The Opium Wars

The Opium war was based on the British forcing its way for trading opium for tea into China. The British wanted China to trade with them, but China refused to do so because they believed they were self-sufficient and independent. China produced their own goods for their people and had no needs to trade for other's produced goods. Once China agreed to trade with the British they wanted silver in return for their tea. The British were then obligated to trade their silver for the Chinese tea. As time went on the British were running out of silver and they were left with the burden of finding another produced good to trade for tea. The British then introduced their new good to China, which was opium. The people of China welcomed the opium and became addicted to the drug. The economy of China soon began to change, the farmers began lacking in producing farm goods for the people, and the Chinese army soon began to crumble or break down. When the emperor of China realized the breakdown of the economy was caused by this drug opium, he sent a letter out to Queen Victoria, but the letter never made it to her. The British refused to stop distributing the drug to China and they were forced to take action by burning the opium trade ports. As a result of the action the Chinese took, Britain declared war. Britain had more advanced battle warfare tactics that resulted in a easy victory against China.