Causes+of+opium+war

Causes:
In history, the Chinese were ethnocentric, meaning that they viewed their culture as superior to all others. They looked down on foreigners and were largely self-sufficient. For many decades they only allowed trading with the West from one port, Guangzhou, and made much more money on their exports than they spent on imports. This angered the Europeans who became intent on finding a product that the Chinese would buy in large quantities. They found the perfect product, opium, which Chinese doctors had been using for pain relief for hundreds of years. In the late 18th century, opium began to be imported for non-medical uses by British merchants. Soon after many people were addicted. The heavy addiction caused a need for more and more opium. By 1835, up to 12 million Chinese people were addicted to opium, with almost all men under 40 now smoking. This was reversing China's balance of trade. By the late 1830s more than 30,000 chests filled with over 150 pounds of opium were brought into China each year. In 1839, opium addicts spent double the government's annual revenue on opium imports. Later that year, Chinese authorities in Canton finally took action to end the out of control trade. Their Special Commissioner Lin Ze-xu closed off all foreign trade, and confiscated and burned most of the opium that the British had brought in recently. Hostility rapidly grew between the British and Chinese. Chinese citizens were attacked, and British ships were often destroyed. Eventually, the hostility between the two countries became so great that the Opium War began.

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