The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes Sparknotes

The author for the International History Review, Glenn Melancon, is a professor and the current department chair of the history department at the Southeastern Oklahoma State University. The author’s primary thesis revolves the external and internal politics that influenced England’s declaration of war prior to the Opium Crisis. When constructing the source, the author used a wide arrange of materials ranging from English-Argentinian treaties, to personal letters from prominent English officials within China. His approach in the source primarily revolves around the global systems at the time, such as the hegemony of England and France, while also focusing one the local politics of China and England. Theories are not given significant attention. The source, published in 1999, was mostly likely influenced by the transfer of Hong Kong from the U.K. to China, an area gained by the U.K. after the war.
The primary thesis of the author is to not provide a reinterpretation of the Opium War or of Lin but, to show what was his perspective. The materials of the source are mostly composed of Lin’s interactions with other officials, the letter to Queen Victoria, and the Catalogue ‘Commissioner Lin and His Favorite Consort”. The authors approach to the source could be roughly described as a biography, with elements of local history regarding Chinese laws on Opium. In terms of events that may have influenced the authors work, which was originally published in 1958, the most likely would have been the period of global