Creating the Opium War

Hao Gao is Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History at the University of Exeter

• Introduction PART I THE EMBASSIES1 The Macartney embassy 2 The Amherst embassy PART II PRELUDE TO THE OPIUM WAR3 The EIC vs free traders 4 ‘Show of force’ 5 Justifying the Opium War Conclusion Bibliography Index

'In sum, this is a well-written and well-researched book, which also includes, by the way, a lucid index at its end that makes it easy to look up names and key terms in the main text. It will prove a very helpful guide for any student dealing with the time prior to the First Opium war and may serve as a perfect point of departure for any further research, as it bundles information from both primary sources and secondary literature related to the various aspects of that topic. No scholar who deals with early Sino-British relations should be without it.'Journal of Asian History, Dorothee Schaab-Hanke