Opium Wars-Imperialism in China

The Opium Wars started when the British wanted to trade tea with the chinese people. The main reason why the Opium War started was because the British wanted the tea and  the chinese people refused to trade with them because they were very isolated. The Chinese people thought they were better then everyone else, so there was no need for the Chinese people to trade with the British. The British then started giving out free opium, opium was a drug that was given to the chinese people for free. Very soon the chinese people became very addicted to it. 

The British then stop giving out free opium to chinese people and said, we wont give you anymore opium until you guys trade us tea. The chinese government then said to the British, you guys cant come into china and give our people free opium. This led to the Opium war. The chinese fought over for the Opium and the British fought over the tea. Eventually the British won because of their more superior weapons. The chinese technology and weapons were not as good as British because China was a very isolated country, they kept everything to themselves and thought they were more superior than the others. This isolation caused China in a lack of technology and weapons.