对于两次鸦片战争，相信每一个国人都铭记于心，因为是鸦片战争打开了我国的大门，使得清政府一步步沦为半封建半殖民社会，这是我国苦难的开端，从这次战争开始，我国经受了近百年的屈辱。那么，作为这件事的始作俑者，英国人到底是如何看待鸦片战争呢？他们是不记得了？还是不敢承认呢？
在美国最大的论坛网站上就有热心的网友发出这样的问题：英国应该为鸦片战争道歉吗? 这个话题也是引起了不少海内外热爱历史的网友的热议，让我们来看看他们的观点吧。
论坛话题
美国网友的观点
The British enterprise in growing opium and forcing the Chinese to allow it to be sold in China may be the most criminal thing they ever did, other than participate in the slave trade.
英国人种植鸦片并迫使清廷允许在中国出售鸭片，这可能是他们除了参与奴隶贸易之外所做过的最罪恶的事情。
For one thing, it is a permanent stain on British honor, so any admirer of the British empire has to deal with this long-lasting evil. It affected several millions of people. Most empires have considerable blood on their hands, but forcing a nation to allow its citizens to become drug addicts on a large scale is one of the more notable evils attributable to the British. It was also predatory. The Brits used their superior military force to force concessions from China.
首先，这是英国荣誉的永久污点，因此任何大英帝国的崇拜者都必须应对这一持久的邪恶。它影响了数百万人。大多数帝国的手上都沾满了鲜血，但迫使一个国家允许其公民大规模吸读，是英国人犯下的更显著的罪恶之一。它也是掠夺性的。英国人利用他们强大的军事力量迫使清廷做出让步。
The first Opium War was 1839–42. A second followed in the 1850s, in alliance with the French. The second war was less about opium than forcing the Chinese to give the French and the British privileges—the British got Hong Kong as one of the spoils of war.
第一次鸦片战争发生在1839年至1842年。第二次是在19世纪50年代，与法国结盟。第二次战争与其说是为了鸦片，不如说是为了迫使清廷给予法国和英国特权——英国得到了香港作为战利品之一。
The wars are little known these days. But you can bet that every Chinese child learns about it, and that it is used to justify why China must be strong militarily and must be suspicious of powerful foreign nations.
这些战争如今鲜为人知。但你可以打赌，每个中国孩子都了解它，它被用来证明为什么中国必须在军事上强大，必须对强大的外国保持怀疑。
英国网友的观点
I don't know if an apology is entirely appropriate, but I do think we should be more aware as a people of the benefit we derived, and by extension still do derive, from doing some fairly unpleasant stuff.
我不知道道歉是否完全合适，但我确实认为，作为一个民族，我们应该更加意识到我们从做一些相当不愉快的事情中得到的好处，推而广之，我们仍然从这些好处中得到好处。
Slavery, colonialism, murder and exploitation, in lots of parts of the world, while they occured a long time ago, still benefit Britons today (we'd hardly be the 5th largest economy in the world if it weren't for our trading past that was made so much more lucrative by the existence of empire).
奴隶制、殖民主义、谋杀和剥削，在世界上很多地方，虽然它们发生在很久以前，但今天仍然使英国人受益(如果不是因为我们过去的贸易因帝国的存在而变得更加有利可图，我们很难成为世界第五大经济体)。
This is why overseas aid is so important, in a moral sense as well as in a political/utilitarian sense. Many of these countries are messed up because we had a part in making them so - enriching ourselves in the process - so it's only right that we help make them a better place.
这就是海外援助如此重要的原因，无论是在道德意义上，还是在政治/功利意义上。这些国家中的许多国家都一团糟，因为我们参与了其中的一部分——在这个过程中让我们自己富裕起来——所以我们帮助他们成为一个更好的地方是正确的。
澳大利亚网友的观点
It was indeed a dark, ugly and wicked history for the UK and the West and a miserable, disastrous memory for billions of Chinese, which should never be forgotten, never forgiven by everyone in the world.
