The Opium Wars took place during the mid 1800s between the British and the Chinese because of the illegal trade of opium, hence the name Opium Wars. Opium was a drug originally used for medical reasons. But, after the British introduced the idea of mixing opium with tobacco so that it could be smoked, people started to become addicted to the substance. Because of this addiction, the British made a lot of profit from selling opium. We know that people who use drugs too much often suffer the consequences. Those who used opium felt the effects of using it so much and China's population became weak. The Chinese government noticed opium's bad effect on the Chinese people and decided that they would not allow opium to be sold for smoking. Those who were caught going against this would be punished by being banned or executed.
Despite this new rule, the British continued to bring in more opium to China. They bribed government officials, who were corrupt, and managed to bring them into the illegal opium trade. The Chinese government discovered that there was still an illegal opium trade taking place and didn't do much about it for a while. Eventually, the Chinese government decided to make an effort to stop this madness by having government officials destroy any opium being imported into their land. The British wanted to stick up for their trade rights and decided to take action by taking their places in Canton, the trading port by which the opium was being imported into China. This was when the Opium War officially started. The British had won this war because they were more technologically advanced and also because their military was stronger than China's military, which was corrupt.
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