The British send expeditionary warships to the coast of China, beginning The First
Opium War. 1840: New Englanders bring 24,000 pounds of Opium into United States. The Qing
Emperor asked all foreigners in China to halt material assistance to the British in
China. In retaliation, British attacked Guangdong. 1841: The British captured the Bogue forts. The Chinese are defeated by the British in the First Opium War. Hong Kong is ceded to the British. 1842: The British defeated the Chinese at the mouth of the Yangtze River and occupied Shanghai. The Treaty of Nanking was signed between Britain and China. 1843: Dr. Alexander Wood of Edinburgh discovers a new technique of administering morphine, injection with a syringe.
He finds the effects of morphine on his patients instantaneous and three times more potent. 1852 : The British arrive in lower Burma
They import large amounts of opium from India and sell it through a governmentcontrolled opium monopoly. 1856: The British and French renew their hostilities against China in the Second
Opium War.
The British attacked Guangzhou from the Pearl River
There was an attempt to poison the British Superintendent of Trade in Hong Kong 1858:
The Xianfeng Emperor ordered the Mongolian general