Thursday, October 9, 2008

Loot, Prize and Retribution

Given the high purpose ascribed to English intervention in Chinese affairs, the looting of the Summer Palace is problematic. The practice itself was not out of departure from British adventures in India nor really much different than how many seedy Westerners operated in coastal cities, and those high-ranking describing the event took pains to ascribe agency to the lower class status of the soldiery and their susceptiblity to cultural pollution by the even baser coolie.

The British had a long tradition of taking looted goods, auctioning them, and splitting the proceeds among the officers and troops as a bounty. The prize procedure that auctioned personal pieces of the emperor part of a larger process that incorporated China and its political order into the regularities of the British Empire, thereby undermining Qing authority and signaling to all the costs of defying British power. It also had symbolic importance for the British: disciplined forces achieved righteous conquest.

The opening of the global market for Chinese imperial luxury goods provided a continual reminder of the British triumph over the opulent emperor, putting shame on the latter and reinforcing the views of the former on him. The objects at any moment could stand for conquest and humiliation, fantastic monetary value, and for little or nothing at all, allowing any awe of the Chinese emperor to dissipate. The Chinese could be seen as the backward student of a British tutor requiring punishment and disciple as the grounding on which learning could be initiated.

The Chinese government treated prisoners-of-war in a manner that the British found barbaric and outside of the "law-of-nations." Though prudential matters of diplomacy overriding all other concerns, the British decided to torch the Summer Palace as an act of retribution against the Chinese emperor, further humbling his pride while hopefully also imparting a lesson on future conduct and the seriousness of the British presence.

The ratification of the treaty provided the British an opportunity to hammer home their point on real power. The British located a symbolic spot for the treaty-signing and employed it to humiliate the Qing, a method they believed would lead to subserviance from the populace. The Treaty of 1860 formally ended the difficulties the British had negotiating with Chinese.

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