Negative Effects Of French Imperialism

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Imperialism is the expansion of a country's power and influence through force. The imperialism of Britain and France caused chaos throughout Asia. For example, Britain’s imperialism caused the opium trade in China. In addition, French imperialism resulted in the monopolies of the Vietnamese people. However, the imperialism did open the doors of China to other countries. In conclusion Britain’s imperialism caused the opium trade. In order for the British to maintain trade with China, they needed to obtain silver. As a result of China not wanting to negotiate, the Brits turned to trading opium. This prevailed a problem for three reasons. For starters, “Levels of opium addiction grew so high that it began to affect the imperial troops and the official classes” (Encyclopedia Britannica). This would create economic problems because …show more content…
According to Alpha History, “Even more lucrative were state monopolies on rice wine and salt – commodities that were used extensively by locals.” This negatively impacted the civilians of Vietnam because they were forced to buy back their resources at highly aggrandized prices. Another bad effect of French imperialism was the opium addiction. For instance, “French officials and colonists also benefited from growing, selling and exporting the narcotic drug opium” (Alpha History). Similarly to opium’s effect in China, it caused disorder throughout Vietnam. Opium is highly addictive, therefore it created a huge demand throughout Vietnam. Though this fueled the French economy, it left the Vietnamese high and dry. Another unfavorable development of the opium was that Vietnamese land was being occupied by the poppies. This basically took away land from the Vietnamese people so that the French could benefit. In addition, “Once more Vietnamese were addicted, Doumer leveled a tax on opium which eventually raised ⅓ of the revenue needed to govern Indochina” (Digital