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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Second Battle of Chuenpee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In October 1840, the Daoguang Emperor fired Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu and replaced him with Qishan. British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston instructed Plenipotentiary Charles Elliot to have the ports of Canton, Amoy, Fuzhou, Ningpo, and Shanghai be opened for trade, to acquire the cession of an island or islands (or if the Chinese refused, the establishment of a secure English enclave on the mainland), and to be paid money for confiscated opium and military costs in China. On 1 December 1840, Elliot wrote to Palmerston that these demands would be secured in ten days. Three days after the deadline, Elliot wrote to Governor-General of India Lord Auckland that he failed to get the concessions, but still predicated success. He then conceded to Auckland that any success would be "far short of the demands of the government." In negotiations with Qishan, Elliot wanted $7 million in six years and the surrender of Amoy and Chusan as permanent British possessions. Qishan offered $5 million over twelve years, so they agreed to $6 million. However, Qishan refused Elliot's territorial demands. Elliot offered to abandon Chusan (which the British captured in July 1840) for another port to be chosen later. After Qishan rejected the offer, Elliot told him, "There are very large forces collected here, and delays must breed amongst them a very great impatience." The year passed with no final settlements. An opium ship that sailed to Canton delivered a rumour that the emperor decided to wage war. On 5 January 1841, Elliot prepared for an attack on Canton. He informed Qishan that an attack would commence in two days if agreements could not be reached. He allowed Commodore James Bremer, commande... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=24992492 ... Read more

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Publisher: Tientsin, Tientsin press, ltd.Publication date: 1922Subjects: Opium tradeOpiumNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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Chapters: Conflicts in 1856, Military Units and Formations Established in 1856, Second Opium War, Battle of Seattle, Second Battle of Rivas, Hans Majestet Kongens Garde, Watermelon War, Santhal Rebellion, Puget Sound War, Battle of Nanking, Prince Alfred's Guard, Battle of Santa Rosa, Tintic War. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 54. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Battle of Seattle was a January 26, 1856 attack by Native Americans upon Seattle, Washington. At the time, Seattle was a settlement in the Washington Territory that had recently named itself after Chief Seattle (Sealth), a leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples of central Puget Sound. It is now a city in Washington State, U.S. Backed by artillery fire and supported by Marines from the United States Navy sloop-of-war Decatur, anchored in Elliott Bay (Seattle's harbor, then called Duwam-sh Bay), the settlers suffered only two deaths; it is not known if any of the Native American raiders died, though Phelps writes that they later "would admit" to 28 dead and 80 wounded. The battle, part of the multi-year Puget Sound War or Yakima War, lasted only a single day. The Seattle settlement of the time was located roughly where Seattle's Pioneer Square now sits. T. S. Phelps's memoir of the time described the settlement as: on a point, or rather a small peninsula, projecting from the eastern shore, and about two miles (3 km) from the mouth of Duwam-sh River, debouching at the head of the bay. The northern part of this peninsula is connected with the mainland by a low neck of marshy ground, and about one-sixteenth of a mile from its southeastern extremity a firm, hard sand-pit nearly joined it to the adjacent shore, severed only by a narrow channel through which the surplus waters of an inclosed swamp escaped into the bay...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=7738130 ... Read more

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Chapters: Conflicts in 1859, Military Units and Formations Established in 1859, John Brown, Second Opium War, Battle of Magenta, Battle of Solferino, Cochinchina Campaign, Siege of Tourane, Pig War, Siege of Saigon, Artists Rifles, Second Italian War of Independence, Cape Garrison Artillery, the Robin Hood Battalion, Hallamshire Battalion, Bear River Expedition, Battle of Cepeda, Battle of Montebello, Battle of Varese, Spanish-moroccan War, Mendocino War, Battle of Palestro. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 114. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: John Brown (May 9, 1800 December 2, 1859) was an American abolitionist, who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to end all slavery. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas and made his name in the unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859. President Abraham Lincoln said he was a "misguided fanatic" and Brown has been called "the most controversial of all 19th-century Americans." Brown's actions are often referred to as "patriotic treason", depicting both sides of the argument. John Brown's attempt in 1859 to start a liberation movement among enslaved African Americans in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) electrified the nation. He was tried for treason against the state of Virginia, the murder of five proslavery Southerners, and inciting a slave insurrection and was subsequently hanged. Southerners alleged that his rebellion was the tip of the abolitionist iceberg and represented the wishes of the Republican Party. Historians agree that the Harpers Ferry raid in 1859 escalated tensions that, a year later, led to secession and the American Civil War. Brown first gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis. Unlike most other Northerners, who advocated...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=77323 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An important but neglected history.
History is often sanitized for the secular public.One part of that sanitization is the down-playing of the impact reformist Christianity had around the world in the 19th Century, not only on the social mores of the West (slavery, prostitution, etc.) but really to the ends of the earth.An article on feminist reforms in China need make no mention of Christian missions.(Never mind that the great Chinese scholar Hu Shi admitted that missionaries "taught us . . . to look at women as people.")You can read of reform movements in Hinduism without learning what spiritual influence it was that caused such movements to spring up at that particular moment.

