Answer:
A. The opium wars
Explanation:
The Opium Wars, or Anglo-Chinese War, were armed conflicts between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (present-day United Kingdom) and the Qing Empire (present-day China) in the years 1839-42 and 1856-1860.
With the end of the Napoleonic wars, European trade turned to the Far East, translating into a constant pressure on China, which had strong restrictions on foreign trade. Guangzhou was the only port open to foreign trade. It came to represent the clash between China and the West during the so-called Opium Wars.
By the mid-nineteenth century Britain was the most developed power in the world, effecting the transition to the second phase of the Industrial Revolution. To do so, it increasingly demanded raw materials at low prices and larger consumer markets for its industrialized products.
India and China, the most populous countries in Asia, attracted great attention from the British bourgeoisie. While the Indian market was open to foreign trade, China, a producer of silk, porcelain, and tea (the British bought 12,700 tons in 1720 and 360,000 tons in 1830, items that reached good prices in the European market), did not show interest in European products, which led to deficits in British trade.
Only one product in particular seemed to arouse the interest of the Chinese: opium, a narcotic substance, highly addictive, extracted from the poppy that causes chemical dependency on its users, introduced illegally into China by English and American merchants. Produced in India, and also in parts of the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century, British traders trafficked it illegally into China and often forced citizens to consume drugs, causing chemical dependency, making large profits and increasing the volume of trade in general.
In 1830, the British obtained exclusivity of the commercial operations in the port of Canton. China exported silk, tea and porcelain, then in fashion on the European continent, while Britain suffered a major trade deficit from China. To compensate for its economic losses, Britain trafficked Indian opium into the Middle Kingdom (China). The Beijing government decided to ban the opium trade, prompting the British crown to use its military force.
