Opium Wars

Presented

by Petra Marcus

3400 B.C

The opium poppy is cultivated in lower Mesopotamia.

1300 B.C.

In the capital of Thebes, Egyptians begin to cultivate opium.

As the opium trade flourishes the profitable item is moved across the Mediterranean Sea into Greece and Europe.

460 B.C.

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, acknowledges its usefulness as a narcotic in treating internal diseases of woman and epidemics.

330 B.C.

Alexander the Great introduces opium to the people of Persia and Greece.

1300

Opium disappears for 200 years from the European historical record during the Holy Inquisition.

1500

The Portuguese initiate the smoking of opium, since the effects were instantaneous.

1527

During the height of the Reformation, opium is reintroduced into European medical literature by Paracelsus as laudanum.

These black pills or “stones of immortality” were made of opium thebaicum, citrus juice and quintessence of gold and prescribed as painkillers.

1637

Opium becomes a main commodity of British trade with China.

1700

The Dutch exported Indian opium to China, as well as introduced the practice of smoking it in a tobacco pipe.

1729

The Chinese emperor prohibits the smoking of opium, except for use as medicine.

1767

The British East India Company’s import to China reaches a staggering two thousand chest of opium per year.

1793

The British East India Company establishes a monopoly on the opium trade.

1796

The import of opium becomes contraband trade. Silver was smuggled out to pay for smuggling opium in.

1799

The Emperor bans opium completely.

1803

Friederich Sertuerner of Paderborn, Germany, discovers the active ingredient of opium, which is morphine.

Physicians believe that opium has finally been perfected and tamed. Morphine is called “God’s own medicine” for its reliability, long-lasting effects and safety.

1812

American John Cushing acquires his wealth from smuggling Turkish opium to Canton.

1816

John Jacob Astor of NYC, who owned a fur company, purchased ten tons of Turkish opium and shipped it to Canton.

1820

The west found a product that China did not have, Opium and 9708 chests of opium were smuggled in per year.

1827

E. Merck & Company of Darmstadt, Germany begins commercial manufacturing of morphine.

1839 – 1842

China still believed that the heaven was round and the Earth was a square.

The area under heaven’s shadow was considered China and so they called it “Heavenly Middle Kingdom”.

And the Emperor was considered the “Son of Heaven”.

1839 – 1842

Before this time, China was closed to the trade, because it had a false sense of superiority and wanted to protect itself from western influence.

This did not apply to Russia, since they had a well balanced trade relationship.

The only city that was open to foreign trade was the city of Canton.

1839 -1842

The Manchu used the civil unrest to overthrow the current Dynasty and set up their own, calling it Qing Dynasty.

1839 - 1842

The Emperor issued severe punishment for smoking and trading opium.

He send in commissioner Lin Ze-xu to Canton.

Ze-xu confiscated 11000 pounds of opium in two month and forced merchants to hand over 20000 chest of opium which he burned publicly.

1839 – 1842

The Commissioner wanted to close off the only trading city, Canton, but the British opened hostilities and this actually started the opium war.

After the Chinese army lost the war, the commissioner was recalled in disgrace and send into exile.

1839 - 1842

The Emperor of China signed the “Treaty of Nanjing”, with the Queen of England, in August 1842.

It was an unequal treaty, that allowed the British merchants to have free trade with China.

The treaty opened up five ports to the trade: Canton, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Linbou and Shanghai.

1839 - 1842

According to then President John Quincy Adams,”the seizer of a few thousand chest of opium smuggled into china was no more the cause of the opium war, than throwing overboard the tea in the Boston harbor, was the cause of the North American revolution…

The opium war and the signed treaty was merely a mechanism to open China and exploit its market and resources.

1839 - 1842

Western capitalism greatly changed the Chinese economy. It undermined the basis of China’s self- sufficient economy, yet it greatly enhanced the development of China’s urban market economy.

1839 - 1842

The humiliation and the lesson learned at the opium war are deeply rooted in the Chinese mentality and still guides Chinese thinking in international relations.

Ironically the war awakened China to realize, that it was no longer on top of the world. It signaled the awakening of a giant.

1839 - 1842

So it is success or revenge of the Chinese, when we can’t live on a daily basis, without seeing these three words,

“MADE IN CHINA”

1856

After China lost the second opium war, they not only legalized the import of opium, but they had to pay another indemnity.

