The influence of the East India Company on Asian politics by analyzing the social and political change of China in the 19th century

The 19th century had been a very challenging period for nations. There had been many revolutions and clashes between civilizations, especially between the East and the West. Therefore, the period can be called the period of survival, time to prove thyself to the new world order. At that time on the east, the Qing Dynasty was also joined to the period of transformation, mainly challenged by British, French, and others. For the Chinese, it was the period of witnessing the bitter face of imperialism and constructing the core elements of the modern nation-state. It was the period that goes to the origins of today's Chinese problems, such as the Hongkong crisis. By the discovery of these exotic lands, the West gradually became dependent on Chinese and Indian goods such as silk, tea, and a variety of spices for their daily usage. However, at that time, the British had no competitive products in exchange for Chinese goods. By dominating Bengal and Assam, the Opium plantation gives the British the opportunity of closing their trade deficits within a short period and made the Manchu Qing dependent on the British Empire. The opium trade was started by small groups of smuggler Scots and British enterprises but later became an inevitable trade activity. Although Qing high-level court officers tried to ban in many ways, their attempt to prevent the Opium trade brought a series of disasters into China. The belief in omnipotent China was lost, and the Chinese had to understand the West in order to evolve into one of the world's superpowers today. This research paper by drawing attention to the effects of imperialism on China examines how China transformed into a modern nation-state by analyzing the influence of the East Indian company, later on, the British, on Chinese society and politics in the 19th century.