Opium Wars

The Opium Wars  were two conflicts waged between China and Western powers during the mid-19th century. The First Opium War was fought from 1839 to 1842 between China and the United Kingdom, and was triggered by the Chinese government's campaign to enforce its prohibition against opium trafficking by British merchants. The Second Opium War was waged by Britain and France against China from 1856 to 1860. In each war, the superior military advantages enjoyed by European forces led to several easy victories over the Chinese military, with the consequence that China was compelled to sign unequal treaties to grant favourable tariffs, trade concessions, reparations and territory to Western powers.
The two conflicts, along with the various treaties imposed during the "century of humiliation", weakened the Chinese government's authority and forced China to open specified treaty ports  to Western merchants. In addition, China ceded sovereignty over Hong Kong to the British Empire, which maintained control over the region until 1997. During this period, the Chinese economy also contracted slightly as a result of the wars, though the Taiping Rebellion and Dungan Revolt had a much larger economic effect.
Why did the Opium Wars occur? China's attempt to stop the illegal opium trade, which had created a significant social and economic upheaval in that country and led to widespread addiction, led to the first Opium War. The drug's principal source in China was British traders. China and Britain engaged in the First Opium War (1839–1842) in retaliation for Britain's unlawful importation of opium from India into China, which resulted in widespread addiction. The First Opium War was ended by the Treaty of Nanjing, which was the first of what came to be known as the unequal treaties for China. The Opium Wars, which lasted from 1839 to 1860, were sparked by a trade dispute between China and the United Kingdom over British opium smuggling into China and the Chinese government's efforts to enforce its drug laws.
== First Opium War ==
China and Britain engaged in the First Opium War in 1839, which was fought over trading rights and Britain's diplomatic standing among Chinese officials. China enjoyed a trade surplus with Europe in the eighteenth century, exchanging silver for porcelain, silk, and tea. By the end of the 17th century, the British East India Company had increased opium growing in the Bengal Presidency. They did this by selling the drug to private traders who then secretly shipped it to China and sold it to Chinese smugglers. The EIC was annually selling 4,000 chests of opium to independent merchants by 1797.
Opium was once used as a medicine with anesthetic properties, but new Chinese customs of smoking it recreationally greatly raised demand and frequently caused smokers to get addicted. Opium was declared illegal by successive Chinese emperors in 1729, 1799, 1814, and 1831, but imports increased because of money-making smugglers and corrupt officials in China. Some American businessmen, such as Francis Blackwell Forbes and Warren Delano Jr., the great-grandfather of 20th-century President Franklin D. Roosevelt, entered the trade by smuggling opium from Turkey into China; this practice is sometimes referred to as the "Old China Trade" in American historiography. The Chinese opium traffic reached 30,000 chests by 1833. Opium was delivered to storage facilities in the free-trade port of Canton by British and American traders, who then sold it to Chinese smugglers.
The opium trade flourished after the EIC's monopoly on British trade with China ended in 1834. The Daoguang Emperor tasked Governor General Lin Zexu with putting an end to the trade because he was both concerned about moral issues surrounding the usage of opium and the flow of silver. Lin published an open letter to Queen Victoria in Canton in 1839 asking for her support in putting an end to the opium trade. The Queen never received the letter. It was subsequently published in The Times as a direct request for collaboration from the British people. On March 18, the Daoguang Emperor issued an edict emphasizing the severe penalty for smuggling opium going forward. All opium in Canton, including that owned by foreign governments and trading firms, was ordered to be seized by Lin, and those firms were ready to appease him by providing a small amount of the drug. Three days after Lin's deadline had passed, Charles Elliot, Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China, came as Chinese troops imposed a shutdown and blockade of the factories. Elliot purchased all the opium on credit from the British government and gave Lin the 20,000 chests after which Lin had them destroyed at Humen, ending the siege.
Elliott subsequently advised London in a letter to employ military force to settle the conflict with the Chinese leadership. On September 4, 1839, Chinese and British warships engaged in a little combat in the Kowloon Estuary. After almost a year, the British government decided to launch a military expedition in May 1840 to make financial reparations for the losses opium traders in Canton suffered and to ensure continued security for the trade. A British naval force landed near Macao on June 21 and proceeded to bombard the port of Dinghai. The Royal Navy used its stronger ships and weapons in the ensuing combat to hand Chinese forces a string of sound defeats.
