Opium War

The **Opium War** was fought between Qing Empire and British Empire, after the serveral reasons which caused British Empire declared war against China. This was the first big war fought between a western power and an eastern, when both of them were considered as superpowers. The war ended with Qing victory, while Britain lost its leading position in Asian colonial affairs.

* Qing restored supremacy in Indochina
* <<Treaty of Singapore>>
  British Empire
 French Empire
  7,000
 13,127
* 173 ships
	+ 73 for battle
* 200 ships
 2,000 troops killed
64 ships sunk or damaged
78 ships sunk or damaged

## Background

The war followed on from the First Opium War. In 1842, the Treaty of Nanjing—the first of what the Chinese later called the unequal treaties—granted an indemnity and extraterritoriality to Britain, the opening of five treaty ports, and the cession of Hong Kong Island. The failure of the treaty to satisfy British goals of improved trade and diplomatic relations led to the Second Opium War. In China, the First Opium War is considered to be the beginning of modern Chinese history, since they started the reform after it and built up a strong navy and army-they noticed the importance of a strong navy.

## Battle on Sea

### Battle in Hainan island

The British-French navy quickly arrived at South China and attacked Hainan island as fast as possible. Chinese Navy there was ill-prepared and got defeated soon. Hainan island was captured.

### Battle in Guangzhou

The British-French force then moved to Guangzhou. However, the Humen fort, with newly improved "Barbarian Conqueror" Cannon, made them hard to approach Guangzhou. They were knocked back, so they moved to Fuzhou. 2 ships was sunk and 3 damaged.

### Battle in Fuzhou

The allied navy then moved upward. They defeated Nanyang (South Sea) Navy of China, whom retreated to Taiwan. The allied landed in Fuzhou, however got trapped and defeated by New Army trained by Qing after the reform. 570 New Army, 27 French and 139 British was killed in the battle.

### Battle of Taiwan

The Allied Navy planned to attack Shanghai, then to Tianjin instead of fighting in South China. The reorganized their army and pushed north. Beiyang (North Sea) Navy of China, claimed the best navy of Asia, equipped with British, French, German, and American battleships, launched a blockade in Taiwan strait. They set off at January 1861.

The Beiyang navy kept waiting in Taiwan strait, hoping the allied navy wouldn't pass through via Eastern Taiwan. If so, they must immediately sail back to Tianjin to protect the capital. They waited until February 1861, feeling weird, the decided to wait for one more week. After the week had passed, the navy started feeling bad-will the enemies had started attacking Shanghai?

Suddenly, a civil ship sailed to them quickly, telling them they saw a large amount of fleet incoming. The navy felt comforted, and entered battle position.

The joint navy arrived the strait at 9.15am. Fog made the vision bad, which was great for the Qing navy who tried to surprise attack the allied navy. 9.30am, the allied force entered the shooting range of the Qing navy. The Qing navy shot at the first ship, seriously damaged it, and rushed out. 10.40am, fog disappeared. Both side entered battle status. Qing, with the advantage of defender, hurt the joint navy a lot. However, the joint navy were two superpowers in western world-they were experienced in naval battles. They started counter attack and soon got more advantages. 11.30pm, two Qing , two British and one French ships were sunk. The battle continued. 12:30pm, the flagship of Qing navy was damaged. The joint navy then tried to surround the rest of the Beiyang fleet.

4.30pm, the Beiyang fleet suffered a large loss. The joint-navy lost many ships too, but then eventually surrouneded the Qing navy. 6.00pm, when Beiyang navy is expected to lose the battle, Nanyang navy, which retreated to Taiwan for fixing after Battle of Hainan Island, appeared at the strait for supporting. The immediately surrounded the joint navy, which made the joint navy falling into a huge mess and disordered. 8.00pm, night fell, the battle ended with Qing victory.

## Battle on land

### Battle of Zhennan Pass

The joint force attacked the stronghold of southeast China, Zhennan Pass. The allied force attacked from Indochina. After capturing Huế, the Chinese Eight Banners army rushed to Vietnam, but got defeated in present-day Hanoi.

The joint force arrived at Zhennan Pass at 14 March 1859. The Pass was reinforced by New Army of Qing. The New Army hid in the hills and with the advantages of landscape, they surprise attacked the allied force. The Qing Army used cannons to bombard the allied force. One of the artillery shell hit the center of the joint-army, causing the injury allied force commander, Montauban. The allied force then retreated.

### Battle of Huế

The New Army chased and reached Hanoi, seiged it, and defeated the garrisons. Montauban became the first foreign commander being prisoner of war in battle. The New Army chased to Huế, and battled with the British reinforcing army. Qing navy, chasing the allied navy, failed to pass Maleka, turned to Huế.

With naval support, the joint army was kept inside the city. 21 January, the Vietnamese in the city opened the city door, and let the Qing Army to enter. The New Army quickly captured the city. Elgin, leading the British Army, was killed. Indochina then was liberated, and soon became back the protectorate of Qing.

### Battle of Yunnan

James Hope Grant led some British marines to land at Burma, then entered Yunnan. Due to sickness and disadvantage of landscape, they were knocked down by Qing garrison. They, hoping to leave the evil land of sickness, rushed back. Garnet Wolseley demanded them to stay, at the same time bringing 3,000 British Raj soldier to support. However Grant's army had lost the battle effort. They sailed back to London with the retreating joint navy, leaving Garnet alone.

### Battle of Malaya

Garnet's army, knowing the Qing army had liberated Indochina, predicted that they would attack Malaya, went there. They defeated the New Army in Malaya, forcing them to retreat to Siam. Later, both sides signed the peace treaty in Singapore.

## Post-war

* <<Treaty of Singapore>>
* Siam became a neutral buffer nation between western powers and China
* This is a iconic event proving the success of reforming in China, most republicans joined the reformers