Read the previous essays in this series:Silver Against the Dragon: China, the World Market, and the Long Prelude to the Opium War Primitive Accumulation by Narcotic: The Opium Wars and the Forcible Integration of China into the World Market The Heavenly Commune: Taiping Rebellion and the Spectre of Peasant Communism From the ashes of the... Continue Reading →
Primitive Accumulation by Narcotic: The Opium Wars and the Forcible Integration of China into the World Market
How Britain’s opium gunboats shattered China’s agrarian order, dismembered its sovereignty, and inaugurated the long colonial century that revolution would one day buryBy Pablo Katari | Weaponized Information| July 26, 2025Exchange as Pretext, War as MechanismThe circulation of commodities requires peace; the expansion of capital requires war. In the case of China, this contradiction found... Continue Reading →