The Treaty of Nanjing, the first of the Unequal treaties between China and Western powers, put an end to the war in 1842. The agreement established Shanghai, Canton, Ningbo, Fuzhou, and Xiamen as treaty ports open to Western traders as well as the cession of Hong Kong Island and the nearby smaller islands to Britain. The pact also provided that China would reimburse Britain for the opium that was destroyed with a payment of twenty-one million dollars, of which six million would be paid immediately and the remainder in subsequent payments. The next year, a new treaty incorporated clauses enabling British extraterritoriality and granted Britain most-favorable-nation status. The same concessions were obtained by France in the 1843 and 1844 treaties.China and Britain engaged in the First Opium War (1839–1842) in retaliation for Britain's unlawful importation of opium from India into China, which resulted in widespread addiction. The Treaty of Nanjing, which gave the British control of Hong Kong, was a result of the British loss that followed.
China's attempts to stifle the opium trade gave rise to the Opium Wars. Opium had been illegally exported from India to China by foreign traders (mostly British) since the 18th century, but the trade increased significantly starting around 1820. The resultant widespread addiction in China was seriously upsetting the country's social and economic order. Around 1,400 tons of opium were seized and burned by the Chinese authorities in the spring of 1839 from British merchants' storage facilities at Canton (Guangzhou). When several inebriated British sailors killed a peasant from China in July, tensions between the two sides grew. The British government declined to hand over the accused men to Chinese courts because it did not want its citizens to be tried in that country's legal system.
Later that year, fighting broke out as British vessels destroyed a Chinese blockade of Hong Kong's Pearl River (Zhu Jiang) estuary. An expeditionary army was dispatched to China by the British government in early 1840; it arrived in Hong Kong in June. Following months of talks in Canton, the British fleet continued up the Pearl River estuary before attacking and occupying the city in May 1841. Despite a vigorous Chinese counterattack in the spring of 1842, subsequent British battles against the inferior Qing armies during the next year were also victorious. However, the British resisted that attack and ended the conflict in late August by capturing Nanjing (Nanking).
The Treaty of Nanjing, which was signed on August 29th, was the outcome of swiftly moving peace negotiations. According to its terms, China was expected to provide Britain a sizable indemnity, hand over Hong Kong Island to the British, and raise the number of treaty ports from one (Canton) to five where the British might trade and live. Shanghai was one of the four new designated ports, and the opening of that port to foreigners signaled the beginning of the development of Shanghai into one of China's principal commercial entrepôts. British people were awarded extraterritoriality (the right to be tried in British courts) and most-favorable-nation status by the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue (Human), which was signed on October 8, 1843. (Britain was granted any rights in China that might be granted to other foreign countries). Similar powers were quickly demanded by and granted to other Western nations.
Opium was Britain's single most profitable commodity trade of the 19th century. British navy launched an expedition in June 1840, which ultimately defeated the Chinese. Treaty of Nanking forced China to increase foreign trade, give compensation, and cede Hong Kong to the British. Tensions began after British sailors killed a Chinese villager and the British government refused to hand over accused men. Fighting later broke out, with the British navy destroying the Chinese naval blockade, and launching an offensive.
The Qing dynasty relaxed maritime trade restrictions in the 1680s. Guangzhou became the port of preference for incoming foreign trade. Foreign traders were only permitted to do business through a body of Chinese merchants known as the Cohong. The Cohong appraised the value of foreign products and rebuffed imports. China and European powers engaged in a brisk trade between the two countries for over a century.
Around 28 million kilograms of silver were received by China, principally from European powers, in exchange for Chinese products. In stark contrast, Qing China sustained a trade surplus with Europe. Opium was introduced to China and Southeast Asia by Arab merchants. Opium as a medicinal ingredient was documented in Chinese texts as early as the Tang dynasty. Consumption of Javanese opium rose in the 18th century, and after the Napoleonic Wars resulted in the British occupying Java.
Opium was considered a lucrative replacement for cotton, and was soon being auctioned in Calcutta. British ships brought their cargoes to islands off the coast, especially Lintin Island. Chinese traders with fast and well-armed small boats took the goods inland for distribution. In the 18th century American and British merchants introduced opium from Turkey into the Chinese market. Competition among British and American merchants drove down the price of opium, leading to an increase in the availability of the drug.