对英国和西方来说，这是一段黑暗、丑陋、邪恶的历史，对亿万中国人来说，这是一段悲惨、灾难的记忆，世界上所有人都不应该忘记，都不应该原谅。
At that time, China had plenty of world-renowned, top-notch nice things, like china, silk, textiles, spice, and arts, tea …, which had been desperately dreamt of and avariciously coveted by the West, including the UK. On the contrary, at the same time, the UK and the West had nothing or only very few that held much interest and attention to hundreds of millions of Chinese for them to offer and supply, what the UK sufficiently had and was shamelessly able to suffice to the world was only poisonous, addictive opium equipped with its imperialistic gunboat diplomacy to invade and colonize other countries.
那个时候，中国有很多世界闻名的、顶级的好东西，瓷器、丝绸、纺织品、香料，还有艺术、茶……，都是包括英国在内的西方国家梦寐以求、贪得无厌的东西。 相反，与此同时，英国和西方没有任何东西或只有很少的东西能引起数亿中国人的兴趣和关注，让他们提供和供应英国已经足够拥有并且无耻地能够提供的东西 对世界来说，只有有毒的、令人上瘾的鸦片，它配备了帝国主义的炮舰外交来侵略和殖民其他国家。
Massive smuggled opium by the UK had been used to poison, exploit and poverty hundreds of millions of Chinese in the nineteenth century, therefore these greedy UK opium smugglers and drug dealers made skyscrapers full of dirty money at the cost of millions of Chinese future, health and lives.
在19世纪，英国走私的大量丫片被用来毒害、剥削和贫困数亿中国人，因此这些贪婪的英国丫片走私者和毒贩以数百万中国人的未来、健康和生命为代价，建造了充满脏钱的摩天大楼。
Undoubtedly, the unscrupulous UK’s opium smuggling and subsequent China’s defeat in the Opium War had grossly led to China’s calamity-ridden, heartrending one hundred years in the 19th century and early 20th. Such dark and painful history has been tremendously, constantly motivating and pressing billions of people in China to work hard, fight hard and create nowadays unprecedented China’s rise marvel.
毫无疑问，英国肆无忌惮的鸦片走私和随后中国在丫片战争中的失败，严重地导致了中国在19世纪和20世纪初的一百年里满目疮痍。这样一段黑暗而痛苦的历史是巨大的，不断激励和压迫着亿万中国人努力工作、奋斗，创造了今天前所未有的中国崛起奇迹。
丹麦网友的观点
You could easily say British Imperialism, and be done with it, but I think you would miss out on what actually happened, and not learn much. There are some nuances to the Opium War which I find very interesting, as it is not a subject that is really even touched on much in European history education.
你可以轻易地说英帝国主义，然后就完事了，但我认为你会错过实际发生的事情，也不会学到很多东西。我发现丫片战争的一些细微差别非常有趣，因为它在欧洲历史教育中并不是一个真正涉及到的主题。
I think it is important to understand the situation of that the First Opium War occurred in. Let us start with the western point of view.
我认为了解第一次丫片战争发生的情况是很重要的。让我们从西方的观点开始。
European nations (and the US) in general, but Britain in particular were invested in trade with China, almost exclusively through Guangzhou (referred to as Canton by British people at the time). Britain wanted tea from China, which at this point in time controlled nearly all of the world’s tea production.
欧洲国家(和美国)，尤其是英国，在与中国的贸易中进行投资，几乎完全通过广州(当时英国人称之为广州)。英国想从中国进口茶叶，当时中国几乎控制了世界上所有的茶叶生产。
Great Britain had an almost unbelievable demand for tea, and export to other European countries were not bad either. The problem was that Qing China did not want to buy many western products. Instead they demanded payment in silver. For a while this was acceptable, but the Mexican War of Independence, lead to a shortage in high quality silver coins on a world scale.
