Considering it was the cause of three wars and a rebellion, one could take the arguable position that the Chinese and China suffered from foreign exploitation during the 19th century. China long remained a fortress for centuries, but after the two Opium Wars its coastal treaty ports were gist to the foreign commercial mill. The Opium Wars themselves can certainly be considered foreign exploitation. In fact, one might say that foreign exploitation was so pervasive and persistent in China during the 19th century that it goes a long way toward serving as an explanation for why China is so opposed to free-markets in the modern global economy.
To a large degree, China was sliced up into regional spheres of competition by foreign powers during the 19th century. Japan attempted to bridge China to its East Asian economy but with only minimal success. Britain basically stole Hong Kong, incorporating it into the Imperial Realm. Portugal and Holland were rivals of Britain, especially when it came to the opium trade. Originally used as a form of medication, opium soon became the Chinese drug of choice. Most of Britain’s opium production occurred in British India as did the production of other lucrative commodities. Britain perceived itself as having the right to commercially exploit these goods in any place where ships could sail and large masses of people lived. Other industrialized and capitalist nations thought as much in competition with Britain. As Karl Marx wrote in Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist (Vol. I): “The English East India Company, as is well known, obtained, besides the political rule in India, the exclusive monopoly of the tea-trade, as well as of the Chinese trade in general, and of the transport of goods to and from Europe. … The monopolies of salt, opium, betel and other commodities, were inexhaustible mines of wealth” (Thomas 1).
Britain via the East India Company, would enter combat three times ...