The Qing imperial court debated whether or how to end the opium trade. Efforts by Qing officials to curb opium imports through regulations on consumption resulted in an increase in drug smuggling. Local officials and the Cohong profited greatly from the bribes and taxes involved in the narcotics trade. New economic and social innovations led to a change in the parameters of Sino-European trade. China's rigid merchant hierarchy also blocked efforts to open ports to foreign ships and businesses.
Western nations began to seek additional trading rights in China. Britain in particular was keenly increasing its exports to China. Attempts by a British embassy, a Dutch mission, Russia, and the British again  to negotiate increased access to the Chinese market were all vetoed by successive Qing Emperors. In the 19th century, European merchants began to rise to positions of great importance in China. William Jardine and James Matheson were British merchants who operated a consignment and shipping business.
In addition to trade, some western missionaries arrived and began to proselytise Christianity to the Chinese. In 1834, reformers  in Britain succeeded in ending the monopoly of the British East India Company on trade in China. Napier Affair: British naval vessels bombed Chinese forts in a show of force. The British were ordered to leave Canton for either Whampoa or Macau. Lord Napier was forced to return to Macau, where he died of typhus a few days later.
In 1839, the Daoguang Emperor appointed Lin Zexu to the post of Special Imperial Commissioner. Commissioner Lin banned the sale of opium and demanded that all supplies be surrendered to the Chinese authorities. He also closed the Pearl River Channel, trapping British traders in Canton. As well as seizing opium stockpiles, Chinese troops boarded British ships before destroying the opium on board. Commissioner Elliot Lin ordered all foreign merchants and Qing officials to sign a new bond promising not to deal in opium under penalty of death.
The British government opposed their signing, feeling that it violated the principle of free trade. Some merchants who did not trade in opium were willing to sign against Elliot's orders. In 1839 British merchant sailors in Kowloon became intoxicated after consuming rice liqueur. Two of the sailors beat to death a local villager. Superintendent Elliot ordered the arrest of the two men, but refused to hand them over to Chinese authorities because he feared they would be killed.
Commissioner Elliot ordered all British ships to leave the coast of China by 24 August. Macau barred British ships from its harbour at the request of Lin Ping. Elliot issued an ultimatum that, if the Chinese refused to allow the British to purchase supplies, they would be fired upon. British naval commander Lai Enjue claimed that 40–50 British had been killed and a warship sunk. The British fleet bought provisions from local villagers, often with the aid of bribed Chinese officials.
Following the Chinese crackdown on the opium trade, discussion arose as to how Britain would respond. Many British citizens sympathised with the Chinese and wanted to halt the sale of opium. Others wanted to contain or regulate the international narcotics trade. Whig controlled government in particular advocated war with China. The Queen addressed the China Question in her annual address to the Lords on 16 January 1840.
Calls for military action were met with mixed responses when the matter went before Parliament. Foreign Secretary Palmerston led the pro war camp, while other merchants called for an opening of free trade with China. MPs voted against Graham's motion on 9 April 1840, which was defeated by a majority of only 9 votes. Tories failed to stop the British warships already on their way to China. House of Commons agreed on 27 July 1840 to grant £173,442 for the expenses of the expedition.
Lord Palmerston requested the right for foreigners to safely inhabit and own private property in China. End the system by which British merchants are restricted to trading solely in Canton. Secure island along the Chinese coast that can be easily defended and provisioned, or exchange captured islands for favourable trading terms. British plans for an expeditionary force were announced in January 1840. Plans were drawn up to launch a series of attacks on Chinese ports and rivers.
The ships earmarked for the expedition were either posted in remote colonies or under repair, and accidents decreased combat readiness. The British fleet arrived off Zhoushan Island and demanded the city of Dinghai surrender. The commander of the Chinese garrison refused, questioning what reason the British had for harassing Dinghai. Fighting began, a fleet of 12 small junks was destroyed by the Royal Navy, and British marines captured the hills. British victory at Chusan allowed British ships to dock in Macau, a key port in Southern China.
