-China turns down the technological advances that western powers are offering you because they're just dirty barbarians. All they desire from the Europeans is silver (of which most of it comes from Spanish colonies)
-American Revolution + Napoleonic Wars mean British can't exchange Spanish silver
-East India company (EIC) almost bankrupt
-only thing else the Chinese want are sealskins from Americans and
o p i u m, which is tightly controlled
-rogue EIC traders find out that there are a ton of corrupt Chinese officials who will gladly buy extra opium under the table
-new Emperor's favorite son dies of an opium overdose; REALLY hates opium. Sends an incorruptible brass balled official by the name of Lin Zexu to combat opium use in the country by setting up rehab centers and prosecuting corrupt officials
-Chinese do a lot of stupid shit like defacing King George IV portrait at the British warehouse during a raid
-some British sailors get drunk on samshu (essentially Chinese sake) and beat up a villager, who dies the next day
-ranking British captain in the area, Elliot, gives monetary compensation to the victims family and to the town at large and orders a trial
-Captain Elliot, offers to let the local Imperial official to attend the trial, refuses because he's a filthy round eye who has no jurisdiction
-culprits found guilty and sent back to UK to serve their sentences (unknown to Elliot is that they would be immediately freed due to not recognizing the legitimacy of the trial)
-Chinese super mad that a trial was held, mandates that no one can sell food to the British, seizes all the property of British civilians, poisons of all freshwater supplies
-There's now 2000 starving British refugees stranded in Macao
-British relief fleet gets stopped by antiquated Chinese ships and told they can't send food to their own citizens in Macao
-After days of typical bureaucratic nonsense, Elliot says hes had enough, opens fire and starts the First Opium War
-Vast majority of the British public is entirely unaware of the opium side of the conflict, all they know is that China is asshole
-Lin tries to get the provincial governors to take the British seriously, gets ignored
-Chinese forces outnumber the Brits 10 to 1 on paper
-vast majority of British troops are sick from malaria at all times
-defending home turf with elaborate earthworks and defensive emplacements (British are on the attack 90% of the time)
-still utterly curb stomped in every single engagement (see below)
-in a desperate attempt at getting any kind of win, a Chinese commander captures the crews of two shipwrecked trader ships off the coast of Taiwan, lie to the emperor by saying they were totally British soldiers, and then behead nearly all the survivors
-British angry, demand justice
-Chinese Emperor says okay, orders the arrest and then frees the officer in charge after less than two weeks
-Lin Zexu gets all the blame for China's performance in the war and gets sent to the middle of nowhere in western China
-things get so bad that a guy who flunked the civil service exam and believes that he's Jesus' brother after reading Bible tracts from an American missionary and suffering a psychotic break is a convincing prophet, leading to decades of nonstop civil war that end up killing more Chinese people than WW2 did.
-War resumes twenty years later because China won't keep its promises. France gets involved this time because the Chinese decided to torture and kill a missionary. America gets briefly involved too after Chinese shore batteries attack a US navy ship, resulting in 200 sailors and 50 American marines defeating thousands of Chinese soldiers at the Battle of Barrier Forts
-century of humiliating defeats for China, UK gets Hong Kong as their own port next to Macao, Lin Zexu gets a statue in NYC as a pioneer in the war against drugs
en.wikipedia.org
