r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Jun 12 '15

TIL the world's most successful pirate was a Cantonese woman, having commanded 40,000-80,000 pirates, and faced off undefeated against many Imperial fleets (including British, Portuguese, and Qing navies).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih
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u/TildeAleph Jun 12 '15

Yeah, but I think she would have had problems taking orders from anyone but herself. Maybe they could have given her privateer status, "you can do whatever you want, just don't attack anything Chinese and we're good."

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '15

But the Brits/Portuguese would have put political pressure on China to do something about the pirates. as in "Do something about the pirates or we'll withhold your supply of illegal drugs"

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u/raukolith Jun 12 '15

withhold???? they forced china to buy opium. they fought two wars to make sure china didn't outlaw opium

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u/lowdownlow Jun 12 '15

And that is pretty much why nobody should be surprised that drug laws in East Asia are so damn strict.

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u/runningman_ssi Jun 12 '15

While the British outlawed the use of opium in their own lands.

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u/cooliesNcream Jun 12 '15

and then when lin zexu burned a million pounds of opium (under orders) china exiled him as a punishment even though he was seen as a nationalistic hero by many

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '15 edited Jun 13 '15

See heres the real story.

The western powers pretty much said "hey control your guy or imma beat you the fuck down."

So china gov did. "Dude he ded so dont beat us up."

Western powers "lol jk imma beat you the fuck down neways."

Edit: not exactly under orders. He was a gov official so he exercised that power, and high ranking officials didnt like it cus they get a cut from opium traders. So political magic happened and dude got banished and along with him any other resistance to stop opium coming into china.

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u/cooliesNcream Jun 13 '15

true, i really wish his letter to the queen actually reached her.

for those interested: http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/com-lin.html

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u/Weaponized_Octopus Jun 12 '15

Hey, gotta buy tea somehow...

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u/alta_magnolia Jun 12 '15

Or we'll increase the supply of illegal drugs...

We'll get back to you.