year, reaching into China and Malaya,

Stephen Platt, a professor of Chinese history, deconstructs the events leading up to the Opium Wars, He demonstrates its not “us versus them” but instead the contributing individuals, actions, motivations and environments are revealed the historical patterns and their relevance to existing events are fascinating!

The Kindle version has linked footnotes which is useful to the reader wanting to peek at contributing sources.
Except by the Chinese, this is a largely forgotten piece of British Imperial history, unless promoted by the Cultural Marxists in history departments throughout the Anglosphere.
However, what is interesting about Platt's reading of the coming of the Opium War of the midth Century is that it is concerned with the economic, cultural, and historical origins of the war rather than the war itself.


This leads the reader to a deeper understanding of the ignorance of both parties especially the Chinese were operating under that created an environment where the war became possible.


Readers learn that the British didn't force opium down the Chinese throat but the Chinese manufactured opium locally and imported it from Central Asia which runs counter to China's reading of the war.
Also, one of the reasons the Chinese wanted to end the trade was they paid for it in silver taels currency at the time but would only accept Spanish silver dollars back into the country.
. . so the British simply melted the taels down into bars and kept them, This led to an inflation of the value of taels and this devasted the Chinese people, . . especially the poor that kept their savings in Chinese copper coins, When they wanted to convert these to taels their losses were grievous but they needed taels to make any significant purchases,

These are only two examples the reader will learn in reading this excellent and accessible book, There are a great many more that cover neither the British nor the Chinese in national or personal honor,

Highly recommended read if you are a fan of history and/or are a China watcher,

Rating:out ofStars, .