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The Opium War: the British Empire encounters the Middle Kingdom

Module description

This module provides an introduction to the history of early encounters between Britain and China, particularly the Opium War (1840-42) – a conflict which is little remembered in Britain but has been regarded by the Chinese as a crucial moment in their history. It charts the major events and debates surrounding the topic, e.g. the Canton system, the Macartney embassy and the rise of the opium trade. The course does not assume prior knowledge of the topic, and encourages you to engage with both primary and secondary sources to conduct your own examination into this important aspect of modern world history

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aim of the module is to:

• Introduce you to this defining moment in the history of Sino-western encounters by looking at the contexts, causes, and consequences of the Opium War through both British and Chinese sources. Individual seminars (see topic list below) will focus on various sources, such as British government records, merchants’ petitions, travel accounts, diplomatic gifts, Chinese imperial edicts, official communication with the British monarch, and Sino-British legal documents.
• Give you the opportunity to conduct your own research into these sources, consider their value and limitations, and use them to explore particular topics and themes.
• Help you develop skills in source analysis and research to provide a foundation for future historical work.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Understand and assess the main developments in early encounters between Britain and China
• 2. Work critically with a range of written and visual sources relating to the topic

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Identify the problems of using historical sources, e.g. utility, limitations, etc, and compare the validity of different types of sources
• 4. Present work orally, respond to questions orally, and think quickly of questions to ask other students

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Conduct independent study and group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
• 6. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
• 7. Work with others in a team and to interact effectively with the tutor and the wider group
• 8. Write to a very tight word-length

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The Canton system and the Canton trade
• ‘Becoming Yellow’
• Racialising the Chinese
• Lost in Translation
• ‘Foreigners’ or ‘Barbarians’?
• The Macartney embassy
• Tributary system vs Westphalian system
• Images and Diplomatic Gifts
• Visual Testimonies of Sino-British Cultural Engagements
• ‘Palmerston’s Opium War’:Causes and Justifications
• The Treaty of Nanjing and Afterwards

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Basic reading:

• Stephen R. Platt, Imperial Twilight: the Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age (New York, 2018).
• Mao Haijian, The Qing Empire and the Opium War: The Collapse of the Heavenly Dynasty, translated by Joseph Lawson et al. (Cambridge, 2016).
• Zhaoguang Ge, What Is China? Territory, Ethnicity, Culture, and History, translated by Michael Gibbs Hill (Cambridge, MA, 2018).
• Julia Lovell, The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of Modern China (London, 2011).
• Joanna Waley-Cohen, Sextants of Beijing: Global Currents in Chinese History (London, 1999).
• Jonathan Spence, Search for Modern China (London: 1991, 1999, 2013).
• Pei-kai Cheng, Michael Letz, and Jonathan Spence (eds.), The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection (New York, 1999).
• Sources of Chinese Tradition: from 1600 through the twentieth Century, compiled by Wm. Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano (New York, 2000).
• Li Chen, Chinese Laws in Imperial Eyes: Sovereignty, Justice, and Transcultural Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016).
• Peter J. Kitson, Forging Romantic China: Sino-British Cultural Exchange 1760-1840 (Cambridge, 2013).
• Michael Keevak, Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011).

Key words search

Britain, China, Empire, the Opium War, cultural encounters, modernity