Opium Wars Imperialism and China

The Opium wars were one of the very first and biggest drug war in the world. There were two Opium Wars. The war lasted from 1839 top 1842.The main reason why the Opium Wars began was because of opium. Opium is a drug that comes from the juice of poppy seedpods. It could also be used form making heroine. Tea was very popular in Europe and the place where the British got their tea from was from China. China only had one place for the British to trade with which was the Canton port. The British always bought tea from the Chinese, but they now wanted to sell things to China. So to even out things the Bristish introduced the drug, opium, to the Chinese people. The British got opium from India. Opium was first used as a medical drug in China. It was used to treat some diseases like diarhhea. It was also used for making people more active and for sex. Later on, the British taught the Chinese that they could smoke opium by mixing it with tobacco. In the 18th centry the Chinese started to abuse and get addicted to opium. So much people were getting addicted to opium that 10% of the Chinese people smoking opium. This lead to the many deaths of the Chinese people. Emperor Daoguang then chose Lin Tse-Hsua to create an anti-opium campaign. it was to stop the use of opium activity like the use, selling, buying, and importing of opium. Chests of Opium were destroyed and thrown away. The use of Opium was also considered illegal. Users of opium would be executed. A letter was also sent to the Queen of England. However, the letter was unable to reach the queen becuase the messenger was killed. The first opium war started in November, 1839 because the British took over Hong Kong. The Chinese lost the first war becuase the were behind when it came to technology. As a result the Chinese were forced to sign the Treay of Nanjing. This was the end of the first Opium War. Another Opium War was caused becuase of the violation of a few treaties. After that war the Chinese signed the Treaty of Tiangin. The treaties were eventually abolished when communism came in to China.

Mountains of the Moon

So this movie was about two men, Richerd Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke, having an expidition in Africa. This was part of European imperialism. Their job was to map out the inside of Africa and find the source of the Nile River. If they were able to map out Africa Europe would be able take over Africa and take its resources. To do this they needed help from a lot of men. Their first expisition wasn't that succesful. They were attacked by the natives and they weren't prepared for the conditions of Africa. Burton got a big spear punctured through his lower face. He didn't die becuase of the spear. They also didn't have enough ammunition to defend themselves. They then went back to England. They were able to map very little of Africa, and they still haven't found the source of the Nile River. Once again, Burton and Spekes went back to Africa to get the job done. This time they had more men, slaves, and supplies. They were more prepared this time. They experience a lot of hard times during the second expedition. On one part of the movie Burton and his men encountered very dangerous animals. With the smarts of Burton his men were able to get through some tigers, and with the gun skills of Speke Burton's life was saved from being attacked by a lion. Like before, Burton and Speke encountered natives. Since they had a lot of supplies Burton's men were able to trade with the natives. They even faced big problems caused by small things. One problem was when a beetle went inside of Spekes ear. Another problem is when Burton had a dieseas in his legs which made him unable to walk. They then found a river, but they weren't sure if it was the source of the Nile River. So then the kept venturing and they found another river. Speke thought it was the source of the Nile River, but Burton didn't agree with Speke becuase there was no measurements or any sort of that. Speke named the lake Lake Victoria after the Queen of England. It's weird becuase the lake is in Africa and named after a white person. The technological advantage the Europeans had was their guns. Eventually the Europeans took over Africa becuase they improved their guns and mad machine guns.

Imerialism Project

In Mr. Moloney's class I did the imperialism project with the class becuase it was a good way to learn how Europe tried to conquer the whole world. In this project we learned that Europe traveled around the world to find spices since spices were very important in Europe. The Europeans traded spices with the spice islands in Indonesia. So while the Europeans tried to find spices, they accidentaly discovered the New World. They arrived at the Carribeans. In the New World they got more resources like gold, silver, and cotton.Later on European nations competed to control other parts of the world. They also started trading with other nations. The Europeans started trading for slaves from Africa to work in the New World so that more cotton would be produced. The Europeans also wanted to trade with the Chinese. The Chiniese didn't allow them. So what the Europeans did is they gave the Chinese opium from India. When the Chinese got addicted to the drug China allowed the Europeans to trade with them.