The Opium Wars

The Opium war was between China and England. It started in 1839 and ended in 1842. The governments signed a peace treaty that allowed the British to use five ports instead of one. Opium was a type of drug that was very strong and easy to get addicted to. It was used for medications and to take the pain away. The chinese were being sold opium from England. As a result the chinese lost power of an important Island call Hong Kong. Opium can be dangerous, but the British felt the rulers in China had no right to keep opium from their people. Western Civilazation had growen. The chinese rulers were making a lot of money by selling there most popular natural resource which was tea.

The reason why it's called the Opium war is because the chinese were trying to get Opium out of their country, but the British kept bringing it in. As a result the British easily won the Chinese because the British had way more modern technology than the Chinese did. This is one of China's most humiliating losses in history.