Dmitri Mendeleev presented his periodic table of the elements based on increasing atomic weight on March 6, 1869, in a presentation to the Russian Chemical Society. While Mendeleev's table was the first to gain some acceptance in the scientific community, it was not the first table of its kind.
In the end, the British sale of opium was used as means for  obtaining more land and trading rights from the Chinese, leading to  the devastation of the Chinese government and economy which is why  The First Opium War will be remembered in history as the time when  China was ultimately betrayed by the British.
Britain won this war and the war following it. European Imperialism Long Term Effects on India China traded goods such as tea and indigo to Britain regularly until the British had begun to export Opium to China. Britain declared war against China after they had destroyed the Opium and the ships carrying the drug.