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
From China to Canada in urban and rural areas and across different provinces. Sucheng Chan of the University of California, Santa Cruz wrote that "From China to Canada" "deals systematically with developments during the "dark ages" in the history of the Chinese in North America". Tetsuden Kashima of the University of Washington wrote that the book "is a straightforward history." Peter Kong-ming New of the University of South Florida described the book as having a "sociohistorical view" of the history. The Department of the Secretary of State of Canada's Citizenship Branch commissioned the publication of the book. There were five authors, and each specialized