Political Cartoon - China

Historical Significance:

          The Qianlong Emperor allowed trade with foreigners only to exist at the single port of Guangzhou.  The foreign goods from China were in great demand back in Europe; thus, Europeans, especially the British, were eager to trade with China in order to profit by selling the goods in Europe.  However, the Chinese demand for European goods was nonexistent.  Thus, it became extremely difficult for the Europeans to trade with the Chinese, primarily because they had nothing to offer - besides silver bullion.  Thus, the British merchants paid for Chinese silk, porcelain, and tea with silver bullion.  Since silver bullion was a highly prized item, the British sought alternatives with which they could trade with the Chinese.  The British eventually turned to opium, an illegal drug manufactured in their Indian colonies, which Chinese readily accepted as an alternative to silver bullion, despite its significantly lower value.  The Chinese significantly were at a disadvantage as a result of this switch in trading items - drug addicts began to become commonplace and China's reserve of silver bullion was significantly lowered.  The Chinese realized this and placed Lin Zexu in charge of destroying the opium trade.  This anti-opium policy ignited a conflict of wars known as the Opium Wars, in which the Chinese suffered a humiliating defeat to the British, who cut off access to the Grand Canal.  Because Britain won the Opium Wars, it was able to dictate the terms of China's surrender.  The end result was a series of treaties known as the "unequal treatises".  They were named so due to the unequal quality of the agreement, which heavily favored the British.  According to the agreement, opium trade between Britain and China was restored, and China was forced to cede 5 major ports and the island of Hong Kong.  Additionally, the Chinese were forced to grant extraterritoriality to British inhabitants in China in a series of treaties including the Treaty of Nanjing.  As a final result of this altercation, China was weakened in that it lost a majority of its silver bullion and suffered socially as a result of the re-opened silver trade.  On the other hand, the British benefitted handsomely from this reopened trade with China.


Cartoon Explanation:

          As depicted in my political cartoon, the economies of both China and Britain are being compared to each other via a scale.  The scale is heavily tilted in favor of the British, indicating that the scale, symbolic of China's treaties with Britain, is unbalanced.  The position of the British in relation to China indicates that the items on China's section of the scale outweigh the items that belong to China.  There are far more items on Britain's end of the scale than China's end of the scale, signifying that Britain is benefitting more from the treaty than China.  On the British half of the scale items are a pyramid of blocks of silver, a chest containing a series of treaties, and a British man happily holding two of them into the air.  As a result of the Opium War, Britain's reopened trade with China resulted in Britain reserving its bullion, while draining the bullion from China - thus, a great amount of silver is represented on the British half of the scale.  Within the chest on top of the pyramid of silver blocks are many papers, two of which are being held by a British individual.  The British man is holding one paper entitled "Declaration of Chinese Port Ownership," which reflects the 5 ports that the Chinese were forced to cede to the British as a result of post-war negotiations.  The other paper reads "Treaty of Nanjing," which was among the first treaties written as part of the post-war agreement.  There are numerous papers remaining inside the chest, indicating that there are many other treaties which also favor the British over the Chinese.  As one could imagine, the British individual looks pleased with the agreement.  On the Chinese half of the scale is a lone individual smoking opium, and he is accompanied by a sac of opium.  His eyes are crossed and seems to be going crazy, reflecting the social changes that occurred as a result of the unfair post-war negotiations.  There is nothing positive about the Chinese half of the scale - there is no bullion (the British have taken it back) and they have lost a right to govern their ports.  It is no wonder that the man standing on the Chinese half of the scale looks miserable.