The Opium War of 1840 marked a turning point in Chinese history. From early in the 19th century, Britain started smuggling large quantities of opium into China, causing a great outflow of Chinese silver and grave economic disruption in China.
In 1839, the Qing government sent Commissioner Lin Zexu to Guangdong
to put into effect the prohibition on opium trafficking.
When, in an effort to protect its opium trade, Britain initiated
the First Opium War in 1840, the Chinese people rose in
armed struggle against the invaders under the leadership
of Lin Zexu and other patriotic generals. But the corrupt
and incompetent Qing government capitulated to the foreign
invaders time and again, and finally signed the Treaty of
Nanjing with Britain, a treaty of national betrayal and
humiliation. From then on, China was reduced to a semi-colonial
and semi-feudal country.
After the Opium War, Britain, the United States, France,
Russia and Japan forced the Qing government to sign various
unequal treaties, seized "concessions" and divided
China into "spheres of influence." To oppose the
twin evils of feudal oppression and foreign aggression,
the Chinese people waged heroic struggles, with many national
heroes coming to the fore. 
The Revolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
in 1851, led by Hong Xiuquan, was the largest peasant uprising
in modern Chinese history. The Revolution of 1911, a bourgeois-democratic
revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, ended
the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The monarchical system that
had been in place in China for more than 2,000 years was
discarded with the founding of the provisional government
of the Republic of China.
The Revolution of 1911 is of great significance in modern Chinese
history. But the fruits of victory were soon compromised
by concessions on the part of the Chinese bourgeoisie, and
the country entered a period of domination by the Northern
Warlords headed by Yuan Shikai. The people lived in an abyss
of misery in this period.
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