Bengal once exported millions of yards of cloth each year.

A century later Britain was exporting cloth to Bengal.

Tariffs, trade rules, and policy dismantled an industry that had existed for centuries.

History is not only written in battles.
Sometimes it’s written in tariffs.
#OpiumWars

They didn’t invade India first.

They infiltrated it.

Contracts.
Privileges.
Betrayal.

After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the East India Company controlled Bengal’s treasury.

That’s when the opium system began in earnest.

#OpiumWars #IndiaHistory #DarkCorridors

In short - The Theft Before the Lie we examine how

India didn’t profit from the opium trade.
It supplied it.

Under colonial rule, farmers were pressured into poppy cultivation.

It was called administration.

Part of the Opium Wars series.

#OpiumWars #ColonialHistory #IndiaHistory #DarkCorridors

Before the gunboats reached China, Britain built a pipeline in India. Opium was extracted from Indian soil under colonial control.

China lost silver. India lost sovereignty. Britain called it revenue. The empire was global. The cost was too.

Part 4 Opium Wars
#OpiumWars #India #ColonialHistory

China called them 不平等条约 — Unequal Treaties.

Signed under threat.
Ports forced open.
Hong Kong taken.

The word “opium” wasn’t even in the treaty.

Empire doesn’t need to say the quiet part out loud.

Part 3 of the Opium Wars series.

#OpiumWars #History #Colonialism

China sold what Britain wanted.

Britain sold what China did not want.

Silver drained.

Opium reversed the flow.

Warships enforced the “trade.”

When systems fragment responsibility, accountability dissolves.

That’s how this became possible.

#OpiumWars #History

Lin Zexu destroyed 20,000 chests of British opium in 1839.

He wrote to Queen Victoria asking why Britain allowed abroad what it banned at home.

The reply wasn’t a letter.

It was war.

Part 2 of the Opium Wars series.

#OpiumWars #ColonialHistory #LinZexu

"We'll blackmail you to keep on buying American so we can keep on blackmailing you to do what Americans want".

A virtuous circle if you are Trump and anyone who supports him. Or just nuclear grade bullying.

Now we know how China and the Chinese Communist Party feels. #OpiumWars

Opium Wars Part 1

Britain had a problem.
China wanted silver.
Britain was running out.

So Britain sold opium.

When China destroyed it, war followed.

Trade policy — or economic coercion?

#OpiumWars #History #GlobalTrade

Palmerston, the UK Foreign Office's former diplocat, pictured outside 10 Downing Street

The UK Foreign Office's former Chief mouser #Palmerston has died in Bermuda, where he moved in 2020 after retiting as #diplocat. :(
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/feb/14...

Outranked by the […]

[Original post on mastodon.ie]

🚨 THIS WEEK🚨
What powered the British Empire? Tea, trade… and opium. 💂‍♂️💊
Sam Kelly reveals how Britain’s addiction economy reshaped the world — and how Queen Victoria became the ultimate dealer. 👑🌏

🎧 Hear the full story: pod.fo/e/38b54a
#Podcast #OpiumWars #QueenVictoria #History

🚨 NEXT WEEK🚨
From Freud’s “miracle drug” to a Pope on cocaine wine 🍷💉Sam Kelly dives into the real highs and lows of history and reveals how substance use shaped empires, inspired art, and altered the course of human history. 🌍

#Podcast #WeirdHistory #DrugHistory #Freud #PopeLeoXIII #OpiumWars

Commodore James Bremer

26 January 1841: Commodore James Bremer formally took possession of Hong Kong for the UK as part of an agreement with China following the Opium Wars. #History #HongKong #OpiumWars

🚨 THIS WEEK TO PATREON & APPLE 🚨 What powered the British Empire? Tea, trade... and opium. 💂‍♂️💊

In #HistoryRage, Sam Kelly details how Britain's addiction economy reshaped the world, making Queen Victoria the ultimate dealer. 👑🌏

🎧 www.patreon.com/post...

