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.!!