As a result, Britain had to pay silver for the goods that it was importing, eventually risking a silver shortage.īritain’s solution to this trade imbalance was opium. However, Chinese merchants did not want to buy British goods in return. Chinese goods such as silk, porcelain, and especially tea were very popular. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Britain was experiencing a problem with its trade with China: it bought more than it sold. How important were economic factors in the growth of the British Empire? How can we explain the unique position of Hong Kong in the world today? Use this lesson to find out the causes behind the First Opium War and how Hong Kong became part of the British Empire. These treaties were followed by a 99-year lease in 1898 that allowed Britain to control even more land – a lease that ran out in 1997. The Opium Wars resulted in two treaties, each expanding the size of Britain’s Hong Kong territory. Britain also wanted more control over their trade with China, as they could only trade with certain officials called Hong merchants. This was to help pay for the large amounts of Chinese tea that they were importing – by the early 1800s, tea was a popular drink with the British public.
It is called the ‘Opium War’ because of one of its major causes: the British were smuggling opium from their Indian colonies into Chinese ports against the wishes of the Chinese government. Hong Kong became a British colony through two wars: the First and Second Opium Wars. Many see this moment as the end of the last significant colony in the British Empire. Authority over Hong Kong was transferred to China. In 1997, Hong Kong stopped being a British colony after more than 150 years of British rule.
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