1874

English researcher, C.R.Wright first synthesizes heroin by boiling morphine over a stove and in San Francisco smoking of opium is banned to Chinatown.

1878

The British passed the opium act, in hopes to reduce opium consumption.

The act was restricted to registered Chinese opium smokers and Indian opium eaters.

1890

U.S. congress imposes a tax on opium and morphine.

1895

Heinrich Dreser working for Bayer Company in Germany, finds that diluting morphine produces a drug without the common side effects. Bayer begins its production and names “it” heroin.

1903 - 1905

Heroin addiction rises to alarming rates and U.S. Congress puts a ban on opium.

1925

In the wake of the first federal ban on opium, a thriving black market opens up in NYC’s Chinatown.

1940’s

During World War II, the opium trade routes are blocked and the flow of opium from India and Persia is cut off.

1950’s

U.S. efforts to contain the spread of communism in Asia involves forging alliances with tribes and warlords in the Golden Triangle, which includes Burma, Laos and Thailand. Those relationships resulted in an explosion in the availability and illegal flow of heroin into the U.S..

1960’s

U.S. involvement in Vietnam is blamed for the surge in illegal heroin. The CIA sets up a charter airline to transport raw opium from Burma to Laos.

Some of it would make it’s way to Marseilles, France by gangsters from Corsica and shipped to the U.S. via the French Connection.

1970’s

Janis Joplin dies of a heroin overdose.

President Nixon creates the DEA, Drug Enforcement Administration.

Saigon falls and the heroin epidemic subsides.

Mexico is replacing China White with Mexican Mud.

1978

The U.S.and Mexican government find a way to eliminate opium, by spraying the poppy fields with Agent Orange.

In response, another source of heroin is found in the Golden Crescent Area, which includes Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It creates an upsurge in opium production.

1980’s

Comedian John Belushi dies from a heroin overdose.

The U.S State Department puts an eradication plan in place, but poor results are reported from Burma, Pakistan, Mexico and Peru.

1990’s

Efforts to eradicate opium remains unsuccessful and the Clinton administration focuses on an “institution building” policy, that might foster law-abiding behavior through strengthening democratic governments.

1999

Bumper opium crop of 4600 tons in Afghanistan. The UN estimates that around 75% of the worlds heroin productions is from there.

2000

Taliban leader Mullah Omar bans poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

The UN confirms that the opium production has been eradicated.

2002

UN drug control agency announces Afghanistan has regained its position as the world ‘s largest opium producer.

2004

A Tasmanian company publishes details of its genetically- engineered opium poppies. Tasmania is the source of some 40 % of the world’s legal opiates.

2006

The head of the UN office for Drugs and Crime reports that Afghanistan harvested some 6100 metric tons of opium, which amounts to 92 % of the global supply.

2007

Afghanistan’s opium crop rises to 95%.

2008

Even though the Taliban bans the opium production in 2000, it currently funds the war of the Taliban.

More than half of the Afghanistan's GDP, some $3.1 billion is believed to come from the drug trade.

2008 cont.

The Taliban instituted a strict Islamic policy against the opium trade and almost eliminated it,

But now there is a coalition between the Taliban and the farmers. In return, the farmers get protection from the government eradication efforts.

2008 cont.

President Karzei announced a plan for fighting the opium trade, which is based on “eight pillars”, including building the justice system, eradicating the poppy fields and funding alternative crops.

This plan is backed by billions of dollars from the U.S., but has little to show for so far.

2008 cont.

One other problem with eradication is, that they tend to set up confrontations between armed men and poor farmers, which depend on that income.

The farmers received about $500 - $700 for an acre of poppies, compare to $33 per acre of wheat.

2008 cont.

Private contractors are hired to destroy the poppy fields, but yet they are being shot at while doing so.

Another problem is that knocking down under the flowers is time consuming and the per- acre cost of forced eradication is also excruciatingly high.

Resources

http://historyliterature.homestead.com/files/extended.htmlhttp://opioids.com/timeline/index.htmlhttp://newyorker.com/reporting/2007/07/09/070709fa_fact_anderson?printable=trueAnd I would like to give a special thanks to Roslyn, who showed me how to use PowerPoint to give a presentation!!

Pictures of poppies