The Opium War

The Opium War was a war fought by two countries Great Britain and china in 1839. The war was fought over the drug opium which was used by the Chinese for hundreds of year to relieve pain. opium is a habit forming narcotic made from the poppy plant. In the late 1700's the British was smuggling the drug into China for non-medical use. The navies of the two countries mostly fought the battles of the opium war at sea. Within three years the Chinese's old ships were simply no matches for the brand new British ships. In 1843 the Chinese and the British signed the treaty of Nanjing. This treaty gave the British the island of Hong Kong. In 1844 the United States of America and other countries gained extraterritorial rights. Which this allowed other countries to trade in china and not live by their law while in China. These extraterritorial rights led to many positive and negative things.

There are many positive results that came out of the Opium war. One of these positive results that occurred after the Opium war is the Spheres of Influence, which was a region in which the foreign nations controlled trade and investment. The United States was afraid that the spheres of influence would eventually grow larger and the foreign nations would take China over and shut America out. In 1899 the United States proposed the Open Door Policy which declared that all merchants of all nations where allowed to trade with china. Although this policy sounded great for all nations China did not agree with the distribution of its country to every European nation.

As there are positive results of the Opium War there are equally if not more negative results. One negative result of the opium war was the Boxer Rebellion. This campaign was against Dowager Empress's rule and foreigners. In