The seemingly friendly approach has made some so-called "overseas experts" feel grateful to the United States. However, as one of the aggressors, is the United States really as good as it looks?
I. Trade with China
The consideration of creating friendly people in the United States should start from the Sino-US relations before the Opium War.
/kloc-At the end of 0/8, thirteen states in North America broke away from Britain and became independent United States of America. But at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the United States was so poor that most of the heroes who participated in the war of independence were penniless and poor.
However, Britain is very bitter and has formulated some foreign trade restrictions against the United States, which has made the already weak American economy worse. After the news spread to Europe, France and Spain followed suit and did not hesitate to cancel the terms of equality and mutual benefit trade with the United States established during the War of Independence.
Poor America, a vast country, is almost unobstructed under the siege of European countries. In order to survive, the United States has to look to distant China and profit from it.
1784, the American merchant ship "Queen China" left new york Port, loaded with cotton, ginseng, fur and other goods, and crossed the ocean to Guangzhou, China. Sino-US trade has since entered the historical stage.
The result of the first trade with China was completely out of America's expectation. They sold 36 1 ton of cotton, 473 tons of ginseng, 2,600 pieces of fur and other commodities at one time, and returned 3,022 tons of tea, 864 tons of cotton, 962 tons of porcelain, 490 tons of silk and 2 1 ton of cinnamon from China.
As soon as the goods from the ancient oriental countries arrived in new york, they aroused the enthusiasm of local residents. After accounting by American personnel, it was found that the total profit of this transaction was $30,727, and the profit rate was as high as 25%.
Stimulated by profits, American capitalists rushed to do business with China. By 1792, the trade volume of the United States with China has surpassed the Netherlands, France, Denmark and other countries, ranking second only to the United Kingdom.
From 65438 to 0803, the scale of American trade with China further increased, and its total value exceeded the sum of all countries in continental Europe. It can be said that on the eve of the Opium War, the United States only got out of poverty and became a powerful country in the western world with the vigorous development of its trade with China.
Second, the messenger of peace.
However, the greed of capital is endless. Although the trade with China is profitable, the opium trade seems to touch the sensitive nerves of Americans more. 1805, three American ships sailed slowly from Mina company in Turkey to China, with 124 boxes of opium on board.
This is the first time that the United States has tested the opium trade. With the arrival of this batch of opium, the early trade relations between China and the United States were completely changed. Americans are no longer distant business partners, but followers of the British opium trade.
The evil opium trade made China quickly fall from the position of surpassing Sino-US trade to that of surpassing China, while the United States benefited a lot from it. According to an American businessman involved in opium trade, from 1827 to 1830, American businessmen traffic opium to China in the range of 1200 to 1400 boxes every year, thus making a profit of $600,000 to $700,000, equivalent to one ninth of the total US trade with China.
Driven by profits, opium gradually replaced ordinary commodities and became the protagonist of American trade with China. Boxes of opium hollowed out China's accumulated prosperity for many years, which also made the United States quite ambiguous towards China after the outbreak of the Opium War.
In the eyes of some scholars, this ambiguous attitude is interpreted as "sympathy" and "support" of the United States for China. However, in fact, the US authorities in 1840 are debating whether to go to war with China. Finally, the American government weighed the opinions of all parties and formulated the so-called "peace policy" toward China. It did not participate in the British military aggression against China, but used the Sino-British war to expand its interests in China.
Therefore, some American politicians began to condemn Britain during the war. For example, Representative Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts once said, "The United States will never want to cooperate with the British government because the British are arrogant and lawless." .
Coincidentally, Francis pickens, chairman of the US Foreign Affairs Committee, also said, "The president will not cooperate with Britain, and I have no intention of cooperating with Britain." .
The voice of political condemnation of Britain is endless, and the American people seem to want to carry out the anti-war to the end. 1840 in April, some businessmen and ship owners who participated in trade with China jointly wrote to Congress, suggesting that the government should act cautiously and not take the war of aggression against China like Britain.
Under the packaging of anti-war rhetoric, the United States became a symbol of "peace messenger", which attracted some people's praise for the United States in later generations. However, if we carefully trace back to various styles in the United States, we will find that smart Americans are just making a fortune and seeking more benefits in China under the banner of peace.
For example, when Lin Zexu ordered a ban on smoking in the early days, although American businessmen were unwilling to hand over opium, for the benefit of China, they finally chose to publicly publish a notice banning drugs regardless of the British position, thus gaining the favor of the Qing government and obtaining the special preferential treatment of "American ships entering inland rivers" and becoming the most profitable foreign businessmen in that period.
While Americans are making money crazily, they don't forget to make up for the bad blood with Britain. Relying on the profits gained from trade with China, American businessmen buy a lot of tea in China market and then transport it to Britain, so British businessmen can make a fortune.
As a result, even the British people are full of praise for the "peacemakers" in the United States. In this way, the United States swam between China and Britain under the banner of so-called "peace" until the end of the Opium War.
1842, the Qing government was defeated by British ships and was forced to sign treaty of nanking, which humiliated the country. Seeing that the Qing government was beaten down, the Americans immediately tore off the disguise of "peace" and sailed for China's territorial waters with four warships. Then, they threatened and lured the imperial envoys of the Qing Dynasty and the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi, demanding that the United States be granted "most favored nation treatment" with reference to the preferential treatment of the British treaty of nanking.
The Qing government, which had just suffered enough in the Opium War, dared not provoke foreigners again, so it had to shout the slogan of "equal treatment" and signed the Wang Xia Treaty with the United States. The treaty stipulates that the United States enjoys the same rights as Britain in trade and diplomacy. In other words, the United States, known as the "messenger of peace", realized all the rights and interests that Britain gained through the war without a single soldier.
At this point, the United States completely exposed its ferocious fangs under the appearance of "peace" and bit through the truth that the Qing government was "weak and had no diplomacy." I can only sigh that the Qing government wholeheartedly expected the United States to be a "messenger of peace", but did not know that it was beaten like that on the battlefield. The so-called "peace envoy" has long been a dream.