Imperialism in China

From 1839 to 1842, China fought what we now call the "Opium Wars" with Britain.The British opium trade in China started the world’s very first drug war, in the 19th centuryOpium is a preparation made from the juice of poppy seedpods, and used to produce heroinn the 15th century, when opium was first introduced to China, it was used as medicine to treat diseases such as dysentery, cholera, as well as diarrhea. Most of the opium came from india or turkey. Chinese authorities tried to stop the growing import trade in opium.Most of the imports of opium to China was strictly forbidden. Despite this restriction, the opium trade continued to grow. Privately owned vessels of many countries, including the United States, made huge profits from the growing number of Chinese addicts of the black market. But china gave them tea and it had become a very popular drink in Great Britain. China would have rather not traded with the British at all, but they were willing to sell the British tea only if they used the port in Canton.The British had to use gold and silver because China was a self-sufficient country and the Chinese did not want or need anything from Great Britain or any other foreign countries.When the British couldn’t find any other products to export to China, they decided to bring in opium mixed with tobacco to promote opium smoking. Around the same time as the opium trade went on, the Chinese ended up spending most of their money on the drug. China began to fall moneywise. Which lead to the opium wars.

When the Chinese government discovered the British smuggling opium into China to sell, they didn't take it very well.Lin Tse-Hsua, an imperial commissioner, wrote a letter to Queen Victoria of England arguing that if the opium had harmful effects that Britain had to make opium trading and consumption illegal in England, then why was England exporting such harmful products to other countries. The problem was that it was never delivered into the hands of the queen.But it angered British officials in China who felt that it challenged their power.The trade of opium also started to destroy the way the original trade order of China was ran . After a while, China finally decided to get rid of all the opuim they had. The British got angry and decided to have their army surround China. China wanted to beat the british, but they failed anyway. The british destroyed them easily becuase they weapons and technology was far more advanced then theirs. Since china was basically out of money, they had nothing to make better weapons for their army. Wanting not to lose tier pride, they made a treaty with the british called " The Treaty of Tianjin"The British forced China to sign this treaty by burning up the imperial summer palace, also known as the Yuan Ming Yuan.Under the Treaty of Tianjin, China had to open up eleven more ports to foreign trade that made the trade better.

"Mountains of the Moon"

European explorers had went to Africa to find the source of the Nile River. To find out the source of the river, they decided to walk through the middle of Africa in to find the source near Africa's center. But it was a very hard to accomplish . To find the source, they decided to walk the whole way there. Based on Africa's terrain, it seemed like a very bad idea. The men had to carry all their heavy supplies by foot. They had ran into the local tribes in the area. Their camp was ambushed by a whole bunch of people from a tribe and alot of people was killed.Alot of people people died of fatigue and disease. Some also died of diseases, such as milarea . The strange thing about lake victoria is that its in the middle of Africa and it was named after the English queen. who happens to be more then a thousand miles away. The primary technological advantage the Europeans had over the Africans was the guns. The Europeans could easily wipe out the Africans.It was guns against spears. The Africans didn't stand a chance. Another reason the Europeans easily took over Africa was that the tribes were not unified. they were easy to be killed while thay were divided.

imperialism Project

We did the imperialism Project to understand imperialism more. Imperialism is when one country tries to take over another country to gain control over their economy. Imperialism refers to the colonial expansion adopted by Europe's powers. Later adopted by japan and the united states during the 19th and early 20th centuries; expansion approximately took place from the Franco-Prussian War to World War I. We learned that trade was very important to the colonies. That if it wasnt for the trade routes over water, some goods would be harder to trade and some wouldn't be able to be traded at all. I also noticed that alot of countries had colonies in different places. Like England, it had colonies all over the world. They owned land in North America, Africa, and Asia.