The British were very avid buyers of China's silk and tea. Because of this, they were losing silver to China. This was running down the British supply of silver.
Because of this, they really wanted to find something to sell to China to recoup some of the loss of silver. They hit on opium, which came from British India.
However, the Chinese banned the opium trade. This caused Britain to fight China in the Opium Wars. So, the wars happened because Britain needed to sell opium to China to get back some of the silver they lost to China by buying tea and silk.
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