Opium War of started when the Chinese imperial government confronted foreign merchant ships and demanded they surrender their illegal cargo. Opium which was not prohibited in the unite
d kingdom of great britain and ireland, was smuggled by merchants from British India into China in defiance of Chinese prohibition laws.and the British
empire after China sought to restrict British opium traffickers. It consisted of the First Opium War First opium War from 1839 to 1842 and the second opium War from 1856 to 1860.
From the Chinese point-o
f-view, China had the moral high ground in the Opium Wars. The Western foreigners were illegally selling a highly addictive, dangerous drugs to Chinese and breaking the existing laws of the land. Prior to the West started selling opium to Chinese, opium was already illegal in China. The widespread of opium addition was causing illness, death, crimes and mass-scale misery in China. When China tried to enforce their laws, British started a war to protect their drug money. Even though Chinese had the moral high ground, China ended up losing the war.
