The Opium Wars

The Opium Wars started in 1839 and ended in 1842. The war was between China and Great Britain. Since China had been isolated for so many years, Great Britain saw the opportunity to trade for tea. China has a great natural resource of tea which the British loved. Since the Chinese didn't want to trade with the British, the British began to sell them Opium, and they happily bought it. Opium is a drug that is very easily to get addicted to. It is extracted from the Poppy flower, and was sometimes used to stop diarrhea. Yes opium was very a dangerous drug, but the British thought that the Chinese rulers should sell it to their people.

The government of Great Britain and China signed a peace treaty that allowed the British to use five ports instead of one. They were able to do this because of how much the Chinese were buying opium. The British mixed tobacco with Opium and sold this new type of cigarette product in China. Over two million pounds of Opium was being sold to China every year. By the late 1830s more than 30,000 chests, each of which contained about 150 pounds of opium, was being brought in annually by the British. In 1838, the trade of opium ended, and anyone who was trying to trade it would be killed. Then in spring of 1839 Chinese authorities at Canton confiscated and burned the opium. China was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, and the British signed the Treaty of the Bogue in 1843. This war was called the Opium Wars because it was a fight for Opium. China wanted the Opium out of the country, while the British wanted it in. The British won this war due to their high technology and powerful army. This war ended in the Chinese losing the power of a very important island and trading port called Hong Kong. The British and French again defeated China in a second opium war in 1856. This time they allowed foreigners with passports to travel inside of China.

Film lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

In the film "Mountains of the Moon," the Europeans faced many hardships trying to find the source of the Nile River. Some of these hardships was dealing with the African tribes that already lived in the territory that they were traveling on. The African tribes were fascinated with their skin color and the way they dressed. They had never seen people of different skin color in their territory. They began touching Richard Burton and John Speke's hair as if it was the best thing in the world. They also had to deal with the bugs in the desert that gave John Speke an infection in his ear. When they found the source of the Nile River they named it Lake Victoria after a Queen of England, this name was very common in this time. Lake Victoria is located in the middle of Africa and is the third largest river in the world. The primary technological advantage that the English had over the Africans i believe were the guns and the compasses. The gun because it helped them fight against African tribes. The compass helped them to move around in Africa, so they would know which way they were heading. The Europeans eventually were able to conquer Africa because of the technology they had. Also because of the weapons that they used to defend themselves to take over the African land.