The Opium Wars

The Opium Wars had started when British kept trading China opium with China's green tea, silk, etc. Opium is a type of drug that you can smoke now. China used opium to treat diseases like dysentery, diharrea, etc. But when 10% of China started smoking it alot, many people died. Due to the loss of people, China made a campaign of anti-opium that they will ban and destroy all the sources they have. They even thought of expelling British from the land. When the Emperor, Daoguang, told the imperial commissioner, Lin Tse-Hsua, to stop the British to stop selling opium to them anymore, they didn't listen and continued to sell for profits.

When the British got mad at China, they wanted to put an end to the anti-opium campaign because China didn't want opium no more, but Lin refused, so they started to got to the first drug war, the Opium Wars. Since China wasn't prepare for battle, Britain came in attacking them with their powerful technology. China was behind of time and were not modernized that much. Great Britain won the Opium Wars against China due to technology like cannons and guns for example.

China was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing, which made China open up many ports for ships to come in now for Great Britain. China was also forced to legalized sell opium now. This was a humiliating defeat for China. people now continue to smoke opium now and it's still killing them. Today, China are now modernize and are perpared to do anything now. History should not be repeated. Thats when the second Opium Wars comes in....

Film lesson: Mountains of the Moon

During the movie, the explorers who were looking for the source of the Nile River, they lost alot of things as they move along, day by day. They have encountered alot of struggles during their expedition. They had low food supply, they had sickness, they got lost, many of their supplies were stolen by tribes, etc. In the end, Richard Burton and John Speke were arguing that one said that they did not found the sourceof the Nile River and one said that he found the source.

As they were in the court discussing the situation, which was if they should name the lake, Lake Victoria, John commited suicide on himself. When Richard heard of the accident, he did not continue his speech and left without another word. John named the lake after their majesty, the queen, Queen Victoria. When the Europeans went to take control of Africa, they succeeded because they had technology and the Africans didn't.

The reason why they won, is because they had machine guns to attack and they had Quinine, a cure for Malaria, a disease whch can only be caught in Africa. While the Africans had spears and made shields, they didn't stand a chance againts the Europeans. This is a movie that shows what has happened in the past. This movie was based on a true story.