The History of~The Opium Wars (Part 2: Round 2)

As we left off from the last part of *The History of~The Opium Wars* (click here), we talked about how the drug called Opium would hurt the Qing Dynasty and how it cracked down on the drug and how it led the Dynasty to war with the west.

This is Part 2 of this wiki page (since there are 2 Opium Wars). Now, the Second Opium War had little to do with the drug, it was actually more about the problems the west (Great Britain in particular) had with renegotiating treaties with a staunchly xenophobic Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty's refusing to to compromise with the west as well as other issues would lead the Dynasty to yet another conflict with the west.

How did it happen, well let's us begin.

## Prelude

This began around 1856 (15 years after the end of the First Opium War) when the west were trying to renegotiate their respective treaties, Great Britain however were of the most aggressive in their demands.

First they wanted the Qing Dynasty to open up all of their cities and towns to trade, only 5 towns in the Dynasty were open.

They also wanted Opium to be legalized once again.

They also wanted to establish an Embassy in the Dynasty capital of Beijing (as it was a closed city at the time).

Unfortunately, the Qing Government refused to agree to Britain's terms, and seeing no way to reason with the Qings the British wait their reason to fight the Qing Dynasty once again. It would take a few months for that to happen.

The reason would be in the form of a Qing Viceroy of the Liangguang Province: *Ye Mingchen*.

On October 3 1856, He Ordered a ship called the *Arrow* to be investigated. The Arrow is a Chinese Ship made by the British, it was operated by Chinese Sailors and was registered at British Hong Kong. The Crew of the Arrow were arrested under grounds of Piracy, when the British got news of this they demanded the crew to be released and even accused the Qings for taking down the Union Jack on the ship as well (though this claim was never confirmed).

Nevertheless this was the excuse Britain needed to go to war with the Qing Dynasty, and around a few weeks later British Warships would sail to Canton destroying forts along the way.

## The War

In November, the British fired upon the Port City, during this time the USA would also exchange fire against the Dynasty.

This however would also lead to negotiations between the Qings and the USA, and the USA agrees to stay neutral throughout the war.

Meanwhile, Ye Mingchen's men put up a good defense against the British Warships in Canton. This would continue for about 2 months until on January 5, 1857 the British were forced to retreat back to Hong Kong.

This is when the British would then try to negotiate an alliance with it's western neighbors. The Problem is that the USA agreed to a neutrality treaty with the Qings and Russia wasn't interested. The only country that agreed to an alliance with the British was (ironically) it's old rivals: The French, and that is because the French wanted revenge on the Qings after they have captured and executed their missionary: Auguste Chapdelaine.

Thus, one fierce rivals would find themselves fighting together. But because the British were busy putting down an uprising in India, the British-French Coalition would officially form until late 1857.

On December 14, the British-French Coalition sailed from Hong Kong to Canton. First they give Ye Mingchen an ultimatum: Release the Crew of the Arrow and let the British and the French into Canton. Mingchen released the crew of the Arrow, but still refused the Coalition to enter Canton.

This is when the Coalition decided to take the city by force. On December 28, they destroyed the defense around Canton, allowing the coalition to enter the city on New Year's Day in 1858 and completely occupied the city 5 days later (unfortunately for the Qing Government, they only got news of this a few weeks later as a result of the Qing Government dealing with the Taiping Rebellion).

The Coalition had arrested many of the Dynasty's soldiers (including Ye Mingchen, who starved himself to death a year later).

## The Next Step

After capturing Canton, the Coalition then sailed north to the Bohai Sea where the heavily defended *Taku Forts* were which is at the mouth of the Hai River and near the Qing city of Tianjing which is not far from the Qing Capital of *Beijing*.

The attack on the Taku Forts began sometime in May. Though heavily defended, the Coalition were able to destroy the forts, creating a highway for the Coalition to invade the Qing capital on May 20.

