3.15 Fall and Rise of China: First Opium War #1

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last time we spoke, Lin Zexu had brought the foreign barbarians to their knees and Elliot was forced to hand over 20,000 chests of opium. Lin zexu destroyed the illicit substance riding his nation of its filth. Elliot made a terrible error when he told the opium merchants the British government would compensate them for the confiscated contraband. This would all lead to</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Captain Henry Smith of the Volage firing the first shot of the First Opium War. Britain was in a financial bind, they needed their tea fix and China was closing off trade to them. How was Britain going to compensate the opium merchants and open up China to keep the tea flowing?</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That is when Thomas Macaulay made the suggestion to Lord Palmerston, a rather out of the box idea. Why not make China pay for it all.</span></p> <p><br /> <br /></p> <p><strong>This episode is the First Opium War Part 1</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on the history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lin Zexu’s attempt to send a letter to Queen Victoria proved to be a failure, no one cared. But back in China Lin Zexu’s war agai