Imagine sweeping through green fields, floating five feet above ground, sun on your face as you

slide by on track to your

there,

the care in the world as you simply lean back.

And before you know it, you're there.

This is how travels should feel,

and on our trains it does a vante west coast feel good travel

Hello everyone welcome back to the history hit warfare podcast I'm your host

James Rogers and as you know each week twice a week we bring you brand new cutting

edge histories from around the world and I mean it from around the world. And I mean it, from around the world. We have a growing global

leadership. Hello to all of you and we want to make sure we have geographically representative

interesting brand new histories from around the world of global conflicts

that have shaped the world we live in today.

And of course, we bring that right up to date

to help us understand the conflicts that continue to simmer globally.

But once a week I like to dig deep into the history here archive to pull out an episode that I think

deserves a little more attention. And this one is on the opium wars with British military historian Mark Simner.

Now this topic is rarely taught in British schools but it is taught across China.

It is important to understand because it explains some of the reasons

why resentment might still linger in China today. I studied for a period in Hong Kong. I can tell you those debates in the history

classes and the international politics and security classes were serious to say the least. The shadows of the

opium war are cast far and wide across China. Of course, Hong Kong itself is a legacy of the Opium Wars.

...