The Opium Wars

     The Opium wars were about when China and European countries fought over a drug called opium that took about 3 years from 1839 to 1842. Opium was a drug from India. Opium was one of the first drug wars in the world. The reason of the Opium wars were because China wanted to isolate themselves outside their country. Europeans especially Britain wanted to trade with China. Europeans saw that tea from China was a great product and they liked the China's tea. China only let the Europeans access to the port and that's when China adapted from Western civilizations. Europeans gave the drug opium to them. 

     China was so addicted to opium that it was a heroin and morphine and the Chinese made a law that it was illegal because the drug affected many people in China. The Chinese would confiscate it and destroy the opium and buy no more of it from the Europeans.  During the Opium wars China would get defeated a lot because of the highly equipped Europeans. It was called Opium wars because China got mad at the Europeans for bringing a drug to their country and they stopped trading the Europeans tea. Europeans got mad also for not getting tea from the Chinese. All because of a drug it was called the Opium wars.

     In the war Europeans attacked the Chinese with their gunboats and cannons. The Chinese were not prepared for the war and only had swords. The Chinese's weapons were no match for the Europeans advanced technology and weapons. The British defeated China. China signed two Treaties called Treaty of Bogue and Treaty of Nanjing. They finally got peace and China was able to legalize opium. Also Europeans were able to have five ports in China.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

     The film, "Mountains of the Moon," was a great movie and I can see now how the Europeans traveled in Africa finding the Nile River. As the Europeans explored Africa, some of the hardships they faced there were when robbers robbed most of the explorers supplies and food. Europeans were short on supplies and food. Rare animals like lions would get in their way, bugs like mosquitos at night, they met tribes on the way and had to give presents to them to stay or pass in the tribes' land or turf. Also the Europeans were ambushed from a bad tribe because they didn't like them and wanted to take any valuables they had especially gold. 

     It's strange that the Europeans named the Nile River,"Lake Victoria," after a British Queen because after they found the Nile River they wanted to name it after their British Queen in honor of her. Along the expeditions of the Europeans, the primary technological advantage they had over African people were weapons like guns. The guns they had were hand guns and shotguns. The African people didn't have any weapons like what the Europeans had, instead they had spears but it wasn't effective.