Opium emerged as one of the most consequential wartime commodities in modern history. First used as a battlefield “gift” to dull pain and steady soldiers, it quickly became a substance embedded in military medicine, shaping how armies managed injury, endurance, and emotional collapse. As demand expanded, opium grew into a global trade commodity—highly profitable, politically charged, and increasingly tied to imperial interests. Its circulation intensified throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, culminating in the Opium Wars, where Britain used military force to protect its lucrative trade in China. What began as a tool of relief on the battlefield ultimately became a catalyst for international conflict, illustrating how a substance associated with healing could also drive exploitation, violence, and global power struggles.
Early Cultivation in Mesopotamia (3400 BCE)
Opium poppies were first cultivated in ancient Mesopotamia
Sumerians refer to it as hul gil, or the “joy plant”
Became a ritual substance and medicinal tool for pain relief, sleep, and spiritual practice
Opium in Classical Medicine (1st -12th Century)
Greco-Roman and Arab physicians used opium as a standard painkiller
Hippocrates
Galen
Avicenna
It travels through trade and becomes embedded in global medical traditions
Opium Enters Global Trade (17th -18th Century)
European merchants (British East India Company) scaled opium cultivation in India and exported it to China
Cultivated in Bengal and Bihar, turning opium into a profit engine for colonial administration
Increased with the rise of European imperial expansion
First Opium War (1839-1842)
Britain coerces Qing China into opening to the opium trade through military force
The Treaty of Nanjing forced China to cede to Hong Kong, establish ports, and tolerate opium inflows
Widespread addiction destabilizes Chinese society.
Second Opium War (1856-1860)
Britain and France fight again for the second time to expand diplomatic access and commercial privileges
The war ended with the Treaties of Tianjin and the Convention of Beijing, which opened additional ports
Opium becomes a symbol of Western imperial violence.
American Civil War and “Opium Slavery” (1860s)
Morphine and laudanum are widely used in battlefield medicine, used to manage pain from surgery, amputation and chronic wartime injuries
As soldiers return home, thousands of veterans return home addicted
"Opium slavery" to contemporaries -- first large-scale addiction crises
Heroin Introduced (1898)
Marketed by Bayer as a "safe, non-addictive alternative" to morphine, heroin was quickly embraced
Within a few years, clinicians realized that it was even more addictive and potent
Women and Opium (Early 1900s)
Women, especially middle and upper-class women, increasingly become the face of opium use in the United States, both as patients and as individuals resisting social control.
Menstruation pain
"Nervous disorders"
Reformers, physicians, and moral crusaders increasingly target them, turning medical dependence into a battle over gender, respect, and bodily autonomy.
Harrison Narcotics Act (1914)
The U.S. places strict federal regulations on opium and coca products, shifting addiction from a medical condition to a criminalized one
Registration, taxation, and tight control of all narcotic transactions began to take place
WWI (1914-1918)
Morphine became the primary battlefield painkiller, allowing surgeons to perform rapid procedures under wartime conditions
Caused dependency among veterans
WWII (1939-1945)
Potable morphine injections are standard in soldiers' first-aid kits
White army sergeants often underdose Black soldiers due to racist beliefs that they “feel less pain,” worsening suffering and survival outcomes.
Veterans and Opioids (1950s-1970s)
Many WWII and Vietnam veterans developed long-term addictions
Artistic expression (music, writing, and visual art) emerges as a way of rebuilding identity after trauma.
Popular Culture Representation (1990s)
Films like Forrest Gump portray heroin use, overdose risk, and later HIV transmission through needle sharing
Linked substance use to the rising HIV/AIDS crisis
Opioid Epidemic (2000s-Present)
Mass prescriptions of drugs like OxyContin, fentanyl, and synthetic opioids lead to unprecedented overdose deaths
Exposes systemic failures in healthcare and regulation, shaping debates