Opium Wars Imperialism

1. The Opium Wars contributed to the creation of Imperialism greatly. Right before the first war, Chinese leaders were trying to purge themselves of the drug making Europeans upset. They believed they had the right to trade with whomever they wanted which led to fighting. British beat the Chinese and with the Treaty of Nanking got trading privileges, and access to five cities and Hong Kong, controlling trade. After the second war, other countries thought they should have the same rights and economic advantages. By the end of the 19th century, many different countries laid claim to certain industries within China. Leopold II also contributed to the urged a group of his own Belgians to pursue the inlands of Africa because of the fertile valleys. That eventually led to treaties with local leaders in the Congo to open up their lands to commercial exploitation. This all happened during what is known as the “Scramble for Africa”, where many countries …show more content…
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was the beginning of the Great War because for a long time Bosnia wanted to secede from Austrian Rule to join the independent state of Serbia. Austria would not let them do that so a group of Bosnian Serbs got together and assassinated the heir to the Austro- Hungarian throne. The relationships between Austria and Serbia and Austria and Germany along with Russia and Serbia lead to an even greater conflict and eventually to World War I. Austria and Serbia had a tense relationship because they were trying to suppress the Slavic influence because it was becoming a threat to their multi-ethnic empire. While Serbia and Russia had a close relationship as it was one of the biggest supporters of the Slavic nationalist movements. Because of the deep ties that Austria had with Germany, led Germany to go against the Serbs. Therefore, in turn, the assassination was viewed as a direct threat from the Serbian government on the Austro-Hungarian government leading to the declaration of war. (Words