Opium War

noun

1. a war between Great Britain and China that began in 1839 as a conflict over the opium trade and ended in 1842 with the Chinese cession of Hong Kong to the British, the opening of five Chinese ports to foreign merchants, and the grant of other commercial and diplomatic privileges in the Treaty of Nanking.

Example Sentences

Foremost among them was Britain, which won Hong Kong as a colony after victory in the one-sided First Opium War in 1842.

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A second so-called “opium war” between the British and Chinese, again won by the British, followed roughly two decades later as a result of British dissatisfaction with Qing’s concessions, with spoils including greater British influence in the country and region that persists to this day.

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“Due to the painful memory of the Opium War, China is the country in the world that hates drugs the most,” said an editorial last month in the Global Times, a party tabloid.

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He reeled off a litany of Western military actions stretching over centuries — from the British Opium War in China in the 19th century to Allied firebombings of Germany and the Vietnam and Korean Wars.

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On Friday, a man staged a small protest outside the consulate with a banner that read “Chinese people don’t forget the Opium War,” a reference to the conflict that allowed Britain to gain control of Hong Kong.

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