Negotiations between Qishan and Elliot took place on the Pearl River between 1841 and 1842. Both sides agreed to withdraw from the Yellow Sea, but negotiations were never concluded. The British fleet arrived in the Pearl River Delta in early January 1841. 10,000 Qing soldiers were in position to defend Canton and the surrounding area. Qishan attempted to end the war by negotiating a peace treaty with Britain.
Both governments refused to sign the document and hostilities resumed. The British captured the remaining Bogue forts on 26 February during the Battle of the Bogue. On 2 March the British destroyed a Qing fort near Pazhou and captured Whampoa. In a series of engagements along the Pearl River the British captured or destroyed Chinese ships, guns, and military equipment. The British attacked Canton on 18 March, taking the Thirteen Factories with very few casualties and raising the Union Jack above the British factory.
Qing army camped outside of the city soon numbered 50,000. Rumors spread that Chinese divers were being trained to drill holes in hulls of British ships. The Qing launched a coordinated night attack on the British army and navy. The British counter-attacked, taking the last four Qing forts above Canton and bombarding the city. Elliott signed the peace treaty without consulting the British army or Navy.
The defence of Canton was declared a diplomatic success by Yishan. Elliot wanted to cease military operations and reopen trade. Major General Gough wanted to capture Amoy and blockade the Yangtze River. Foreign Minister Lord Parker ordered a combined naval and ground attack on the defences of Amoy. The British withdrew to an island, where they established a small garrison and blockaded the Jiulong River.
With the city empty of any army, peasants, criminals, and deserters looted the town. The British invasion and capture of Chusan in 1841 saw the British solidify their control over the central Chinese coast. The British forces killed 1500 Qing soldiers and captured the island from the Qing. Ningbo was taken by the British on 13 October with the loss of an imperial cannon manufactory.
Admiral Parker and Superintendent Pottinger wanted a percentage of all captured Chinese property to be turned over to the British as legal prizes of war. General Gough argued that this would only turn the Chinese population against the British, and that if property had to be seized, it should be public property rather than private. Major General Gough sought to cripple the finances of the Qing Empire by striking up the Yangtze River. 25 warships and 10,000 men assembled at Ningpo and Zhapu in May for planned advance into Chinese interior. Advance ships captured tax barges that slashed revenue of imperial court in Beijing to fraction of what it had been.
British suffered their highest combat losses of the war taking the city. British fleet cut the vital Grand Canal, paralysing the Caoyun system. The First Opium War officially ended on 29 August with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking. British naval superiority allowed the Royal Navy to attack Chinese forts with little risk to themselves. British soldiers were equipped with Brunswick rifles and rifle-modified Brown Bess muskets.
British artillery was lighter and more manoeuvrable than the cannons used by the Chinese. China did not have a unified navy, instead allowing individual provinces to manage naval defenses. Lightly armoured Chinese warships were decimated by heavy guns and explosive weaponry. Large number of private British merchants and East India Company ships deployed in Singapore and India ensured that British forces in China were adequately supplied. The Kangxi Emperor ordered the construction of river defences to combat pirates.
By the time of the First Opium War, multiple forts defended most major Chinese cities. The failure of Qing fortifications coupled with the Chinese underestimation of the Royal Navy allowed the British to force their way up major rivers. The Qing armies were armed with matchlocks and shotguns, which had an effective range of 100 metres. Chinese soldiers were also equipped with halberds, spears, swords, and crossbows. Most battles of the war were fought in cities or on cliffs and riverbanks.
The strategy of the Qing dynasty during the war was to prevent the British from seizing Chinese territory. This defensive strategy was hampered by the Qing severely underestimating the capacity of the British military. The war ended in the signing of China's first Unequal Treaty, the Treaty of Nanking. The Treaty of Nanking opened the Chinese market to global commerce and the opium trade. William Ewart Gladstone denounced British violence against the Chinese and was ardently opposed to the British trade in opium to China.
The war marked the start of what 20th century Chinese nationalists called the "Century of Humiliation". The First Opium War was fought between China and the United Kingdom in 1842. Historians argue that Britain's need to maintain its reputation forced it to go to war. Some historians claim that the British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston initiated the war to maintain the principle of free trade. Opium played a role similar to that of tea in the Boston Tea Party leading to the American Revolutionary War.
