The Opium Wars

The Opium Wars, also known as the Anglo-Chinese War, was the most embarrassing defeat that they had faced. It was the first drug war in the 19th century. Opium is a drug made from poppy seedpods and is also used to make heroin. It was mostly used to as medicine to cure diseases. It was made and shipped to China from India from British traders. This drug is a very addictive drug and many Chinese people had gotten high off commonly in the early 1800's. 2 million pounds of opium was being sold to China and about 10% of the Chinese population smoked Opium. China's economy went down because of the silver being used to pay for the Opium. To balance out trade with the British importing, the Chinese would export tea to Britain.

Britain won the Opium War. It technology was so advance to defeat China in the world. They had huge ships with cannons and gun machines, nothing compared to the small things China had. China's army got demolished. After their defeat, China allowed trading ports for foreigners.