The people of China were under the Qing dynasty since 1644. This was an extremely oppressive government that often feared people would rebel against them. With this concern, emigration of the Chinese was forbidden. Any attempts to disobey the law would have serious consequences. The oppression along with harsh taxations caused a large amount of the population to be dissatisfied. The new law that prevented emigration of the people caused overpopulation in China. In 1741 there were 143 million people, in 1784 there were 286 million and in 1850 there were 430 million. There were many natural disasters to hit the area especially between the years of 1833 and 1882 where there were numerous amounts that hurt the food shortages even more.
Results from The Opium War of 1839 -1842 between the British and the Qing dynasty landed in a treaty that
“...granted
all English nationals the privilege of extraterritoriality” (Tsai 3).
This led to the “coolie trade” in the 1840s which was when Spanish
Republics took advantage of the privilege in order to ship cheap Chinese labor
to replace the slaves in Latin America. People were kidnapped from their homes
or lied to in order to get them on the ships. They were treated inhumanly, food
was rare and there was no space for anyone at all. Many died from suffocation
or ended up killing themselves to escape what was happening to them. Acts were
created in order to end the trade and it eventually ended in 1862 by the Prohibition
of Coolie Trade Act. After, Chinese emigration became voluntary.