China: Picture Frame
Transcript: In an attempt to prevent further opium trade, Chinese troops boarded a British merchant ship with opium aboard and destroyed its cargo. After the opium aboard was surrendered, trade was restarted on the condition that no more drugs would be smuggled into China. Later, the British steamship, nemesis, equipped with the latest in military technology of heavy cannons, regular cannons, and muskets, bombarded coastal towns. The British naval superiority even managed to crush the Chinese naval force. The unequal Treat of Nanjing was forced onto the Chinese shortly after. In the 1700s, British merchants began making huge profits by trading opium from India for Chinese tea. As the Chinese began to import more and and more opium, much of the population became more and more addicted to the drug. This soon became a problem as the Chinese were soon experiencing a trade deficit, and the government eventually outlawed opium all together. Britain, insisting on right of free trade, refused to stop opium exports, much to the anger of the Chinese government. After China's loss in the opium war, the British forced them into the Treaty of Nanjing. This entailed that British citizens residing in china were granted extraterritoriality. The british also gained control of Hong Kong. Lastly, China was forced to open five ports to foreign trade. The treaty of Nanjing was the first in a series of unequal treaties to be drafted by the British The Opium War
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