CRI345 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Second Opium War, First Opium War, Opium Den
Document Summary
Legacy of empire and imperial thought in framing ideas about international threats . Implicit and explicit racialization of suspect populations. Criminalization of immigration status invention of the illegal alien . Not always considered a criminal offence slow and steady progress. Novel & new way of thinking about migration & borders owed a lot to older concerns about racialization, contamination, influence. Became a problem in the late 19th century. Always circulated around the world, but only considered in west as major social ill worthy of massive policy/police response in late 19th c. British fears of the opium den , related to concerns about (small) chinese population in london. Fear less to do w/ drugs (not criminalized at the time) Concern that evolutionary gains could be loss through vice, illness, racial pollution. Concern among liberal britains that empire was brutal thing not openly welcomed/solicited by subject populations. Contrary to liberal myths of civilizing & humanitarian british empire.