WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Between 1839 and 1842, British forces fought a war in China that benefitted drug smugglers. Their subsequent victory in the conflict opened up the lucrative Chinese trade to British merchants.

Detailed explanation-2: -The 1840-42 Anglo-Chinese war (the so-called “Opium War”) is almost universally believed to have been triggered by British imperial rapacity and determination to sell more and more opium into China.

Detailed explanation-3: -The British retaliated by sending out a war fleet. The first Opium War ended, in 1842, with China’s defeat and the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, which forced the Chinese to cede the island of Hong Kong, and accept greater economic openness.