The First Opium War was the beginning of China's modern history. After the "closed door", China fell behind the world trend. In order to reverse the trade deficit with China, Britain began to smuggle opium to China for huge profits. 1In June, 839, in order to open the door of China market, Britain launched a war of aggression on the pretext of destroying opium in Humen, Lin Zexu.

Later, due to the unfavorable war, Qishan, governor of Daoguang Emperor Zhili, made peace with Britain and signed the first unequal treaty "treaty of nanking" in the history of China. China ceded land, paid reparations and negotiated tariffs to foreign countries for the first time, which seriously endangered China's sovereignty. China began to become a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society and promoted the disintegration of the natural economy.

The historical background of the first opium war;

1, pre-war Qing dynasty

/kloc-At the beginning of the 0/9th century, Britain became the most powerful capitalist country in the world and established an empire that "the sun never sets". And its next major aggression target in Asia is China.

From the beginning of the Qing Dynasty to the eve of the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty was still an independent feudal country, and the previous national situation began to decline from the end of Qianlong. The feudal system seriously hindered the development of the new modern economy. In the middle of Ming Dynasty, the development of capitalism was very slow.

Before the Opium War, the self-sufficient natural economy, which combined small-scale peasant economy with cottage industry, always occupied the dominant position in China's social economy. Land annexation is becoming more and more serious, which has become a common phenomenon in China. Bureaucratic corruption and feudal autocracy developed to the extreme.

The Qing government used the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" to imprison people's thoughts and brutally suppress those who were dissatisfied with or commented on current politics. National defense is empty and armaments are slack. In terms of foreign relations, the long-term closed-door policy of Qing Dynasty seriously hindered China's foreign trade, social politics and economic development.

With the increasing corruption of the Qing dynasty and the intensification of exploitation and oppression of the people, domestic class contradictions have intensified day by day, and people's resistance struggles have broken out one after another. The rule of the Qing Dynasty is facing a profound crisis, and the feudal society in China has come to an end.

2. The expansion of foreign forces

While the Qing Dynasty declined, capitalism in Britain, France and the United States was developing rapidly. From 65438 to the 1960s, Britain began the industrial revolution. In the 1930s and 40s of 19, the large machinery industry gradually replaced the workshop handicraft industry.

With the development of British industry, industrial output has risen sharply. "The need to continuously expand product sales drives the bourgeoisie to run around the world" and strives to find new resources and living space for products.

France is a capitalist country next to Britain. On the eve of the Opium War, its industrial output value ranked second in the world. The capitalist industry in the United States was not developed on the eve of the Opium War, but it is on the rise.

19 In the 1930s, the American bourgeoisie plundered the land of Indians and Mexicans in the south, excluded the influence of European capitalism in Latin America, and completely controlled the market. Therefore, the United States did not have enough power to invade China in the middle of 19.

The United States acted as the helper of the British invaders and followed the British invasion of China. 186 1 after the reform of Russian serfdom, capitalist industry and commerce developed rapidly. Russia is eyeing China from the north, ready to seize the territory of China.

Baidu Encyclopedia-The First Opium War