19th Century British Newspapers To Britain Research Reported In The Opium Trade And War

In the UK, most of the British do not have a profound historical understanding for opium trade and the Opium War between China and Britain in the 19th century for a long time. In contrast, in the era which the opium trade was prevailing, the British have had mixed reactions to this.Opinions and perceptions of events are closely related. As a kind of public voice, newspapers are not only an important channel for the public to understand and comment on national affairs of government policies, but also an extremely valuable historical information for future generations to understand the history. Through their understanding of social affairs, on one hand, it can reflect the "public" in the identity of those who have more ideas, and avoiding the limitations of group selection. On the other hand, people can find out the tracks of the development of the times.This paper selected The Times which is called "the symbol of the British civilization of the 19th century" as an object, through summarizing both the pro and against views for the Opium War from the newspaper, in order to reveal the British mainstream media view of this historic event, and analyze the reasons of these reports. Thus people would know about ideas of different British from different classes and occupations. What is more, this article selected two newspapers named The Northern Star News and The people’s Paper which were hosted by the British Chartist. These newspaper mainly reports the expressions of the working class, in order to know the root causing of the working class to take a complex approach to the opium trade; Finally, this paper also chooses the most illustrated newspaper with distinctive style---Illustrated London News, it shows freely reports of the ordinary people of Britain, further more it examines the views of the majority of ordinary British to opium trade. Through the reading of the above newspaper reports about the opium trade, predecessors’ research and information discoveries are combined to trace not only the situations when the British domestic public opinion, but also allow us to have a more profound understanding to the opium trade and ethical issues in the Opium War.At the same time, through the interpretations of newspaper reports, people can clearly understand the truth that the British government supported the opium trade and launched the Opium War. However, we must look at the British public objectively, for not everyone agreed with it and the oppositions are not very much. In conclusion, no matter what the newspaper reports and how the power of the people, the final decision of a national policy serves for the interests of the ruling class.