The Opium Wars of the mid-19th century were fought between the Western powers and the Qing dynasty, which ruled China from 1644 to 1912. Two wars took place, both fought essentially over the illegal ...

Less than two decades after the First Opium War, Britain launched another brutal campaign against Qing China this time with ...

Sam Kelly explains how Queen Victoria became a huge fan of drugs—and how she brought China to its knees because of it.

In 'Smoke and Ashes,' Amitav Ghosh draws comparisons between America's modern opioid crisis and the West's flooding of China with opium in the 18th century.

The Opium Wars were a pivotal — and humiliating — juncture in China's history. The two armed conflicts, waged over sovereignty, trade and opium almost 180 years ago, pit the richest empire on ...

China was soundly defeated. Among other outcomes, it ceded the vast port city of Hong Kong to Britain at the end of the First Opium War. Hong Kong returned to China's dominion in 1997.

A scene from 1842 during the first Opium War between China and Britain. Such battles more than 150 years ago were about control over trade, finance, and sovereignty — much like China’s ...

He asserts that China was the world`s most powerful nation but was unable to stop drug smuggling or the use of opium among its people. He implies […] Skip to content.

After the mid-18th century, when the British East India Co. was importing tea from China, few could have guessed that the industry would be revolutionized by a different plant: the opium poppy.