The First Opium War or the First Anglo-Chinese War was fought between the British East Indian Company and the Qing Dynasty in China from 1839 to 1842 with the aim of forcing China to import British opium. Britain won the war and as a result gained control over Hong Kong.
Opium was used as medicine to cure diseases such as dysentery, cholera, as well as diarrhea. British wanted to trade with China for tea, but China did not wanted any help from them. So, in order to get the tea, British started to sell Opium to the Chinese people. They got addicted to Opium and the government was not happen with this situation. Almost all the population used the Opium. They traded large amount of sources, specially silver which weakened the economically badly.
Lin Tse-Hsua, an imperial commissioner, was the charge of organization for anti-opium. He wrote a letter to Queen Victoria of England, informing about the Opium. But,this did not work the way they wanted to. In 1840, the first attempt of Opium War started. This was the first drug war. China was not prepared for this war, since they were not advanced in technology like the British. The Treaty of Nanjing marked the beginning of foreign commercial and residential privileges in China. This helped the China to catch up the world in technology.
