The Opium War

The opium war was a war between Great Britain and China that began in 1839 as a conflict over the opium trade and ended in 1842 with the Chinese session of Hong Kong to the British, and opening of five Chinese ports to foreign merchants, and the grant of other commercial and diplomatic privileges in the Treaty of Nanking.The captains of the defeated Chinese junks feared that their failure would be viewed by higher authorities as a disgraceful act of cowardice. The captains therefore reported to Commissioner Lin that they had won a victory and had sunk a British ship.The British won.