Europeans made numerous attempts to establish trade with China. The Portuguese appeared in Chinese waters in the day 16th century, much earlier than the British. They managed to gain territorial rights in the region of Macao in 1557.
The first attempt to trade with China was in 1596, but the ship that Commander Benjamin Wood was aboard was lost and failed to reach China. In 1637, Captain Weddell had the first successful arrival in the city of Canton after forcing his way through a Portuguese passage. His entry angered Chinese officials and so he was forced to leave the country without commercial success. The ship he was on became wrecked on his journey back to Britain!
The British secured a trading post in Taiwan in 1672. They were soon engaged in regular trade the Chinese and were permitted to make regular voyages to and from the cities of Amoy, Chusan and Canton.
By the 18th century, they began trading British woolens and Indian cotton for Chinese tea, porcelain and silk. There soon became a great demand for tea in the west and it became Britain's largest single item to be traded. The demand for British goods in China was not high, so they resorted to trading with silver.
Britain became short of silver to trade with China, causing an unbalanced trade. They had to find another material to use instead, when they discovered opium. They were never directly involved in trading opium as they knew it was illegal in China. The actual business was arranged through private agencies.
Not long after the opium trade began, it became obvious that opium trafficking had turned into a profitable business for Britain and the East India company. Opium flooded the black market by the 1830's and became a major cause of concern for Chinese officials and many Chinese became addicts. In 1810, the emperor issued an imperial edict stating his orders for the prohibition of opium. The edict had little effect as opium had still managed to be smuggled in southern provinces.
Commissioner Lin ordered 20,000 chests of opium to be confiscated from the British and he even sent a long letter to Queen Victoria, portraying the British as selfish and nasty and demanding the drug trade to stop. This outraged the British and so began the first opium war.
The first opium war was fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty and started on the 18th of March in 1839 and lasted up until the 29th of August in 1842, (3 years).
The front of the letter that Commissioner Lin Zexu wrote to Queen Elizabeth who lived in Britain, all the way from China
A of a scene from the Opium war, painted in 843 by Edward Duncan, an english master painter who was famous for painting coastal views and ships in watercolour