Opium was the most profitable single commodity trade of the 19th century. Western nations did not recognise diplomatic equality for entities that failed to meet their "standard of civilisation", including China. The Qianlong Emperor granted Lord Macartney a golden scepter, an important symbol of peace and wealth, but this was dismissed by the British. Qing laws prevented Chinese from pursuing foreigners through the courts. In 1816, the Jiaqing Emperor dismissed a British embassy for their refusal to kowtow.
Historians have pondered whether the British war with China could have been avoided. Michael Greenberg locates the inevitable cause in momentum for more overseas trade in Britain's expanding modern economy. Melancon argues it was a matter of upholding aristocratic standards of national honour sullied by Chinese insults. Historian James Polachek argues the reasons for trying to suppress the opium trade had to do with internal factionalism led by a purification-oriented group of literary scholars. The Manchu rulers were focused on internal unrest by Chinese elements, and paid little attention to the minor issues happening in Canton.
=== China Giving Hong Kong to Britain ===
With the signing of the Chuenpi Convention, an accord aiming to put an end to the first Anglo-Chinese conflict, China cedes the island of Hong Kong to the British during the First Opium War. Britain invaded China in 1839 to subdue resistance to its meddling in the nation's political and economic affairs.
With the signing of the Chuenpi Convention, an accord aiming to put an end to the first Anglo-Chinese conflict, China cedes the island of Hong Kong to the British during the First Opium War.
Britain invaded China in 1839 to subdue resistance to its meddling in the nation's political and economic affairs. The occupation of Hong Kong, a sparsely populated island off the coast of southeast China, was one of Britain's initial moves in the conflict. The First Opium War was officially ended by the Treaty of Nanking, which was signed in 1842 after China relinquished the island to the British in 1841.
The newly established colony of Britain prospered as a hub for East-West trade, the commercial entryway, and the distribution hub for southern China. The Second Convention of Peking gave Britain an additional 99 years of control over Hong Kong in 1898. After extensive discussions, the British and the Chinese officially agreed to the 1997 island transition in September 1984 in exchange for a Chinese commitment to uphold Hong Kong's capitalist system.
Hong Kong was peacefully transferred to China on July 1, 1997, in a ceremony that was attended by various Chinese and British leaders. Tung Chee Hwa, the chief executive of the new Hong Kong administration, developed a policy based on the idea of "one country, two systems," maintaining Hong Kong's status as the major capitalist hub in Asia.
== Second Opium War ==
The Taiping Rebellion, which made Nanking its capital in 1853, roiled northern China. Despite this, Ye Mingchen, a new Imperial Commissioner who was keen to outlaw the still-legal opium trade, was appointed to Canton. He captured the Arrow, a ship of British registration, in October 1856 and put its crew in chains. The East Indies and China Station fleet was summoned by Sir John Bowring, the Governor of British Hong Kong. On October 23, it bombarded and captured the Pearl River forts on the approach to Canton and then proceeded to bombard Canton itself, but it lacked the necessary numbers to take and hold the city. Commercial buildings in Europe were set on fire on December 15 during a protest in Canton, prompting Bowring to call for military action. France offered support after a French missionary was killed.
The opium trade was now legal, coolie transportation to European colonies was expanded, all of China was made accessible to British and French citizens, and imports from other countries were exempt from internal transit taxes. These were some of the more significant concessions that Britain and France demanded from China at this point. The war led to the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin, in which the Chinese government agreed to pay war reparations for the costs of the recent conflict, open a second group of ten ports to European commerce, legalize the trade in opium, and grant foreign traders and missionaries the right to travel within China. The treaty was ratified by the Convention of Peking in 1860 following a second round of combat that saw the capture of Beijing's Forbidden City and the Old Summer Palace.While the Qing government was occupied with trying to put a stop to the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64), the British, looking to expand their commercial rights in China, sought a pretext to restart hostilities in the middle of the 19th century. Early in October 1856, while the British-registered ship Arrow was parked at Canton, some Chinese officials allegedly boarded the vessel, detained a number of Chinese crew members (who were later released), and lowered the British flag. Later that month, there were clashes between Chinese and British soldiers when a British vessel sailed up the Pearl River estuary and started to bombard Canton. Trading stopped as a deadlock developed. Chinese set fire to foreign industries (trade warehouses) in Canton in December, which caused tensions to rise.