英国对茶叶的需求几乎令人难以置信，向其他欧洲国家的出口也不错。问题是清朝的中国并不想购买很多西方产品。相反，他们要求用白银支付。在一段时间内，这是可以接受的，但墨西哥独立战争，导致高质量的银币在世界范围内短缺。
The British East India Company which owned Bengal in India at the time, wanted to fix the trade deficit with Qing. They did this by growing opium in Bengal, which was considered a medicine in the British Empire mind you and sold as laudanum, which they would then sell to Qing. Qing outlawed opium trade naturally, but the demand was so high that most officials in Guangzhou ignored it, and even during periods of crack down smugglers were eager to transport opium to the shores.
当时在印度拥有孟加拉的英国东印度公司想要弥补与清朝的贸易逆差。为了达到目的，他们在孟加拉种植丫片，在大英帝国，丫片被认为是一种药物，并作为丫片酊出售，然后卖给清朝。清朝自然取缔了丫片贸易，但由于需求量太大，广州的大多数官员都不予理睬，即使在打击丫片走私期间，走私者也急于将丫片运到海岸。
From the Qing point of view things looked different, the tea, porcelain and silk trade were beneficial, the Qing economy was gigantic and the minting of high quality silver coins was essential at the time. The foreign trade for silver aided in this as the trade balance favored Qing. However, as the opium trade increased, silver began flooding out of Qing, causing economical problems, and also started an epidemic of opium addicts which further hurt people and the economy.
从清朝的角度来看，事情看起来不同，茶叶、瓷器和丝绸贸易是有益的，清朝经济规模巨大，铸造高质量的银币在当时是必不可少的。对外的白银贸易也起到了促进作用，因为贸易平衡对清朝有利。然而，随着鸦片贸易的增加，白银开始大量流出清朝，造成了经济问题，也开始了鸦片成瘾者的流行，进一步伤害了人民和经济。
Qing realized that this situation would eventually bankrupt the country, not to mention seriously hurt it’s people through addiction. From the Qing point of view western traders were often little more than glorified smugglers as they traded in illegal goods through illegal smuggler rings.
清朝意识到，这种情况最终会使国家破产，更不用说因为上瘾而严重伤害人民了。从清朝的观点来看，西方商人通常不过是被美化的走私者，因为他们通过非法走私团伙进行非法商品交易。
The first change that led to the Opium War came when the Lin Zexu was appointed as governor of Guangdong (where Guangzhou is). His mission was simply to stop the opium trade. Lin Zexu unlike many previous governors of the province was by all accounts, a highly morale man, well loved by many people, and considered incorruptible. Sticking to this reputation, Lin Zexu asked the British and others simply to stop the opium trade, and indeed wrote a public letter addressed to Queen Victoria. The letter is fascinating, and I highly recommend reading it here.
导致丫片战争的第一个变化是林则徐被任命为广东巡抚(广州所在)。他的任务就是阻止丫片贸易。林则徐不像以前的许多省长，据说是一个士气高涨的人，深受人民爱戴，被认为是廉洁的。林则徐坚持这一声誉，要求英国和其他国家停止丫片贸易，并确实写了一封写给维多利亚女王的公开信。这封信很吸引人，我强烈推荐在这里阅读。
Victoria did not respond, and Lin probably did not expect her to either. He moved on to more direct measures, starting with a crackdown on the Chinese smuggler rings and opium dens, confiscating tens of thousands of opium pipes as well as about 2,000 opium drug dealers. Lin then prevented the sale of opium, and so that western traders would not sell it elsewhere in China, he offered to exchange their entire stock of over 1 million kg of opium for tea. However, the British refused this and instead Lin resorted to threats.
