Opium War

American  

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.

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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.

From Washington Times • Dec. 11, 2023

Hong Kong island, according to mainstream history, was ceded to Britain as a colony in 1841 by the Qing Dynasty as part of a peace treaty ending a conflict known as the Opium War.

From Washington Post • Jun. 22, 2022

China has always asserted it never gave up sovereignty and its surrender of Hong Kong to the British was due to unfair Opium War treaties in the 1800s.

From BBC • Jun. 15, 2022

The Qing ceded Hong Kong Island in perpetuity to the British in 1842 following the first Opium War and would later do the same with the adjacent Kowloon Peninsula.

From New York Times • Aug. 4, 2021

After a second Opium War, the Tientsin Treaties legalized the ravaging opium trade, legalized a British-French-American control of China’s customs.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey