History glossary
opium
an addictive drug derived from the opium poppy that became central to Britain's illegal trade into Qing China.
- Category
- Drug and trade commodity
- Region
- India and China
- Date range
- Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
What it means
Opium is an addictive drug made from the sap of the opium poppy. In this story, it refers especially to opium grown and processed under British imperial control in India, then smuggled into China despite Qing prohibitions. The trade damaged public health, drained silver from China, corrupted enforcement and became the immediate cause of the First Opium War.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Opium Wars
From the Canton System to the fall of Beijing, the Opium Wars turned illegal trade, imperial power and Qing weakness into a new unequal treaty order.
The Meiji Restoration
From Tokugawa order to imperial restoration, conscription, industrialisation and military victory, the Meiji era transformed Japan into a modern imperial power.
The Qing Dynasty
From Manchu conquest to republican revolution, the Qing dynasty built China's largest empire, oversaw centuries of prosperity, and then struggled to survive foreign intervention, rebellion, and the collapse of imperial legitimacy.
