Opium Wars - Imperialism In China

Tea was a popular drink in China and soon became popular in Europe. The Europeans wanted the tea but China would only trade in one port sine their government didn't want them to adopt ideas. Then Great Britain thought of ideas so that they can buy and sell in China and not just buy. The Europeans then started to sell opium to the Chinese people which was a drug. The Europeans sold opium to the Chinese and they got addicted to it. This ended up making the Chinese trade tea for opium and the government ruled that if anyone is caught trading opium they would be put to death. Then Britain declared war on china for banning opium and attacked China using their gunships while China was unaware of the attack. This is called the opium wars because Britain was trading opium to china which led to China banning opium and led to a war. Great Britain won the war easily while China had a humiliating defeat. This is due to China being behind in technology and had ancient weapon while Britain had more modern weapons due to China restricting trade which prevented new ideas from entering China.