Opium War, 1840-1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century and the War by Which They Forced Her Gates

Until the 1830s, China was scarcely known to the outside world. When Europeans began to arrive in number in that decade, demanding of the Ching dynasty's rulers access to raw materials and to China's huge domestic markets alike, the Chinese resisted, but, in the end, unsuccessfully. England in particular sought a market for the opium, a crown monopoly produced in India, and it waged a brief war to press its claim--a war that won it that market, the ownership of Hong Kong, and entry into cities like Shanghai and Guangdong. The war also contributed to the eventual collapse of Ching rule. Really a footnote in history, the Opium War, then, had major consequences that color Sino-Western relations even today. Peter Ward Fay tells the story in this well-written, vigorous narrative. --Gregory McNamee