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
An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China commercial success of his illustrations of the Macartney Mission. With the increasing demand of tea in Britain the pressure on trade and economy grew, causing British accounts on China to be more critical and less appreciative. Fellow crewmembers of the Macartney Mission such as Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet published later reports on the Embassy describing the experience as overall negative. This can partly be explained as a reaction to the British frustration with the trading relation to China. The Serjeant-Major Samuel Holmes published his account on the Macartney Mission with the same publisher W. Bulmer & Co in 1798