Compared with the powers in history, the British were relatively well-educated. They not only conquered and colonized many civilizations, but also were very keen on collecting cultural relics from various ancient civilizations. The British Museum contains many world-class orphan cultural relics, including the Dunhuang murals in China.
A few years ago, the Egyptian government asked the British Museum for ancient stone statues that were plundered by the British, but was rejected by the British. It is said that the British proposed the reason that cultural relics of the same weight should be exchanged. Isn’t this an obvious bullying? The weight of the stone statue is in tons, and I don’t know how many ordinary cultural relics it needs to use to achieve the same weight.
The British, who were not yet in their prime, seemed to regard themselves as protectors of human civilization and excavated and plundered the remains of ancient civilizations everywhere. It was also exhibited in an open manner, regardless of the feelings of the country of origin of the cultural relics.
China is also one of the main victims of cultural relics being plundered and stolen. After the soldiers of Britain and France stole countless treasures in the Old Summer Palace, they actually burned the magnificent royal garden in a fire, and the one who ordered the fire was the Earl of the British Erkin .
This Earl Erkin is Scottish and belongs to the prominent Bruce family. In the movie "Brave Heart", in the 13th century, the King of Scotland, who led the people to resist the rule of England, was Bruce. Erkin might be a descendant of King Bruce.
The seventh generation of Earkin Earl, Thomas Bruce was fascinated by ancient Greek civilization. After trying every means to become the ambassador to the Ottoman, he bribed the Ottoman real power figure and obtained the privilege of studying the Parthenon .
This temple is a symbol of Athenian civilization. It enshrines the goddess Athena and is a treasure of Greek people. However, Greece was still under the rule of the Ottomans at that time. Although the Turks knew that the temple was a precious cultural relic, they didn't care much.
Thomas Bruce removed 60% of the statues in the temple, and did not let go of the statues embedded in the walls, causing damage to the walls and many buildings to collapse. The statues were loaded with two hundred boxes and shipped back to England. The great poet Byron wrote a poem specifically, calling him the English robber.
Three years later, Thomas not only suffered from the plague, but also lost his posts as diplomats and parliament. To raise money, he sold it to the British Museum for £35,000. Since you know that these statues were stolen, then if you buy them, do you think it is considered to be sold?
Thomas's son James is no less than his own in stealing cultural relics. This time, China is unlucky. James graduated from Oxford University , inherited the title of Earl Erkin, and joined the British army to serve. James quickly became an absolute colonial officer and served as the governor of Jamaica, North America and other places.
During the Second Opium War , James Thomas was ordered to command the British army in the Far East to attack the "barbaric" Chinese. British and French coalition forces fought from Guangzhou to Beijing, and finally forced the Qing government to sign the "Tianjin Tianfu" and " Beijing Treaty ".
This war is a large-scale war that the Qing government has been trying to avenge its previous shame since the Opium War , and has concentrated the last elite force of the Qing Dynasty. On the local battlefield, there has been a record of winning.
If it weren't for Senggelinqin that ruined the Mongolian cavalry and the morale of the Qing army at Bali Bridge, the British and French coalition forces would have paid a greater price. Because of this, the losses of the British and French coalition forces far exceeded that of the First Opium War.
1860, after the British and French forces attacked Beijing, James Bruce claimed to have taught the Qing government a lesson. In fact, in order to cover up the evidence of stealing treasures, he deliberately set a big fire to burn the "Yuan Mingyuan". The fire burned for three days, and hundreds of eunuchs and palace servants were buried in the fire. Such atrocities shocked Europeans with conscience.
The Second Opium War caused extremely great harm to China. The ruins of the Old Summer Palace are still an important base for patriotic education to this day, telling the world that humiliating history.Countless precious cultural relics collected by the royal family flowed into foreign countries, some became royal collections, and some were scattered to major European museums, showing the world the great martial arts of the British and French coalition forces.
James Bruce was promoted to the Governor of India for his contribution to fighting against China. When ancient Chinese swore, the most common sentence they used was to be struck to death by lightning. This British count has dealt with the Chinese for a lot, which probably attracted the attention of the Chinese Thor. When he was in India, his house he lived in was struck by lightning and caught fire.
James Bruce was so scared that he had a heart attack, could not escape, and was burned to death in the house. I wonder if he remembered the fire he had set in the Old Summer Palace when he was dying. This year was 1863, less than three years before the burning of the Old Summer Palace, and retribution came not too late.
As for those Chinese cultural relics that have been lost abroad, in order to prevent foreigners from taking the opportunity to raise prices, China does not encourage people to spend huge amounts of money to purchase them. Perhaps when we become stronger, these national treasures will always return to the motherland.
