The Opium Wars and China
- Slide deck
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- Guided notes teacher key
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- Quiz + answer key
- Exit ticket + answer key
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What students do
- Explain why Britain ran a trade deficit with Qing China under the Canton System
- Describe Commissioner Lin Zexu's 1839 destruction of over 20,000 chests of opium at Humen
- Analyze Lin Zexu's letter to Queen Victoria as a primary source
- Evaluate the Treaty of Nanjing as an unequal treaty
What it covers
- How the opium trade reversed the flow of silver into China
- Why industrial and naval technology decided the outcome of the First Opium War
- Key vocabulary including Canton System, extraterritoriality, indemnity, and unequal treaty
Learning targets
- Explain why Britain ran a trade deficit with Qing China in the early 1800s.
- Describe how the opium trade reversed the flow of silver into China.
- Analyze Lin Zexu's 1839 enforcement and his letter to Queen Victoria.
- Explain how industrial technology shaped the First Opium War's outcome.
- Evaluate the Treaty of Nanjing and why it is called an unequal treaty.
From one teacher to another
Lin Zexu's letter to Queen Victoria is the document I built the whole lesson to protect, because it's a Qing official making a direct, reasoned appeal, and it deserves to be read that way instead of skimmed as backstory. Students trace the trade deficit that started the conflict, then follow Lin's 1839 crackdown at Humen through to a war his side had no real chance of winning on industrial terms. The Treaty of Nanjing closes the lesson, and students have to explain exactly what makes it unequal rather than just naming it as such.
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