First, the harm brought by the Opium War to China.

The Opium War had a far-reaching negative impact on China. Sino-British treaty of nanking is the first unequal treaty in China's modern history. The Opium War changed the social nature of China, China's territorial integrity and independent sovereignty began to be seriously damaged, and China's self-sufficient feudal economy began to collapse.

Second, the objective progress of the Opium War on China's social development.

(1) The Opium War forcibly opened the door to corruption, backwardness and isolation in China.

In the feudal autocratic society of China for thousands of years, the broad masses of people were confined to limited land and lived a self-sufficient and closed life. By the end of the Qing dynasty, this kind of closure, backwardness and corruption became more prominent. When the world is developing, especially after the rapid development of European economy in recent hundreds of years, advanced technology and modern civilization have not only improved the life of European people, but also brought them more freedom and democracy. The gap between China and other parts of the world, especially Europe, has widened. Although western countries used opium and artillery as uncivilized means to open the closed door of China, China needs to be opened after all, and external forces can promote this process to a certain extent.

(2) Promoting the development of commerce in China.

As treaty of nanking stipulated five trading ports, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Shanghai, Ningbo and Fuzhou were successively turned into trading ports. The opening and opening of the five cities promoted the commercial development of the five cities at that time. Guangzhou, the old commercial center, and Shanghai, the new commercial center, are the most prosperous, followed by a group of big businessmen, such as Wu and Yang Fang in Guangzhou, who have millions of dollars, although some businessmen are dependent on foreigners.

(3) Brought modern European civilization and technology.

With the gradual opening of China, some foreign civilizations and technologies, especially some foreign progressive and open democratic ideas and free ideas, began to appear in Chinese mainland. For example, Wei Yuan, a famous thinker at that time, also studied the process of the Opium War and put forward several principles in foreign relations. The first is to "listen to foreign countries and help each other with opium", that is, to allow legal trade. Oppose the opium trade. The second is "learning from foreigners to control foreigners." Although Wei Yuan's "learning from foreigners" mainly refers to guns, these thoughts of Wei Yuan and others have become the pioneers for China intellectuals to put forward "learning from foreigners" earlier. Since then, some advanced western technologies and new products have started to enter China, and China people have begun to understand the western world gradually. In a word, the Opium War was the starting point for China to be enslaved by foreign capitalism. It transformed China from a feudal society into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, marking the beginning of modern China history. However, the Opium War also forcibly opened the closed door of China, and China's long-standing closed door policy was broken. A group of advanced China people began to look at the world with their eyes wide open, and a new trend of thought emerged to explore western knowledge and learn western military technology to resist foreign aggression. Therefore, the Opium War also promoted the disintegration of ancient feudal autocratic China to some extent.