Opium Wars Opium Wars The Opium Wars were two wars in the mid-19th century involving China and the British Empire over the British trade of opium and China's sovereignty. The clashes included the First Opium War (1839–1842) and the Second Opium War (1856–1860). The wars and events between them weakened the Qing dynasty and forced China to trade with the other parts of the world. In 1820, China's economy was the largest in the world, according to British economist Angus Maddison. Within a decade after the end of the Second Opium War, China's share of global GDP had fallen by half. In
Textile industry in China 1904-05, within a few years of the first Chinese factories. Due to the treaty ending the war, foreign entities were able to operate exempt from tariff duties and with fewer political restrictions than native companies. The British came first, but the Japanese arrived soon after. Since imports of Western manufactured goods stopped during World War I, the cotton industry in both China and Japan developed rapidly to fill the need in Asia. Initially, all of the machines and accessories were imported from Britain or America. This foreshadowed an industry trend of importing technology and exporting finished goods that describes most