Publications
Publications
- April 2022
- HBS Case Collection
The First Opium War and Global Free Trade
By: Jeremy Friedman and Allison Lazarus
Abstract
The First Opium War (1839-1842) symbolized the peak of the era of European imperialism, with a political and cultural legacy that remains potent to this day. The British Empire, “acquired in a fit of absent-mindedness” as one observer famously claimed, seemed to be financially dependent on the sale of illegal narcotics to China, which had banned the trade. Nevertheless, London was willing to go to war to force China to import its opium, and superior British military technology made resistance unfeasible. Ever since, China’s political leaders have seen this even as the beginning of their “Century of Humiliation,” and China’s political objective ever since has been to upend the political and economic order that made such a humiliation possible.
Keywords
Citation
Friedman, Jeremy, and Allison Lazarus. "The First Opium War and Global Free Trade." Harvard Business School Case 722-052, April 2022.