HONG KONG — In 1840, Britain went to war with China over questions of trade, diplomacy, national dignity and, most importantly, drug trafficking. While British officials tried to play down the ...

The current rulers of China are engaged in a Third Opium War, a long-overdue revenge for the First and Second Opium Wars (1839 and 1860), in which British warships attacked Chinese ports and ...

The Opium War was "a brilliantly snappy name that sneakily prejudges the issue in very simple form: While China had done Britain no harm, the British gratuitously invaded China," reported Gelber.

The causes, events and consequences of the First Opium War (1838-1842) are explored. ... This led to war, after the Chinese destroyed all the British opium in China.

Further hostilities broke out in the Second Opium War of 1856-58 when combined British and French forces again inflicted ...

The result was the “First Opium War,” in which Britain won a resounding victory. As a consequence, Chinese ports were forcibly opened to British trade, including the opium trade.

Others theorise that the war was the result of Britain wishing to defend its national honour after Lin Zexu, the Imperial Commissioner, destroyed 20, 000 chests of British opium. Related Heritage ...

During the 19th century, opium was British India's most valued export and China its most lucrative market. So much so that in 1858 Britain went to war not to prevent drug trafficking, but to ...

Twenty years later, China lost the Second Opium War, in which French, Russian and a few American forces participated alongside the British. China was compelled to accept full legalization of the ...

Further hostilities broke out in the Second Opium War of 1856-58 when combined British and French forces again inflicted military defeats on China and demanded further concessions on trade.. Opium and ...