The Asian Origins of Global Narcotics Control, c. 1860-1909

Abstract

This dissertation traces the ferment of private ressentiment, public protest and political response to the Asian opium trade from the "Second Opium War (1856-60) to the first, multilateral anti-drug summit in human history, the International Opium Commission in Shanghai (1909). Rather than isolating single anti-opium movements and drug control policies by administration, the focus is on moments and dynamics of ideological proliferation, social mobilization and political lobbying across the borders of societies in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Europe and North America.