He began his career as a barrister in England before entering the foreign service. He had that classic story of being raised in poverty, but rising to the top. Lord George Macartney was a well seasoned diplomat with an extensive resume and a reputation for getting things done. So let us go back in time a bit to begin what is quite honestly the emergence of one of the largest drug cartel stories of all time. The rationale was that I wanted to highlight why the White Lotus came to be and the British envoy stories would have derailed it, but in actuality, the corruption, White Lotus rebellion and British envoys all simultaneously play a very important role in the downfall of the Qing Dynasty. That something was the envoys sent by Britain to China to open up trade relations. #11 The West meets East failure Now while the last podcast highlighted the corruption of Heshen and his long lasting effect on the Qing dynasty during the late half of the 18th century, I intentionally avoided speaking about something. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on the history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube.

But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. This episode is the A West meets East story Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. Now we look to another aspect of China during the early 19th century, its struggle against the looming threat of western greed. Despite being successful, the White Lotus rebellion would spread a seed of destruction for the Qing dynasty that would grow overtime and bloom into multiple revolts and rebellions. Then the Jiaqing Emperor had to quell the White Lotus menace which cost the empire a possible 100 million taels of silver. One of China’s most corrupt figures and one of the richest men in history, Heshen was executed by the new Jiaqing Emperor.

The White Lotus Rebellion of 1794-1804 took root during one of the most corrupt ridden times in Chinese history. Last time we spoke, the Qing dynasty had enjoyed the first half of the 18th century with relative ease and prosperity, however the end half and emergence of the 19th century would not be so fruitful.

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