#OpiumWars #EmpireHistory

1st CHINA & JAPAN 1859 NARRATIVE ELGIN'S MISSION 2v OLIPHANT Col PLATES Maps

#books #antiquarian #firstedition #history #China #Japan #travel #voyage #lithographs #diplomacy #OpiumWars #politics #treaty #maps #bookauction
bit.ly/3LL9kZa

a homeless man is sitting in front of a chain link fence with the words `` dirty bums '' written on the screen . ALT: a homeless man is sitting in front of a chain link fence with the words `` dirty bums '' written on the screen .

They literally named a whole ass WAR over it. #OpiumWars and the entire west had a hand in it.

Check out my MISSION ~ create a 'Third Place' to learn and reflect on 'forgotten' history!

#CriticalPedagogyInspired
#CuratorialPractice
#InclusivePractice
#RetellingHistory
#OpiumWars
#TheMission

Visual snapshots 👉 vimeo.com/user16182446

The Opium / Opioid Wars What a Little Understanding of Chinese History Can Teach US Trade Negotiators

How many times since April have US trade negotiators said they're close to a successful deal with China. Weeks go by ... then nothing.
How well do we understand what the Chinese think of us?
My latest looks at how the #OpiumWars will affect any trade deal.
www.thefirebreak.org/p/the-opium-...

@paleofuture.bsky.social The utopian lies of #Broligarchs and #Techbros are being used by #fascists like opium was used during the #OpiumWars.

That wasn't on my bingo card for this morning...
Brings a whole new meaning to the term "royal line of succession"!

#drugs #opiumwars #QueenVic

Opium Wars, the Fall of China's Qing Empire and... Explores the Opium Wars' impact on the Qing dynasty's fall and modern drug policy lessons.

1/5
The Opium Wars reshaped #China and offer crucial lessons for today. 🌏

Explore the unintended consequences and diplomatic failures that led to the Qing dynasty's decline.

🎥 Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOSQ...
📚 Full analysis: vocument.org/share/opium-...

#OpiumWars #History

I listened to Ep 7 last night and I was close to tears. Looking forward to listen to the rest and thank you for bringing history to my house. #OpiumWars #Dalrymple

Chuck Darwin (@cdarwin@c.im) Trump's new 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada took effect on Tuesday, along with a doubling of duties on Chinese goods to 20%, launching new trade conflicts with the top three U.S. trading partners. The tariff actions, which could upend nearly $2.2 trillion in two-way annual U.S. trade went live at 12:01 a.m. EST (0501 GMT), hours after Trump declared that all three countries had failed to do enough to stem the flow of the deadly fentanyl opioid and its precursor chemicals into the US https://www.reuters.com/world/trade-wars-erupt-trump-hits-canada-mexico-china-with-steep-tariffs-2025-03-04/

#China is flooding Mexican cartels with precursor materials as payback for the #OpiumWars.
https://c.im/@cdarwin/114102536117314064

Original post on mastodon.world

A DEA agent was quoted in a @ProPublica piece on #fentanyl saying that the amount of precursor materials being shipped out of China was so large, that it was impossible for the Chinese state to not be aware.

They were allowing it to happen as a dish served cold for the #OpiumWars.

Payback is […]

Talk about #voodooeconomics. A #tradeimbalance you cause is not America supporting Canada. The same type of trade imbalance is why Britain tried to addict the Chinese populace to opium to solve their trade imbalance problem in the 1800s leading to the #OpiumWars.

Talk about #voodooeconomics. A #tradeimbalance you cause is not America supporting Canada. The same type of trade imbalance is why Britain tried to addict the Chinese populace to opium to solve their trade imbalance problem in the 1800s leading to the #OpiumWars.

Talk about #voodooeconomics. A #tradeimbalance you cause is not America supporting Canada. The same type of trade imbalance is why Britain tried to addict the Chinese populace to opium to solve their trade imbalance problem in the 1800s leading to the #OpiumWars.

Talk about #voodooeconomics. A #tradeimbalance you cause is not America supporting Canada. The same type of trade imbalance is why Britain tried to addict the Chinese populace to opium to solve their trade imbalance problem in the 1800s leading to the #OpiumWars.