The Opium Wars

The opium war also known as the Anglo-Chinese wars lasted from 1839-1842, it was the most humiliating defeat the Chinese had faced. The opium started from the time when the British wanted to trade with the Chinese, but the Chinese did not because they were not interested in anyone Else's matters. Though the Chinese agreed to trade tea with them but the British wanted an equal trade, they would rather trade and sell with them. As the British received tea from the Chinese, the British gave the Chinese a drug called opium, which is made from the seeds of a poppy flower. Due to the drugs, many people were addicted to it and wanted more opium until it caused a devastation in china that is when the Chinese decided to fight back, which began the Opium war.

During the opium war, it was the British against the Chinese. Though the Chinese were a fast civilized race their weapons, that were old-fashioned artillery were no math against the British gun ships. The Chinese still went through with the war which got them a humiliating defeat. It was called the opium wars because the British brought drugs to china and had sold these drugs and now many people were dying and demanding more, they couldn't do anything about the epidemic so they waged war against the British.

Ultimately, the British won the war, because china was not prepared for the war and they did not have the right weapons to compete against with them. Though after that China signed two treaties; The Treaty of Tianjin and The Treaty Of Nanjing. After the signing of the treaties, peace was restored into China again, they legalized opium and the British finally opened ports into China.

Film Lesson: Mountains Of The Moon

The movie we recently watched in class called "The mountains of the moon" is about European exploration into Africa to search for the source of the Nile river. The two explorers, Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke had been the two that had journey into Africa. With hardships such as the length of the desert and the scorching desert heat, the low amounts of provisions and the many wandering animals and diseases that they many not know of. Even though both of these explorers were really intelligent people there were many things they did not know about Africa.

They named the lake, Lake Victoria because the queen in England of that time was Queen Victoria. Even though normally it would not make much sense for a lake that is in Africa, and African people had known so much about this lake, and lived around it, why did the Europeans get the right to name the lake after their queen. But that was fact, Europeans were more technologically advanced and had many tools that the African did not even know about.

Europeans had many scientific and technological advancements than Africans. While the Africans were pretty much stuck in the stone age (like using spears while the Europeans had guns), Europeans had guns, microscopes and other sources of advanced technology.

First of all, Europeans had better knowledge on technology and they had better access to those technology than African people. While African people used spears and knew nothing of the outside worlds, Europeans had knowledge in all aspects and had guns, which they later developed into machine guns. While the technology and thought process in Europe changed Africa stayed the same, and due to that Europeans had been able to conquer the African people.