The First Opium War

Between 1839 and 1842, a war was fought between Imperial China and the United Kingdom around the trade of this substance, famous for its narcotic properties.

Today on Warographics, we bring you the First Opium War.

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[augustvonmackensen]

“The Opium Wars - when Britain went to war for the right to sell hard drugs in order earn money to pay for soft drugs“

[Pavlos_Charalambous]

Fun fact :
HSBC Bank was born out of the opium trade in the area

[samwill]

Colonialism distilled: "These people want us to follow THEIR laws, in THEIR country? SAVAGES!"

[tastefullynerdy]

The video turned out great, Simon!

Was fun working on this video.

[cynthiaherbst]

This one was excellently done as well. I would be curious to see the Warographics treatment of The Crimean War. It kind of fed into and influenced later European conflicts despite being so relatively localized despite the powerful militaries involved.

[bobbun]

True story... Tea doesn't have to be grown in China, or even India. The plant (Camellia sinensis) is hardy to zone 7 and can even be grown in Britain! The tea motive was more honestly about labor costs or a specific quality of tea that could be grown in a particular region, not tea in general. And the profit motive was probably far more important than the tea motive.

[jackpugh]

I love this content. I think it might help us viewers keep track of things if there were more maps showing movements and such.

[carveraugustus]

Oh lord the Opium Wars. Gotta be one of the strangest episodes of the British Empire

[dannyjones]

I just discovered your page yesterday, and now I can't stop watching. Thank you for your love of history!!

[ignitionfrn]

0:40 - Chapter 1 - Good ol addictions
5:30 - Chapter 2 - Opening salvos
8:50 - Chapter 3 - British reactions
10:35 - Chapter 4 - Renewal of violence
12:20 - Chapter 5 - The pearl river campaign
16:00 - Chapter 6 - The battle for canton city
17:50 - Chapter 7 - Attacking central china
20:10 - Chapter 8 - Final phase of the war
21:25 - Chapter 9 - Aftermath

[lps]

Another fun thing about the opium war, it wasn't initially a "real" war under international law at the time, it was "just" an armed reprisal for previous actions which are illegal nowadays.

[exudeku]

Ah yes, the British Empire, the largest Drug Cartel

[jsnsk]

This is basically why more and more places are legalizing drugs.
Governments: We've made your life suck. But ours are great.
Also governments: Have some drugs so you dont notice how much your life sucks and we dont have to worry about pitchforks up out butts if you figure it out.

[celter.acp]

I'm going to need Simon to do an in depth video on the history of England's obsession with tea

[HistoryOfRevolutions]

Lin Zexu was a true hero. He dumped thousands of tons of British Opium into the sea without hesitation. He also executed many British drug dealers and declared war agianst the British. He refused to be humiliated by the British. It is because of resistance leaders like him that China was never colonised.

[jaiswole]

Would love to see a series on the opium wars or if they’re short for content a video breaking them all down and the consequences

[theangelbelow]

What a strange chapter in British history, when an entire nation became a violent drug dealer...

[theawesomeman]

As a Chinaman, I wanna thank the channel for covering this war that my country suffered from with a non-bias view.

[barbiquearea]

And so begins the Century of Humiliation for my ancestors.

[broomshed]

Those were the best 3 first seconds of any YouTube video hands down