Why did Great Britain give opium to China?

Britain and other European countries undertook the opium trade because of their chronic trade imbalance with China. There was tremendous demand in Europe for Chinese tea, silks, and porcelain pottery, but there was correspondingly little demand in China for Europe’s manufactured goods and other trade items.

How was the opium war justified?

Many earlier western commentators tried to play down opium as the casus belli, asserting instead that a clash of economic and political cultures lay behind the conflicts. They sought a moral justification for wars that were essentially about protecting an illegal, profitable drugs trade.

Why was opium smuggled China?

By the start of the 19th century, the trade in Chinese goods such as tea, silks and porcelain was extremely lucrative for British merchants. In order to stop this, the East India Company and other British merchants began to smuggle Indian opium into China illegally, for which they demanded payment in silver.

How did opium affect China’s population?

The cost to China was enormous. The drug weakened a large percentage of the population (some estimate that 10 percent of the population regularly used opium by the late nineteenth century), and silver began to flow out of the country to pay for the opium.

How did the British solve the problem of opium addiction?

The solution to Britain’s problem was opium. Although opium had been used in China for medicinal purposes for a long time, it had not been used as a recreational drug. The British introduced opium to China in 1825, and soon, not surprisingly, Chinese began to be addicted to the drug.

How did Britain win the Opium War?

The British were outraged, and the first Opium War began. Faced with British industrial weaponry, it was no contest, and Britain easily defeated the Chinese. As part of the settlement of the war, China was forced to agree to open up new ports for trade, and to surrender the island of Hong Kong.

Did the Opium War legalize the opium trade in China?

The first war, between Britain and China (1839–42), did not legalize the trade, but it did halt Chinese efforts to stop it. In the second Opium War (1856–60)—fought between a British-French alliance and China—the Chinese government was forced to legalize the trade, though it did levy a small import tax on opium.

Why did the British import opium from India?

However, Britain did not possess sufficient silver to trade with the Qing Empire. Thus, a system of barter based on Indian opium was created to bridge this problem of payment. The subsequent exponential increase of opium in China between 1790 and 1832 brought about a generation of addicts and social instability.