The Opium Wars

The Opium Wars
The Opium Wars, a set of two wars between the Qing Dynasty and British.   From 1839 till 1840 and 1856 till 1860, these two nationalities of China and Britain fought over the trade of opium, hence the name Opium Wars, but disputes of the drug started and ended long before and after the wars.   This war was the most humiliating defeat in Chinese history, and quite possibly the stupidest, but valid, reason for a war.
Everything has a beginning, and these wars start with Chinese opium addicts.   The British trade silver to China for tea, silk, etc., and to get their silver back, they sold opium to the Chinese.   By the 1830's the British were importing more than 900 tonnes of the stuff annually to supply an estimate between four to twelve million opium addicts.   The imperial government made trade and possession of opium illegal in 1836, but British and Chinese merchants continued to import the nasty stuff from India.   Lin Tse-hsü was appointed Imperial Commissioner at Canton to stop opium trade at the source in March of 1839 and cracked down on the imports and stocks of opium, even composing a letter to Queen Victoria requesting the stop of all opium trade that she never got.   The British were quite upset about the “take-no-prisoners” law enforcement policy with no formal treaty between the two countries. The British refused to back down from the opium trade.   Lin cut off all trade with “outsiders”, and so began the Opium Wars.
Both wars were relativity low-conflict, but resulted in much bigger results.   During the First Opium War, Chinese forces, almost entirely naval, attempted to fight the British, but the technological advantages of the British, such as gunpowder weapons, were entirely overpowering.   Easily, the British took control of major ports such as Canton, forcing the Chinese government to sign China's first unequal treaty, the Treaty of Nanjing.   Lin was demoted for the loss of the war, but understanding the importance of the technology...