The Opium Wars

"The opium wars" was the world's very first "drug war" between the years of 1939 to 1942.  During this time China was popular because of its tea that they had grown. The people in Britain were interested in this Tea so they decided to buy from it. However, China at the time had a different overview from the outside world. Their Kings and rulers believed that the people in China should have no reason to explore in other countries at all. They thought that they were the most advanced in technology than any other country. (This was not True; they were a little behind on things like big machine guns and stuff like that).  China didnt accept anything from britain, but they didn't mind selling their Tea to them. They traded at a specific location which was the port of Canton. Eventually Britain wasn't comfortable with this.  They felt they needed to Balance the trade, in this case sell something back to them.  The people of Britain began exchanging their Opium for tea. Opium is a drug which  is grown in india and sent to Britain by merchants. Opium is used to make morphine and heroin. The chinese people became really addicted to this newly introduced drug. However the Rulers of China banned this opium because they were spending to much gold and silver. This law got too serious & now it came to the point if anyone was caught smoking Opium they shall be executed. Britain wasnt too happy bout this so they attacked China. Since China was attacked unsurprisingly Britain wound up winning badly. China lost their most important island which was Hong Kong, and they suffered deafeat.!!

''Mountains of the Moon"

Richard Burton and John Speak dealt with many hardships throughout their exploration in Africa. These two men were European explorers. As shown in the film "Mountains of the Moon they they faced a lot of problems with the africans. Since people from Africa didn't know who these strange white men were, they assaulted them .Eventually Richard Burton and John Speak would have to defend themselves or just try and run away. These africans had their own local tribes, and were armed with spears and other hand-made weapons. These two explorers were in search of the Nile River. However a source of the Nile River was known as lake Victoria. This lake originally got its name from a British Queen. Since Burton and spleak's queen was Queen Victoria, they decided to name the lake "LAKE VICTORIA" As we now know today; Lake Victoria is the third largest lake in the world! Richard Burton and John spleak faced rough times because they'd get captured and torchered if the africans ever got a hold of them. The purpose of all this was to search for the great Nile River. SOme primary technological advantages these europeans had against the africans were guns and other advanced weapons. They also had advanced skills such as knowledge and a way of communication. Knowledge is power, without no knowledge then you have no power. In this case people in europe had a steady organized government, where people dont live out on the streets or hunt for their own food. They have a shelter, clothing, marketing open harbors for ships to import and export goods. African people had NONE of this!! So this is how basically Europeans were able to conquer africa so easily.