China Was Easily Defeated By The British In The First Opium War Because China’s Navy Was No Match For Britain’s Advanced Weaponry. Britain Had Help From Its Allies In Europe To Fight The Chinese. China Never Had A Chance After Britain’s Surprise Attack. B (2023)

FAQs

Why was China easily defeated by the British in the Opium War? ›

Great Britain easily defeated China because of its powerful and advanced military weapons compared to China's weak warfare. After winning, Great Britain made China sign the “Treaty of Nanjing,” stating its willingness to continue bringing opium into their country.

Britain won the war in 1842, leading to the Treaty of Nanking. This treaty gave Hong Kong Island to Britain, allowed for free British trade with any merchants in China, and forced China to pay damages for the destroyed opium.

Great Britain won the first Opium War. The opium trade continued, and China had to compensate Great Britain for its losses, give Hong Kong Island to the British, and increase the number of treaty ports where the British could trade and reside.

Britain Launched the Opium War against China in 1840 and compelled the Qing government to sign the Treaty of Nanking, permanently ceding the Hong Kong Island to it. Britain and France launched the Second Opium War in 1856.

10 China was easily defeated by the British in the first Opium War because China's navy was no match for Britain's advanced weaponry. Britain had help from its allies in Europe to fight the Chinese. China never had a chance after Britain's surprise attack. Britain's navy outnumbered the Chinese navy by fifty to one.

The war ended on 17 August 1842, with the Treaty of Nanking enabling the British to 'carry on their mercantile transactions with whatever persons they please'. The treaty committed the Chinese to free trade, including the trade in opium.

After months of tensions between the two nations, the British navy launched an expedition in June 1840, which ultimately defeated the Chinese using technologically superior ships and weapons by August 1842.

Why was China never conquered by the British? To put it simply, China was a very large and mostly united country. It also had a very large population. It was too strong to conquer, even though it was at one of its weakest points.

In the 1850s, the United States and the European powers grew increasingly dissatisfied with both the terms of their treaties with China and the Qing Government's failure to adhere to them. The British forced the issue by attacking the Chinese port cities of Guangzhou and Tianjin in the Second Opium War.

The opium trade created a large number of Opium addicts in China. This also resulted in an outflow of money from China that hurt the Chinese economy. These two factors led the Chinese to make a decision to eliminate the Opium trade, which brought on an impending conflict with the British empire.

Did Britain apologize to China for opium? ›

Answer and Explanation: Britain has not formally apologized for the Opium Wars. In fact, the 2019 Hong Kong protests would probably be viewed as another affront to China after the unequal treaty they signed in 1898. British Hong Kong began actually in 1842 after the British defeated China in the First Opium War.

Britain wanted to expand its imperial power and sell more goods, especially the opium whose import the Chinese tried to ban, while the British sold or smuggled in anyway. In other words, it was a case of commercial and imperialist British greed trying to force opium on the Chinese.

China lost both wars. The terms of its defeat were a bitter pill to swallow: China had to cede the territory of Hong Kong to British control, open treaty ports to trade with foreigners, and grant special rights to foreigners operating within the treaty ports.

The war resulted in the Treaty of Tientsin (26 June 1858), which forced the Chinese to pay reparations for the expenses of the recent war, open a second group of ten ports to European commerce, legalize the opium trade, and grant foreign traders and missionaries rights to travel within China.

What was a direct result of the Opium War in 19th-century China? Chinese ports were opened for trade with European powers.

The Opium Wars greatly expanded Western influence in China. The wars also led to the weakening of the Chinese dynastic system and paved the way for uprisings such as the Taiping and Boxer rebellions.