Editing 1830s (section)

=== East Asia ===

==== China ====
[[File:Destruction of opium in 1839.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Lin Zexu]] supervising the destruction of opium in 1839]]
{{See also|Daoguang Emperor|First Opium War}}
China was ruled by the [[Daoguang Emperor]] of the [[Qing dynasty]] during the 1830s. The decade witnessed a rapid rise in the sale of opium in China,<ref name=greenberg-113/> despite efforts by the Daoguang Emperor to end the trade.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fay |first=Peter Ward |title=The Opium War, 1840-1842: barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the early part of the nineteenth century and the war by which they forced her gates ajar |date=1976 |publisher=Norton |isbn=978-0-393-00823-4 |series=The Norton library |location=New York}}</ref> A turning point came in 1834, with the end of the monopoly of the [[East India Company]], leaving trade in the hands of private entrepreneurs. By 1838, opium sales climbed to 40,000 chests.<ref name=greenberg-113>{{cite book|last=Greenberg|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Greenberg (economist)|title=British Trade and the Opening of China 1800–1841|format=preview|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QNo8AAAAIAAJ|page=113 | quote=expansion in imports from 16,550 chests in the season 1831-2 to over 30,000 in 1835-6, and 40,000 in 1838-9|year=1969}}</ref><ref name=CIH>{{cite book|title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of China|editor1-last=Ebrey|editor1-first=Patricia Buckley|editor1-link=Patricia Buckley Ebrey|year=2010|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-19620-8|page=236|edition=second|chapter=9. Manchus and Imperialism: The Qing Dynasty 1644–1900}}</ref> In 1839, newly appointed imperial commissioner [[Lin Zexu]] banned the sale of opium and imposed several restrictions on all foreign traders. Lin also closed the channel to [[Guangzhou|Guangzhou (Canton)]], leading to the seizure and destruction of 20,000 chests of opium.<ref>{{cite web |first=Leon |last=Poon |url=http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/modern.html#opium |title=Emergence Of Modern China |publisher=University of Maryland |access-date=22 Dec 2008}}</ref> The British retaliated, seizing [[Hong Kong]] on [[August 23]] of that year, starting what would be known as the [[First Opium War]]. It would end three years later with the signing of the [[Treaty of Nanking]] in 1842.

==== Japan ====
* July [[1837]] – [[Charles W. King]] sets sail on the American merchant ship ''Morrison''. In the [[Morrison incident]], he is turned away from [[Japan]]ese ports with cannon fire.