Photo Gallery for Tea, Drugs, and Jesus

1785 advertisement for the sale of Chinese goods the merchant ship Empress of China brought to the United States. (Episode 201: The Flag Follows Trade)

The East India Company flag in 1842. (Episode 201: The Flag Follows Trade)

A Chinese tea plantation during the first half of the 19th century. (Episode 201: The Flag Follows Trade)

An 1824 painting of opium ships arriving in China. (Episode 201: The Flag Follows Trade )

A 19th-century illustration of Chinese opium smokers. (Episode 201: The Flag Follows Trade)

A busy opium storehouse in India during the 19th century. (Episode 201: The Flag Follows Trade)

The United States attempted to trade in sandalwood (left) and sea cucumbers (right) in China.

A British Royal Navy warship (right background) destroys Chinese junks during the First Opium War (1839–1842).

Chinese and British troops in combat during the First Opium War (1839–1842).

The signing of the Treaty of Nanking (now Nanjing) in 1842, which opened China to foreign influence, including trade and missionaries.

A leader of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864), possibly Hong Xiuquan himself.

Ground and naval combat during the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864).

An 1857 Harper's Weekly illustration of Chinese miners in California.

Chinese laborers constructing a railroad in the western United States in the 19th century.

An 1898 French political cartoon depicts foreign powers carving up China into spheres of influence.

Boxer soldiers, ca. 1900.

United States Marines in combat with the Boxers at the Legation Quarter in Peking (now Beijing) in the summer of 1900.

U.S. soldiers in China during the Boxer Rebellion, ca. 1900.

Chinese soldiers advancing during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).

Chiang Kai-shek, Madame Chiang (Soong Mei-ling), and General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell in 1942.

An October 1942 U.S. Government poster encouraging American support for United China Relief.

Mao Zedong and President Richard Nixon shake hands in Beijing on February 21, 1972.