This is a secret that historians don't usually let out: that Christian missions changed the world in the 19th Century.

Kathleen Ludwick's book is an important and unusual contribution to the social history of our times.Ludwick portrays the competition between two groups of foreigners in China, both of whom (as the Chinese scholar Lin Yutang put it) no doubt thought the other mad: businessmen, who came to China to enrich themselves at the expense of the Chinese by selling opium, and Christian missionaries, who came to save the souls of the Chinese, and help them in any other way as well if possible.She argues: "More than any other group at the turn of the 20th Century, the Protestant missionaries in China truly understood the nature of opium addiction and had the courage to pursue their campaign against the drug until they finally convinced others of the correctness of their position."Many of the missionaries involved were of course doctors, though she shows that on this issue, at any rate, missionaries found a remarkable degree of harmony and agreement among themselves, even such different spirits as Hudson Taylor and James Legge.She also gives some details of the arguments by which the British government (with, of course, help from the respectable drug dealers themselves) justified ruining millions of lives.This book is full of details, some of them quite interesting, others a little dry by now.The author's tone is fairly even-handed, though she is not so "scholarly" that she is afraid to take sides in such a clear-cut battle between right and wrong.

This volume presents a small part of a tremendously important historical narrative, and thus belongs in any college library.Chinese who have grown up hearing from their government about how closely the missionaries were implicated in imperialism, might especially find it worth reading.I also recommend it to Christians who are involved in similiar prophetic acts of social justice today, helping drug addicts or opposing abortion, who are looking for encouragement.... ... Read more

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This volume deals with the period from the Opium War in 1840-42 to the eve of the May 4th Movement in 1919. It covers the Taiping Revolution, the Reform Movement, the Yi Ho Tuan Uprising and the Revolution of 1911. It presents the salient facts about imperialist aggression in China and traces the transformation of China from an independent feudal society to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. It describes the Chinese people's persistent fight against imperialism and feudalism and recounts their struggles and the lessons drawn from them. ... Read more

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This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 1; Original Published by: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans in 1852 in 394 pages; Subjects: China; History / General; History / Asia / General; History / Asia / China; ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Isabella is suffering from amnesia, but she cannot believe that she is the wife of Justin Llarne, despite the fact that the truth of her marriage is constantly vouched for by Susannah and Silas, the unpleasant couple he is involved with and who keep her prisoner. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Leisurely, well-researched novel
Leisurely may be the best word to describe this novel set during the first Opium War and the founding of the British settlement at Hong Kong. Timothy Mo takes his time letting us get to know Gideon Chase and Walter Eastman and a large cast of traders, artists, debutantes and warriors who shared a cocooned existence in the trading enclaves of Canton, Macao and Hong Kong in the late 1830s and early 1840s. In this novel and others (The Monkey King and Sour Sweet), Timothy Mo displays a deep love of the characters he creates. He revels in their eccentricities, enjoys their friendships, understands and forgives their imperfections. Mo's writing powers are astounding. He can craft 79-word sentences that work. He slyly conveys Eastman and Chase's shared idealism and deep friendship simply by reproducing an expense ledger that shows they have agreed to equal pay in a business venture, despite holding different ranks. There are other subtle touches. An offhand observation that Chase will grow increasingly embittered and isolated after the year 1872 may (or may not) be explained by a biographical footnote at the end of the book; the uncertainty is intriguing. Mo's research was rigorous. He writes powerful and convincing accounts of bloody battles and describes a terrifying shipwreck. But An Insular Possession is not an easy read. Much of the narrative is expressed in dialogue and excerpts from newspapers, rendered in the language of the times. This reader (easily befuddled, it's true) occasionally got lost, wrongly thinking at one point that Eastman and Chase were about to fight each other in a duel and confusing two characters at another. I also began to wonder what Mo was trying to say here. The novel flows from one incident to another -- some of them amusing and intimate, others on a sweeping epic scale - without really leading anywhere in particular. But then, that seems to be Mo's point (or one of them) - that life and history drift through episodes, the underlying meanings of which remain elusive or nonexistent. In the end, Mo just invites us to spend time with engaging characters during a tumultuous period in history. That's enough. ... Read more