On the same day, the Russian Empire was closing in on the Qing Dynasty, causing more pressure for the Qing Military. So the Qings were forced to sign the *Treaty of Aigun* which is to secede the northern part of Outer Manchuria (believed by the Qings to be their ancestral homeland) to the Russians.

The very next day, the Qing Emperor (the Xianfeng Emperor) demanded negotiations with the Coalition.

On June 25, the Qings were forced to sign a brand new treaty: *The Treaty of Tianjin,*and all of the western nations involved with trading with the Dynasty were involved (e.g., Great Britain, France, the USA and even Russia).

All of these nations demanded embassies to be built in Beijing

They also wanted all of the Dynasty's port cities to be open for trade, and have access to all areas in the Dynasty as well.

They also wanted rights for missionaries as well as religious freedom.

The British and the French also wanted the Qing Dynasty to pay them a total of 2 Million taels of silver, though Britain wanted to get an additional 3 Million taels.

## Not done yet

Although, the Xienfeng Emperor did agree with these terms, the rest of the Qing Government wouldn't like this one bit, and the Emperor made a decision to side with his Government and ignore the treaty and instead ordered the Taku Forts to be repaired and upgraded after it had been handed over to the coalition. A Qing General: *Sengge Rinchen* was given the assignment to operate the upgraded forts.

Upon learning of this, the coalition sailed back to the Bohai Sea to take back the Taku Forts. With them, is ambassadors for their brand new embassies in Beijing.

However, they were met with fierce resistance by Rinchen's forces. Rinchen even told the coalition to land in the town of Beitang just north of Tianjin and refused escorts for their ambassadors to Beijing.

This didn't help the situation as the coalition fired upon the Taku Forts. But they did very little damage and the Qings at the Taku Forts were able to defeat the coalition fleet. The coalition were able to escape with assistance from the USA as the captain that helped him was asked why he ignored the neutrality agreement with the Qing Dynasty said "Blood is thicker than water."

A few weeks later (and after Britain put down the uprising in India) they and the French prepare for another move on the Taku Forts. They first capture the peninsulas of Shandong and Liaodong, creating a blockade around the Bohai Sea. Then, the coalition took the nearby town of Beitang before moving in on the Taku Forts.

On August 23 1860, the coalition was able to take the Taku Forts after a siege that lasted for several weeks.

This allowed the Coalition to take the city of Tianjin before moving onto Beijing. This is when the Xianfeng Emperor decided to move with the negotiations.

## Negotiations

However, the first attempts weren't successful as British Envoy *Harry Smith Parkes* was accused of insulting the Qing representatives.

On September 18, 1860. He and his other envoys were arrested and then executed. The British responded by breaking through other of the Dynasty's forts and entered Beijing a few weeks later on October 6. The Xianfeng Emperor led the city as the coalition took over on October 18. With the Xianfeng Emperor in exile, this left his half-brother: *Prince Gong* to do the negotiations with the coalition. Of course, Adding more insult to the Qings, the coalition captured, looted and burned the summer palace.

On October 24, the *Convention of Peking* took place. The Qings were forced to recognize and agree to the terms of the Treaty of Tianjin, in addition all of the Hong Kong region (including Kowloon) were integrated into the British commonwealth, and the Russians took the southern region of Outer Manchuria.

## The End?

The second Opium War proved to be more disastrous for the Qing Dynasty than the first one. The Qing Dynasty had 100 times the manpower of the west, but they were no match for not one but several western forces that had industrialized firepower on their side. Though, over the next few decades, China would see the need to industrialize if they are to keep up with the west, but the Qing Dynasty's days were practically numbered. As with the first Opium War that weakened the legitimacy of the Ruling Manchus, the Second Opium War would further damage the Manchu's ruling of China, along with the Taiping Rebellion (which would fail) other rebellions would further weaken the Dynasty and in 1912, the Xinhai Rebellion would put an end to.....several millennia of imperial rule in China.

That is it for this wiki page series. Don't forget to check out my other wiki pages and also don't forget to check out my Games and Movies wikis as well. Until then, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.