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"

In Global History class, we recently just watched the documentary film, "Mountains of the Moon." The film was about the Europeans' exploration of South Africa and their search of the source of the Nile. During their quest, they faced various hardships and conflicts. Richard Burton and John Speke lead the group of people for several days through Africa. They faced long hot days in the deserts, and rocky roads with scarce food and water. During the night and day, they had to be careful of the wild animals that wondered in Africa and unknown insectsEuropeans were also stopped many times by Africans tribes with threatening spears. To survive in the depths of Africa, they had to resist from any conflicts that would scar their journey.
Then finally Richard Burton, John Speke, and their crew found the source of the Nile. Its the third largest lake in the world and they named it Lake Victoria. At the time, that was the Queen of Britain's first name, so they named their discovery after her, and the name stuck till this day, Lake Victoria. People might think that it's strange that its name Lake Victoria because hundreds of people who lived in Africa had already knew of this lake and its existence, so why do these Europeans come out of no where and get to chose the name of it.
The Europeans went into Africa and had the advantage of advanced technology. They had guns while Africans had spears. They also had scientific tools such as microscopes and telescopes. African have never seen people of white colored skin before, or had they seen the goods they began along with them.
Over time, Europeans conquered Africa. It was easy to conquer because of the knowledge that Africans had on modern technology. Europeans soon invent the machine gun and took control. Africans were powerless with their spears against the Europeans. that might cause infection or disease.