1. WORLD HISTORY READERS
Level 3-⑧
Tea and Wars

2. The Tea Tax What events in world history centered around tea?
Types of tea
What events in world history centered around tea?
The Boston Tea Party and the Opium Wars
There was no United States of America yet. America was just British colonies. The colonies were owned by the British and ruled by the British king. However, the colonists did not want to be ruled by the British government.
American colonists
What was America like at the time of the Boston Tea Party?

3. The American Colonies 1773 When did the Boston Tea Party happen?
A cartoon of people talking about tea taxes
A ship at Jamestown, USA
1773
What led up to the Boston Tea Party?
• The British government put a costly tax on tea.
• Only the British East India Company was allowed to import tea into the American colonies.
A cartoon showing the conflict
What did the colonists do?
• Some colonists stopped drinking tea.
• Some colonists bought tea on the black market from Holland.
• They protested against the tax.

4. What did the colonists do during the Boston Tea Party?
Tea into the Sea
What did the colonists do during the Boston Tea Party?
Sixty Boston colonists called themselves the Sons of Liberty. They dressed up as American Indians, boarded the ships, and dumped the tea into the harbor.
In total, 340 chests of tea were dumped into the harbor that night.
Outside the Boston Tea Party Museum
Throwing the tea into the sea
A depiction of the Boston Tea Party

5. The War that Led to Independence
The population of the colonies, 1775
The British were very angry and tried to strengthen their control over the colonies. Soon the colonists and the British were at war. It was called the American Revolutionary War and lasted from 1775 to 1783.
What happened after the Boston Tea Party?
Revolutionary war soldiers
Signing the Declaration of Independence
How did the war end?
In 1776, the Americans declared themselves free with the Declaration of Independence. In the end, a peace treaty was signed and the United States was born.

6. The Dangers of Opium How was opium used in China?
In China, opium had been a medicinal drug for a long time. But then people started smoking it which created a problem. The drug was very addictive and expensive.
How was opium used in China?
The plant used to make opium
A woman smoking a pipe
You can die from drug use.
Where did the opium come from?
How was opium related to tea during the 19th century?
It was imported from India and other places by the British.
The British used the money from opium sales in China to buy expensive Chinese goods such as tea to sell in Europe.

7. The First Opium War What started the First Opium Wars?
Opium smokers
What started the First Opium Wars?
The Chinese emperor made opium illegal. In 1839, the Chinese destroyed over 20,000 chests of opium owned by the British which were stored on Chinese land. Fighting broke out months later.
Ships on fire, 1839
How did the war end?
European opium factories in China, 1840
The British troops were very successful. By 1842, the fighting was over, and a treaty was signed. As part of the peace deal, China agreed to pay a large sum in silver, open up five Chinese ports, and hand over Hong Kong to the British.

8. The Second Opium War When did the Second Opium War start?
The French and Chinese discussing opium, 1858
When did the Second Opium War start?
It was started in 1856 by the British. This time, the British had help from France.
The French helped the British during the Second Opium War.
Again, the Chinese lost. They signed treaties with Great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States. These treaties were called the “unequal treaties.” They gave foreigners a lot of power in China. But the worst part was that the opium trade became legal in China.
How did the war end?

9. Why did the British need to sell opium in China?
The Link
Tea and opium
Greed
Why did the British need to sell opium in China?
China only accepted silver as payment for its tea. The British East India Company could not afford to buy Chinese tea. For them, trading opium was much more profitable than paying in silver. So opium made tea affordable to Europe.

10. Vocabulary affordable adj. costly adj. not expensive expensive $1.00
$10.000
costly adj.
expensive

11. Vocabulary dock n. decade n.
the place where ships stop and goods are taken off or put on
decade n.
a period of ten years

12. Vocabulary drug n. harbor n.
a chemical which can either be good or very bad for your health
harbor n.
a protected area of water next to the land where ships and boats can be safely kept

13. Vocabulary rot v. silk n. to become bad; to turn to dirt in the end
a delicate, soft type of cloth made from a thread produced by silkworms