The First Opium War began as a trade dispute, but it quickly exposed a deeper power struggle between Britain and Qing China. Britain faced a massive silver drain because Chinese merchants demanded ...

Key point: London instigated a war of aggression against China in order to force an unequal treaty on China. London started a trend after other major imperial powers saw their success they soon ...

In 1979, the year of the Soviet invasion, Afghanistan had no significant production of opium. But that was soon to change: The mujahedeen rebels who opposed the Red Army used opium and heroin as a ...