有冇人知鴉片戰爭ge英文名?

Opium Wars

The Opium Wars (Simplified Chinese: 鸦片战争; Traditional Chinese: 鴉片戰爭; pinyin: Yāpiàn Zhànzhēng), or the Anglo-Chinese Wars were two wars fought in the mid-1800s that were the climax of a long dispute between China and Britain. In the second, France fought alongside Britain. The conflict began with the growing trade deficit Britain had with China and the smuggling of opium to China by the British.

Direct maritime trade between Europe and China (without Arabic intermediaries) started in the 16th century, after Portuguese settlement of Goa in India, shortly followed by Macau in southern China. After Spanish acquisition of the Philippines, the pace of exchange between China and the West accelerated dramatically. Manila galleons brought in far more silver to China than the ancient land route in interior Asia (the Silk Road). The Qing government attempted to limit contact with the outside world to a minimum for reasons of internal control. Qing only allowed trade through the port of Canton (now Guangzhou). Severe red-tape and licensed monopolies were set up to restrict the trade flow. The result was very high retail price for imported goods after myriads of tax collectors and middlemen had their take. That led to limited demand for imported goods. In order to prevent a huge balance of trade deficit, Spain began to sell opium to the Chinese, along with New World products such as tobacco and corn.

As a result of high demand for tea in Britain and the low demand for British commodities in China, Britain had to trade tea for silver. Britain was on the gold standard, so it had to buy silver from the European continent. Turmoil on the continent after the French Revolution and subsequent Napoleonic Continental System put a restriction on that trade. To find alternative goods for exchange with China, Britain began exporting opium to China from British India. The opium trade took off rapidly, and the silver flow began to reverse. China had few silver mines of its own; the drop in silver inflow caused a consternation at the court. The Qing Emperor (Dao Guan) had banned opium in China, citing its harmful effects on health and deleterious impact on societal productivity.

In 1839 Lin Zexu wrote a stern letter to Queen Victoria to stop the opium traffic to China, and warned: "Your Majesty has not before been thus officially notified, and you may plead ignorance of the severity of our laws. But I now give my assurance that we mean to cut this harmful drug forever." Victoria did not receive the letter; in any case, she was an opium user herself. Lin held the entire British merchant population hostage in order to confiscate opium in the warehouse and on British ships, leading to Britain sending a naval squadron from India. Contrary to Lin's estimate, the Chinese navy and armed forces relying on guns purchased from Portuguese merchants were no match for the British vessels. Britain prevailed and China was forced to sign unequal treaties giving foreign powers trade privileges in China and yielding Hong Kong to Britain. These treaties led in part to the downfall of the Qing Dynasty, as many countries followed Britain and forced unequal terms of trade with China.

鴉片戰爭的英文名是 Opium Wars 或 者Anglo-Chinese Wars.

Opium Wars

鴉片戰爭(Sino-British Opium War)

opium war