The Opium War
Regan L. La'naria J. Connor V. Dylan A.
What was the Opium war?
The Opium war (also known as the Anglo Chinese war) Was a very important was that involved Great Britain and China. It was over a drug called Opium that people in Great Britain desperately wanted to trade for, but people in China didn’t feel that they needed to trade for it. The opium war eventually fixed this with fighting and compromise in the end.
China had many resources in the time of the mid 19th century, and other countries wanted to trade with China so they would share those resources. China felt that they by theirself was doing fine alone and kind of stayed closed off to the rest of the world. Especially Great Britain wanted the Opium that China had, and China did not want the wedgwood pottery,scientific instruments, and woollen goods that Britain had to offer. Over a 50 year period Britain paid £27m in silver to the Chinese, but only sold them only £9m of British goods in return.
China eventually felt that opium was hurting their own society, and they put a ban on it. This made the British insanely upset, and they eventually declared a Opium war. Over the course of the fighting between the Chinese and the British, China had lost 20,000 to 25,000 men and the British had only lost 69 men. The Chinese empire was eventually shattered, and China was forced to quit the war.
At the end of the war, once China was forced to quit, Great Britian got exactly what they wanted. They opened up 5 ports to foreign trade in China, and China payed the British government 21 million dollars. The opium war of the 19th century was a crazy war between the British and the Chinese that ended up in favor for Great Britain.