Opium Wars

The Opium Wars, or the Anglo-Chinese Wars were two war fought around the middle of the 19th century (1839-1842 and 1856-1860 respectively) that were the climax of a long dispute between China and Britain. In the second war, France fought alongside Britain. Britain was smuggling opium from British India into China, and when China attempted to enforce its laws against the trade, the conflict erupted.
China succumbed in both wars and was forced to tolerate the opium trade and sign Unequal Treaties opening several ports to foreign trade and yielding Hong Kong to Britain. Several countries followed Britain and forced unequal terms of trade onto China. This humiliation at the hand of foreign powers contributed to the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864), to the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) and to the eventual downfall of the Qing Dynasty (1911).