With a population of more than 1.4 billion people, a gross domestic product that ranks second only to the United States worldwide, and a growing nuclear arsenal, it is easy to see the threat that China poses today. And we didn’t even mention human rights violations or the advancements China is making in artificial intelligence.
They are undoubtedly a superpower, arguably the chief threat to the U.S., and anyone with two eyes and an internet connection can see that.
Related: The only way Napoleon’s enemies could beat him was by not fighting him at all
Things were much different in the 19th century for China, though, so few were predicting at that time the potential behemoth that the Asian nation would become. One of those people was Napoleon Bonaparte, the 5-foot-6 emperor of France that some consider the best military commander of all time, statistically speaking.
Napoleon may have been the first to warn the world about an empowered China. One quote, often attributed to Napoleon, says: “Let China sleep, for when she wakes the earth shall tremble.” It might be doubtful that he ever actually said or wrote those exact words, but his feelings on the subject would become quite clear.
The Time that Napoleon Returned to Power
Napoleon was famously exiled twice in his life. The first time, he was sent to the Mediterranean island of Elba. He escaped his captors, returned to power in France and then immediately went to war with Europe once more.
He was finally defeated in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, which led to his second exile on the island of Saint Helena, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, he was only 45 years old, so the emperor’s mind and body had many thoughts and years left in them. He took to writing his memories and thoughts while he lived in exile. There was no escaping Saint Helena. British troops kept a watchful eye on the island and its neighbors off the coast of Africa. While there, he learned English so he could read English books and newspapers, as French ones were kept under tight control by his jailers.
Britain, China Battle over Opium Trade
The defeat of Napoleon left the British empire as the sole superpower of the time, unrivaled at sea, and thus completely controlled the economies of many countries, including China’s. Britain began exerting influence on China while Napoleon was still alive, focusing primarily on the opium trade. This would lead to a series of conflicts after Napoleon’s death, as Chinese officials sought to end the influence of opium on the Chinese people and British ships and troops fought to allow opium traders to operate inside China.
Even before opium became a problem, Napoleon was still a genius and could see the writing on the wall: China was going to be a problem. A big, big problem.
What Did Napoleon Say About China?
Napoleon had this to say about British aggression toward China:
“It would be the worst thing you have done for a number of years, to go to war with an immense empire like China, and possessing so many resources. You would doubtless, at first, succeed, take what vessels they have, and destroy their trade; but you would teach them their own strength.
“They would be compelled to adopt measures to defend themselves against you; they would consider, and say, ‘We must try to make ourselves equal to this nation. Why should we suffer a people, so far away, to do as they please to us? We must build ships, we must put guns into them, we must render ourselves equal to them,’” Napoleon continued. “They would get artificers and ship-builders from France and America, even from London; they would build a fleet, and, in the course of time, defeat you.
“Now great commercial advantage may be lost to England, and perhaps a war with China [will] be the consequence. If I were an Englishman, I should esteem the man who advised a war with China to be the greatest enemy to my country in existence. You would in the end be beaten, and perhaps a revolution in India would follow.
“You ought to monopolize the whole China trade to yourselves,” Napoleon concluded. “Instead of going to war with the Chinese, it [would be] better to make war with nations who desire to trade with them.”
The Opium Wars
There were actually two Opium Wars. The first one between Great Britain and China lasted from 1839 to 1842. France was added into the mix for the Second Opium War from 1856 to 1860.
China came out on the losing side in both cases, but in the process, it learned an important lesson that reverberates in the People’s Republic of China under current president Xi Jinping.
The agreement between the West and China after the Opium Wars were called the “unequal treaties,” partly because the Chinese thought they gave up way too much. They resulted in the Chinese developing a widespread distrust and dislike for Western imperialism.
“If you talk to many Chinese about the Opium War, a phrase you will quickly hear is, ‘luo hou jiu yao ai da,’ which literally means that if you are backward, you will take a beating,’” according to one British historian.
China ultimately became a superpower, and for all of his faults, Napoleon deserves credit for seeing that coming.
