The Opium Wars

The Opium wars are a series of wars between Europe and China for a drug, opium, that of which took place from 1839 to 1842. Opium is a drug found in middle eastern countries from poppy flowers. The cause of this war is a little strange in that the cause was that China wanted to be isolated while the Europeans, particularly the British, wanted to trade their opium to private buyers who used it recreationally. The drug's original use was to cure such sicknesses as diarrhea. When the Chinese saw what the opium addiction was doing to their citizens they banned it from China, from then on all Opium found was confiscated and destroyed. Europe didn't stop sending the drug because they were becoming rich off this drug so in turn China stopped selling their Tea causing the explosive reaction, war. In truth the war was fought over more than just the drug, the Chinese were fighting to keep their culture and morals pure while the British fought for wealth. The war ended with the British as the definite victors due to their overpowering military and technological advantage over the Chinese. With their victory the Europeans gained 5 ports and two treaties which allowed them to legally sell their opium.

Film lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

We'd recently watched the documentary, "Mountains on the Moon". The film was about the Eurpopeans' exploration of South Africa and their search of the Nile River's source. During their trip, the men faced various hardships and conflicts. Richard Burton and John Speke led a group of people through Africa. They faced long hot days in the deserts, and the rocky roads where food and water was scarce. night and day they had to be careful of the wild animals and disease-ridden insects that wander throughout the continent. Europeans were also stopped many times by native African tribes. To survive in the depths of africa, they tried to avoid any conflict that could disrupt their journey.

Then finally Richard Burton and John Speke along with their crew found the source of the Nile; the third largest lake in the world, Lake Victoria. The Name came from the Queen of Britain at the time. People may find it strange to name an African lake after the Queen since they had no relation at the time, this was because since the Europeans were the first to document it they claimed the right to name it.

The Europeans went into Africa and had the advantage of their superior technology. Basically when a conflict did occur, a gun beats a spear. Another advantage their technology gave them was their tools of data collection, which infaturated the Africans.

After this Discovery the Europeans overtook Africa. Due to their modern technology, and the invention of the machine gun, this was a very easy task. After Africa was taken the European countries fought over control of the land which came to be known as "The Scramble for Africa."