维多利亚没有回应，林可能也没想到她会回应。他转而采取了更直接的措施，首先是打击中国走私团伙和丫片窝点，没收了数万支丫片烟斗，以及大约2000名丫片毒贩。林则徐阻止丫片的销售，为了不让西方商人把丫片卖到中国其他地方，他提出用他们所有的100多万公斤丫片来交换茶叶。然而，英国人拒绝了这一要求，林转而诉诸于威胁。
Back on the British side we must mention the British Charles Elliot, who was chief commissioner in Macau. It was his job to protect merchants in the area. It should be noted that Elliot was abhorred the opium trade. But also could not tolerate that the Qing government had confiscated billions worth of goods from British traders under threat, and with no compensation. The British trader mind you, were often bulk carriers which didn’t own all the goods, but sold them on behalf of others among many other goods. As such they would have broken contract if they gave up the opium to Lin voluntarily. A fact that Lin refused to recognize or negotiate on.
回到英国方面，我们必须提到英国人查尔斯·艾略特，他是澳门的首席专员。他的工作是保护该地区的商人。值得一提的是，艾略特憎恶丫片贸易。但也不能容忍清廷在威胁下没收了英国商人价值数十亿的货物，而且没有任何补偿。请注意，英国商人通常是散货船，他们并不拥有所有的货物，而是代表其他人出售许多其他货物。因此，如果他们自愿放弃丫片给林，那就违反了合同。
Elliot saw this as an insult to the British people, whom he suspected were considered inferior people by the Qing, which was not incorrect, as Lin personally referred to them as “mentally childlike” and the official Qing term was simply barbarians. Eventually, when Lin physically confiscated the opium stock and besieged the British factories, Elliot guaranteed that they would get compensated by the British government, and after this the British merchant fleet evacuated from Guangzhou to a rock called Hong Kong, where they would anchor. However, Lin refused to let British people trade as long as they didn’t sign a decree that they would never sell opium, which they refused.
埃利奥特认为这是对英国人的侮辱，他怀疑英国人被清朝认为是劣等人，这是正确的，因为林亲自将他们称为“思想幼稚”，而清朝的官方术语只是野蛮人。最终，当林亲自没收丫片库存，围攻英国工厂时，艾略特保证英国政府会赔偿他们，之后英国商船队从广州撤离到一个叫香港的岩石上，并在那里停泊。然而，林语堂拒绝让英国人进行贸易，前提是英国人不签署绝不出售丫片的法令，英国人拒绝了。
While anchoring at Hong Kong two British sailors went to shore at Kowloon and beat to death an innocent Chinese villager. Lin demanded them exchanged to be punished (executed most likely) but Elliot refused saying that they had no deal with Qing about such legal exchanges, which was true, as Qing refused almost any treaty. Elliot did have the men arrested and offered Lin to be an observer at their trial which Lin refused. Elliot found the men guilty and sentenced them to fines, as well as prison labor in England for which they were shipped back (they did not serve the prison time).
在香港抛锚时，两名英国水手在九龙上岸，将一名无辜的中国村民打死。 林要求他们交换以受到惩罚（最有可能被处决），但义律拒绝说他们与清朝没有关于这种合法交换的协议，这是事实，因为清朝几乎拒绝任何条约。 埃利奥特确实逮捕了这些人，并提出让林在他们的审判中担任观察员，但林拒绝了。 埃利奥特认定这些人有罪，并判处他们罚款，以及将他们送回英格兰的监狱劳动（他们没有服刑）。
Understandably this outraged Lin, who saw the British sailors getting away with murder. Putting pressure on the Portuguese ruled Macau, Lin managed to recall all Chinese labour from the town, and eventually requested Macau to close the port entirely to British ships, which it did. The closure of Macau meant that the British now had a large fleet with thousands of sailors off the coast of China, but no provisions for resupply. Lin expected that this would make the British ships retreat from China, but this was impossible as they had did not have supplies for a long voyage to Singapore.