The assassination of a French missionary in the interior of China in early 1856 served as the French justification for their decision to join the British military campaign. The allies started military operations in late 1857 after delays in collecting the forces in China (British troops on their way were initially diverted to India to aid in putting an end to the Indian Mutiny). They swiftly overran Canton, removed its obstinate governor, and appointed a more accommodating official. British vessels carrying allied soldiers arrived at Tianjin (Tientsin) in May 1858, forcing the Chinese into negotiations. The June 1858 treaties of Tianjin granted foreign envoys access to Beijing, allowed Westerners to live and trade in a number of new ports, granted foreigners the ability to travel to China's interior, and granted Christian missionaries freedom of movement. Opium importation was made permitted in later discussions in Shanghai that year.
In order to sign the treaties, the British left Tianjin in the summer of 1858 but returned in June 1859 when traveling to Beijing with French and British diplomats. The Chinese offered an alternative path to Beijing in lieu of letting them pass via the Dagu forts at the mouth of the Hai River. Instead of choosing the other route, the British-led forces attempted to advance past Dagu. Heavy losses were sustained when they were forced back. The allies then resumed hostilities after the Chinese refused to ratify the accords. A much bigger fleet of vessels, along with British and French soldiers, demolished the Dagu batteries in August 1860. After moving upriver to Tianjin, they invaded Beijing in October and looted and then torched the Yuanming Garden, the emperor's summer residence. Later that month, the Chinese signed the Beijing Convention, pledging to uphold the Tianjin Treaties and ceding to the British control of the southern Kowloon Peninsula, which is next to Hong Kong.
Between 1856 and 1860, the Second Opium War raged. It pitted the Chinese Qing dynasty against the British Empire and the French Empire. It was the second significant battle in the Opium Wars, and it forced the opium trade into legal status. Western imperialism grew quickly in the 1850s. Britain demanded that the Qing authorities renegotiate the Treaty of Nanjing in order to increase its privileges in China.
Chinese marines in Canton captured the Arrow in 1856 after suspecting it of being a pirate ship. On October 29, 1856, troops from the UK and France entered Canton. James Keenan, a U.S. citizen, planted the American flag on Ye Mingchen's walls and property. Consul. After failed negotiations, the city was bombarded.
The river forts close to Canton were attacked and taken after being bombarded by British and French ships. In May 1858, the alliance sailed north to briefly seize the Taku Forts at Tientsin (Tianjin). To provide military assistance to the British and French, the United States and Russia dispatched representatives to Hong Kong. The British and French lost 15 people in the capture of Canton on January 1, 1858, and suffered 113 injuries. Between 200 to 650 residents and defenders were killed.
Ye Mingchen was imprisoned in India's Calcutta after being arrested, where he starved to death. By signing the Treaties of Tientsin, Britain, France, Russia, and the U.S. allowed Western trade access to 11 additional ports. The accords were initially rejected by the Chinese. In 1860, Anglo-French armies ransacked and destroyed the Old Summer Palace. In June 1859, the Second Battle of Taku Forts took place.
Instead of landing in Beitang, the Anglo-French soldiers insisted on doing so in Taku. Low tide and soft mud stopped them from landing, and Sengge Rinchen's cannons fired precisely enough to sink four gunboats. Chinese laborers from the south served in the British and French armies. They transported the French ladders to the ditch during the 1860 attack on the Peiho Forts. Coolies who had worked for the allies after they were captured were buried up to their necks and given to the dogs.
As suggested by Lord Elgin, the Forbidden City should be destroyed in order to punish the Qing Empire for mistreating its prisoners and to deter the Qing Empire from using kidnapping as a bargaining chip. Beijing was targeted in the past as a danger, thus an attack was ruled out on those grounds. The pact permitted British ships to transport Chinese people bound for servitude to the Americas and opened up China to international trade. Full civil rights for Christians were guaranteed, including the freedom to evangelize and own property. The opium trade and violence against Chinese people were two things that William Ewart Gladstone vehemently condemned.
His dislike of opium originated from how it affected his sister Helen. Gladstone joined Robert Peel's administration after rejecting Palmerston's decision to start the First Opium War.