The Opium Wars

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Two wars fought by Britain — joined by France in the second — against Qing China, arising from the British insistence on trading opium into China against Chinese law and on terms of its own choosing. The First War (1839–1842) followed Lin Zexu's destruction of confiscated opium and ended in Qing defeat and the Treaty of Nanking; the Second (1856–1860) ended with the sacking of the Yuanmingyuan and treaties that legalised the opium trade and opened further ports. The wars were fought so that Britain could keep paying for tea with a narcotic, and they inaugurated what Chinese historiography calls the century of humiliation.

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