5104 - Brief information on imperialism/colonialism

The naval gun was taken away from the Chinese torpedo boat destroyer Hai Lung during the battle of the Boxer Rebellion. The story of this object's journey started during the times of imperialism where the stronger power (European countries) dominate specific foreign countries for economic and political reasons and also the times of colonialism which is the dominance of poorer countries to exploit the indigenous for valuable resources. China was host to multiple western countries whom occupied the Chinese land, such as UK, Germany, France and USA.

Source: mrbelloblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Imperialism-in-China.png

It was traditional for the British Empire to take and archive objects from around the globe to put on display in museums such as The British Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum.
Although, now that we're in post-colonialism, the British still have these objects that were taken even though they originated from somewhere else.