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Opium Wars

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For the 1967 conflict between marooned elements of the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Kingdom of Laos, see 1967 Opium War. For other uses, see Opium Wars (disambiguation).

Opium Wars
Part of the Century of Humiliation
Naval battle in the First Opium War (left), Battle of Palikao (right)
Date
  • First Opium War:
    4 September 1839 – 29 August 1842
    (2 years, 11 months, 3 weeks and 4 days)
  • Second Opium War:
    8 October 1856 – 24 October 1860
    (4 years, 2 weeks, 2 days)
  • Total:
    4 September 1839 – 24 October 1860
    (21 years, 1 month, 2 weeks and 6 days)
Location
China
Result
Territorial
changes
Belligerents
First Opium War:
 First Opium War:
Second Opium War:
 Second Opium War:
British bombardment of Canton from the surrounding heights, 29 May 1841. Watercolour painting by Edward H. Cree (1814–1901), Naval Surgeon to the Royal Navy.

The Opium Wars (simplified Chinese: 鸦片战争; traditional Chinese: 鴉片戰爭 Yāpiàn zhànzhēng) 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 (including Shanghai) to Western merchants.[1][2] 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.[3]

First Opium War

Main article: First Opium War
The 98th Regiment of Foot at the attack on Chin-Kiang-Foo (Zhenjiang), 21 July 1842, resulting in the defeat of the Manchu government. Watercolour by military illustrator Richard Simkin (1840–1926).

The Opium Wars, also known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars, were two wars fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing dynasty of China in the 19th century. The two wars, which occurred in the 1830s and 1840s, were caused by China’s attempt to stop the illegal importation of opium into China by British merchants.

The First Opium War began in 1839, when the Chinese refused to allow the British to continue trading in opium, which had become popular among the Chinese as a recreational drug. The British merchants, backed by their government, refused to stop trading in opium, and the Chinese responded by seizing British-owned opium stockpiles in the Chinese port of Canton. This led to the British sending a naval expedition to China to demand reparations.

The Chinese refused the British demands, and the British declared war in 1840. The British navy soon gained a decisive advantage over the Chinese forces, and the war raged for two years. The Chinese were forced to sue for peace, and in 1842 signed the Treaty of Nanking, which allowed the British to continue trading in opium and gave them a number of other concessions, including the establishment of five treaty ports where British merchants could conduct business.

Second Opium War

Main article: Second Opium War
Depiction of the 1860 battle of Taku Forts. Book illustration from 1873.

In 1853, northern China was convulsed by the Taiping Rebellion, which established its capital at Nanking. In spite of this, a new Imperial Commissioner, Ye Mingchen, was appointed at Canton, determined to stamp out the opium trade, which was still technically illegal. In October 1856, he seized the Arrow, a ship claiming British registration, and threw its crew into chains. Sir John Bowring, Governor of British Hong Kong, called up Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour's East Indies and China Station fleet, which, on 23 October, bombarded and captured the Pearl River forts on the approach to Canton and proceeded to bombard Canton itself, but had insufficient forces to take and hold the city. On 15 December, during a riot in Canton, European commercial properties were set on fire and Bowring appealed for military intervention.[4] The execution of a French missionary inspired support from France.[citation needed]

Britain and France now sought greater concessions from China, including the legalisation of the opium trade, expanding of the transportation of coolies to European colonies, opening all of China to British and French citizens and exempting foreign imports from internal transit duties.[5] The war resulted in the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin, in which the Chinese government agreed to pay war reparations for the expenses of the recent conflict, open a second group of ten ports to European commerce, legalise the opium trade, and grant foreign traders and missionaries rights to travel within China.[4] After a second phase of fighting which included the sack of the Old Summer Palace and the occupation of the Forbidden City palace complex in Beijing, the treaty was confirmed by the Convention of Peking in 1860.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ Taylor Wallbank; Bailkey; Jewsbury; Lewis; Hackett (1992). "A Short History of the Opium Wars". Civilizations Past And Present. Chapter 29: "South And East Asia, 1815–1914" – via Schaffer Library of Drug Policy.
  2. ^ Kenneth Pletcher. "Chinese history: Opium Wars". Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
  3. ^ Desjardins, Jeff (15 September 2017). "Over 2000 years of economic history, in one chart". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Haythornthwaite, 2000, p.239 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Zhihong Shi (2016). Central Government Silver Treasury: Revenue, Expenditure and Inventory Statistics, ca. 1667–1899. BRILL. p. 33. ISBN 978-90-04-30733-9.

Further reading

  • Beeching, Jack. The Chinese Opium Wars (Harvest Books, 1975)
  • Fay, Peter Ward (1975), The Opium War, 1840–1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century and the War by Which They Forced Her Gates Ajar, University of North Carolina Press.
  • Gelber, Harry G. Opium, Soldiers and Evangelicals: Britain's 1840–42 War with China, and its Aftermath. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).
  • Hanes, W. Travis and Frank Sanello. The Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another (2014)
  • Kitson, Peter J. "The Last War of the Romantics: De Quincey, Macaulay, the First Chinese Opium War" Wordsworth Circle (2018) 49#3 online
  • Lovell, Julia. The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China(2011).
  • Marchant, Leslie R. "The War of the Poppies," History Today (May 2002) Vol. 52 Issue 5, pp 42–49, online popular history
  • Platt, Stephen R. (2018), Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age, New York: Knopf, ISBN 9780307961730 556 pp.
  • Polachek, James M., The inner opium war (Harvard Univ Asia Center, 1992).
  • Wakeman, Frederic E. (1966). Strangers at the Gate; Social Disorder in South China, 1839- 1861. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520212398.
  • Waley, Arthur, ed. The Opium War through Chinese eyes (1960).
  • Wong, John Y. Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism, and the Arrow War (1856–1860) in China. (Cambridge UP, 2002)
  • Yu, Miles Maochun. "Did China Have A Chance To Win The Opium War?" Military History in the News July 3, 2018
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