Greater Soviet Ukraine wrote:Aurum Reich wrote:And why did they get addicted? Because they chose to buy. Its their fault for making that choice not the british.
Even though you may be able to justify the British forcing China to open their ports, you cannot justify the fact that the British, instead of trying to negotiate with the Qing Dynasty, invaded it outright and then pillaged, burned, and looted everything they could find. The sheer amount of war crimes that the soldiers committed in their process of "liberation" removes any so-called "higher moral ground" (as a previous person approximately said) that you can claim for the UK on the subject of the Opium Wars.
The Brits did try to negotiate. The Chinese said "we don't want your stuff" and then the Brits got mad and started up a drug dealing operation.
Aurum Reich wrote:Terminus Alpha wrote:Opium addiction became as serious problem around the time of the Opium Wars and the government was in the right to ban the sale.
The Brits didn't like their profits being under-cut, and proceeded to force China to "open" it's ports.
And why did they get addicted? Because they chose to buy. Its their fault for making that choice not the british.
Brits shouldn't have sold in the first place. Drug dealing isn't ethical.
Also, nice victim blaming. It's that attitude of "Just say no" that escalated the War on Drugs to it's current expensive excess.