How were the Opium Wars an example of imperialism in China?
China had many products Europe wanted. But Europe had nothing of interest to China. Hence, the Chinese charged in sliver. Not in goods. If you want our porcelain, silk, whatever: pay for it in cash. The Europeans didn’t like that one little bit. They had, however, one product the Chinese citizens were willing to pay anything for: opium. Of course the Chinese government had a very different opinion about it. They tried to ban the opium trade altogether. That cost the Europeans a lot of income, so they send troops to force the sale of opium. And since the troops were there anyway, get some trade agreements and ports out of it. Kind of very different idea about a ‘war on drugs’, right? This is a good example of imperialism at its worst.
