Opium Wars- Imperialism in China

The Opium War took place during 1939- 1942. During the Opium War Britain had wanted to have many of China's resources. Especially their tea. Tea became very popular for trade in Europe. Britain had then started to trade opium to China for their resources. Opium was first used for medical purposes and then later made as a drug. Opium is a very addictive drug and Britain knew that. It became very dangerous in China. China wanted Britain to stop selling them Opium. Opium became illegal, but was still being sold to them. The Opium War then started when the Chinese had tried to make the trade stop between them and Britain. Britain refused to back down. Britain was far more advanced in their military then China and succeeded in defeating them. They signed a peace treaty that said China will allow Britain to use five ports, lost control of Hong Kong, and was forced to make Opium legal.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

The film Mountains of the Moon was made in 1990 and had shown Richard Burton's and John Speke's journey into Africa to find the source of the Nile. Some the hardships that Europeans faced as they explored Africa were Malaria, which they got from mosquitoes, and the African tribes that would kill them because they were on their territory. To protect themselves from diseases they slept with bug nets and tried to find cures so that they can be able to explore Africa without getting sick. The source of Nile is Lake Victoria. It was named after a British Queen. It is strange that the lake was named after her because even though it's in Africa it was not named by Africans. It shows that Great Britain had more power back then. The primary technological advantage that Europeans had over African people were their weapons. Europeans had guns while Africans had spears. This made it easier for Europeans to conquer them. Guns can people faster than spears. They later made machine guns which made them kill Africans even faster and easier than ever before.

Imperialism Project

We did an the imperialism project so that we can learn how European countries had spread their influence and had made colonies in the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. We saw how some of the big power houses of Europe were able to conquer many countries and spread their rule all over. In the project I learned that Great Britain had attained the most land out of the rest of the countries. Spain and Portugal had attained land in South America. Other countries had followed suit and had attained countries in other continents.