Today in History: The Opium Wars

On this day (June 3) in 1839, Lin Zexu, acting for the Manchu Emperor of China, began destroying 1300 tons of confiscated British opium. The opium trade was illegal in China and the emperor had decided to stamp it out.

The opium was dumped into three massive open trenches, lined with salt and lime and then covered with water. The mixture was then stirred and flushed into a nearby creek where it was washed out to sea. Using this process, it took 500 workers 22 days to complete the destruction.

When news of the destruction reached Britain, a groundswell of public opinion demanded China be forced to pay compensation for the destroyed opium leading to the First Opium War.