可以理解的是，这激怒了林，因为他看到英国水兵逍遥法外。为了给葡萄牙人统治的澳门施加压力，林设法从澳门召回了所有的中国劳工，并最终要求澳门完全不对英国船只开放港口，澳门也照做了。澳门的关闭意味着英国人现在在中国海岸拥有一支拥有数千名水手的庞大舰队，但却没有补给物资。林希望这能让英国船只从中国撤退，但这是不可能的，因为他们没有足够的补给来长途航行到新加坡。
Elliot warned Lin and the authorities in Kowloon that they must end the embargo on food and water. Elliot send a couple of ships including military to get supplies at Kowloon, but was denied this which resulted in Elliot issuing an ultimatum that if Kowloon didn’t allow the British to buy basic supplies he would fire on the fort at Kowloon and the Chinese warships there. The deadline passed and Elliot opened fire chasing off the ships, but the battle ended with nightfall.
埃利奥特警告林和九龙当局，他们必须结束对食物和水的禁运。艾略特派了几艘船，包括军用船去九龙获得补给，但被拒绝了，这导致艾略特发出了最后通牒，如果九龙不允许英国人购买基本的补给，他就会向九龙的堡垒和那里的中国军舰开火。最后期限过去了，艾略特开枪驱赶船只，但战斗在夜幕降临时结束。
A series of unfortunate events unfolded now, Qing officials had been told by the Kowloon fort commander that they had sunk a British warship and they were no match for Chinese weapons. Seeing the British fire a cannon shot at another ship, Qing officials declared the British warships for pirates shooting at merchant vessels, and sailed out to protect the merchant ships.
一系列不幸的事件发生了，清朝官员被九龙堡指挥官告知，他们击沉了一艘英国军舰，他们不是中国武器的对手。看到英国人向另一艘船发射大炮，清廷官员宣布英国军舰为海盗射击商船，并出航保护商船。
This resulted in the Battle of Chuenpi, where the Qing navy lost 4 ships one of them exploded with the entire crew. The Chinese ships were no match for British warships. But they refused to acknowledge this.
这导致了川皮之战，清朝海军损失了4艘船，其中一艘连同所有船员一起爆炸了。中国军舰根本不是英国军舰的对手。但他们拒绝承认这一点。
Despite taking no real losses the British considered an attack on their warships an act of war. And in 1840 the British parliament agreed to fund a punitive expedition to the area. Being unwilling to concede any points to the British the Qing also prepared for war, and gathered a fleet of over 200 ships in the area. When the fighting finally broke out this fleet was slaughtered by a British Ironclad called Nemesis as well as several other navy vessels.
尽管没有真正的损失，英国人认为对他们军舰的攻击是一种战争行为。1840年，英国议会同意资助对该地区进行惩罚性考察。由于不愿向英国人让步，清朝也做好了战争准备，并在该地区集结了一支由200多艘船只组成的舰队。当战斗最终爆发时，这支舰队被一艘名为“复仇女神”的英国铁甲舰以及其他几艘海军舰艇屠杀。
In conclusion - While clearly the British were not in possession of the moral high ground, and while we can perceive the actions of Qing and governor Lin as being morally right, they forced Elliot a man who actually hated opium, to defend British merchant principles out of duty.
总之，虽然英国人显然没有占据道德制高点，虽然我们可以认为清朝和林总督的行为在道德上是正确的，但他们迫使艾略特这个实际上讨厌鸦片的人出于责任来捍卫英国商人的原则。
A boundless Qing arrogance seriously miscalculated their own importance and strength and directly challenged a far superior military force to a direct confrontation which they lost, multiple times. I think the reasons for this war, is not as simple as just opium, which is not specifically mentioned in the British decrees.
大清的傲慢自大严重错误地估计了自己的重要性和实力，直接挑战了一支远比他们强大的军事力量，并多次失败。我认为这场战争的原因，不仅仅是鸦片那么简单，英国法令中并没有特别提到鸦片。
This is of course quick run through of events, but I hope this gives a more nuanced and interesting view of what led to the start of the opium war.
这当然是对事件的快速回顾，但我希望这能让我们更细致有趣地了解鸦片战争的起因。
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