MMW 14 Chapter Notes - Chapter Reading: Unequal Treaty, Foot Binding, Intelligentsia

• School: UCSD
• Department: Making of the Modern World
• Course: MMW 14
• Professor: Edmond Chang

Document Summary

Opium as a symptom of cultural decline in china and not the cause of it. Japan managed to prevent an opium crisis by making a deal with the americans to stop the trade into the country. Pretty much all of se asia had the opium trade forced upon them. Either made to sign treaties that made it legal or taken over by the british and had it sold to them. No one could match china"s opium use. Possible reasons for its popularity in china. The unemployed intelligentsia who needed an escape. The examination system was brutal and almost no one passed. These people were discontented and opium helped ease the pain. These reasons can"t explain everything, but they definitely show that something was wrong in chinese society. Started as an upper class thing and then the lower classes started to copy. Opium houses sprung up everywhere even though the trade was illegal.