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.
In the 1700s, the British started making huge profits by trading opium grown in India for tea grown in china. The Qing outlawed opium and called for a stop to the trade, but the British refused, insisting on the right of free trade. The one-sided Opium War (1839-1842) was the result and Qing were soundly defeated.