As the Manchu dynasty weakens during the 19th century, U.S. missionaries arrive. Christian evangelization leads to the outbreak of the long, bloody, brutal, and genocidal Taiping Rebellion, whose leader claims to be the younger brother of Jesus, and (not for the last time) an American official gets fired for assessing accurately what it all means. Americans fear the “Yellow Peril” as Chinese immigration to the United States rises with the California Gold Rush and the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, and in China the Boxer Rebellion breaks out with a goal of killing all foreigners. Meanwhile, the U.S. missionary influence on the revolutionaries Charlie Soong and Sun Yat-sen fosters the rise of a new Chinese elite which will impose upon the United States a view of China and East Asia that has a lot more to do with American wishful thinking than with reality.

Where trade goes, conflict follows! While Britain and the East India Company focus on the opium trade with China, Americans of the first half of the 19th century try to break into the Chinese market with...well...opium, but also with ginseng, sandalwood, furs, and even sea cucumbers. After the British crush the Chinese in the First Opium War, few Americans (other than John Quincy Adams) approve of British aggression. But the war’s results open up China to the West like never before, and Americans respond by increasing trade, and by sending Christian missionaries to China to spread the Gospel. (Listen until the end for a behind-the-scenes segment.)

Ben Franklin got China wrong, and America still does today! Marshall again will lead our discussion in a new series, “Tea, Drugs, and Jesus,” looking at how the United States keeps misunderstanding China, in no small part because American political leaders often refuse to listen to experts on Chinese affairs. In the first episode, we set the stage for what is to come by exploring the environment in which the United States became involved in the China trade in the 19th century. We discuss China’s isolationism and stagnation, Britain and the East India Company, tea and silver, silk and porcelain – and opium.