British+Opium+Department

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Kasey's Handout

Rob's Handout



BRITISH OPIUM DEPARTMENT “Without the drug, there probably would have been no British Empire.”

HISTORY


 * 1750 ||
 * The British East India Company assumes control of Bengal and Bihar, opium-growing districts of India. ||
 * || 1793 ||
 * The British East India Company establishes a monopoly on the opium trade. Poppy growers in India were forbidden to sell opium to other trading companies. ||
 * || 1830 ||
 * The British dependence on opium reaches an all time high.

1841 The British defeat the Chinese in the first Opium War. ||  ||
 * Connection to George Orwell**: Eric Blair was born in India because his father held a post in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service. It was during his childhood in India that Eric first observed major class division and oppression.

Ironically the Opium Department was not to prohibit opium, but to monitor its distribution.

=Sources=

William Podmore. __Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium Trade (Asia's Transformations).__ April 29, 2005. Amazon.com. January 12, 2008. 

Martin Booth. __A History of Opium.__ 1996. Simon & Schuster, Ltd. January 13, 2008. < http://opioids.com/timeline/>

John F. Richards. __Opium and the British Indian Empire: The Royal Commission of 1895.__ February, 2002. Cambridge University Press. January 13, 2008. 

Aaron Michaels - Handout/Presentation