Opium Wars

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).

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.

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 First Opium War: British victory Treaty of Nanking Second Opium War: Anglo-French victory Treaty of Tientsin Convention of Peking Territorial changes First Opium War: Hong Kong ceded to Britain. Second Opium War: Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island ceded to Britain as part of Hong Kong Outer Manchuria ceded to Russian Empire
Belligerents
First Opium War: United Kingdom East India Company	First Opium War: Qing China
Second Opium War: British Empire French Empire	Second Opium War: Qing China

The First Opium War was fought from 1839 to 1842 between China and Britain. It was triggered by the Chinese government's campaign to enforce its prohibition of opium, which included destroying opium stocks owned by British merchants and the British East India Company. The British government responded by sending a naval expedition to force the Chinese government to pay reparations and allow the opium trade. ^[1] The Second Opium War was waged by Britain and France against China from 1856 to 1860. It resulted in the legalisation of opium in China. ^[2]

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 the 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.^[3][4] 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.^[5]

First Opium War

Main article: First Opium War

The First Opium War broke out in 1839 between China and Britain and was fought over trading rights (including the right of free trade) and Britain's diplomatic status among Chinese officials. In the eighteenth century, China enjoyed a trade surplus with Europe, trading porcelain, silk, and tea in exchange for silver. By the late 17th century, the British East India Company (EIC) expanded the cultivation of opium in the Bengal Presidency, selling it to private merchants who transported it to China and covertly sold it on to Chinese smugglers.^[6] By 1797, the EIC was selling 4,000 chests of opium (each weighing 77 kg) to private merchants per annum.^[7]

In earlier centuries, opium was utilised as an medicine with anesthetic qualities, but new Chinese practices of smoking opium recreationally increased demand tremendously and often led to smokers developing addictions. Successive Chinese emperors issued edicts making opium illegal in 1729, 1799, 1814, and 1831, but imports grew as smugglers and colluding officials in China sought profit.^[8] Some American merchants entered the trade by smuggling opium from Turkey into China, including Warren Delano Jr., the grandfather of twentieth-century President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Francis Blackwell Forbes; in American historiography this is sometimes referred to as the Old China Trade.^[9] By 1833, the Chinese opium trade soared to 30,000 chests.^[7] British and American merchants sent opium to warehouses in the free-trade port of Canton, and sold it to Chinese smugglers.^[8][10]

In 1834, the EIC's monopoly on British trade with China ceased, and the opium trade burgeoned. Partly concerned with moral issues over the consumption of opium and partly with the outflow of silver, the Daoguang Emperor charged Governor General Lin Zexu with ending the trade. In 1839, Lin published in Canton an open letter to Queen Victoria requesting her cooperation in halting the opium trade. The letter never reached the Queen.^[11] It was later published in The Times as a direct appeal to the British public for their cooperation.^[12] An edict from the Daoguang Emperor followed on 18 March,^[13] emphasising the serious penalties for opium smuggling that would now apply henceforth. Lin ordered the seizure of all opium in Canton, including that held by foreign governments and trading companies (called factories),^[14] and the companies prepared to hand over a token amount to placate him.^{[15][page needed]} Charles Elliot, Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China, arrived 3 days after the expiry of Lin's deadline, as Chinese troops enforced a shutdown and blockade of the factories. The standoff ended after Elliot paid for all the opium on credit from the British government (despite lacking official authority to make the purchase) and handed the 20,000 chests (1,300 metric tons) over to Lin, who had them destroyed at Humen.^{[citation needed]}

Elliott then wrote to London advising the use of military force to resolve the dispute with the Chinese government. A small skirmish occurred between British and Chinese warships in the Kowloon Estuary on 4 September 1839.^[14] After almost a year, the British government decided, in May 1840, to send a military expedition to impose reparations for the financial losses experienced by opium traders in Canton and to guarantee future security for the trade. On 21 June 1840, a British naval force arrived off Macao and moved to bombard the port of Dinghai. In the ensuing conflict, the Royal Navy used its superior ships and guns to inflict a series of decisive defeats on Chinese forces.^[16]

The war was concluded by the Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing) in 1842, the first of the Unequal treaties between China and Western powers.^[17] The treaty ceded the Hong Kong Island and surrounding smaller islands to Britain, and established five cities as treaty ports open to Western traders: Shanghai, Canton, Ningbo, Fuzhou, and Xiamen (Amoy).^[18] The treaty also stipulated that China would pay a twenty-one million dollar payment to Britain as reparations for the destroyed opium, with six million to be paid immediately, and the rest through specified installments thereafter.^[19] Another treaty the following year gave most favoured nation status to Britain and added provisions for British extraterritoriality, making Britain exempt from Chinese law.^[17] France secured several of the same concessions from China in the Treaty of Whampoa in 1844.^[20]

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  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.

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  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).

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 Nanjing. 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.^[18] The execution of a French missionary inspired support from France.^[21]

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.^[22] The war resulted in the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin (Tianjin), 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.^[18] 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

• Destruction of opium at Humen
• History of opium in China

References

1. Chen, Song-Chuan (1 May 2017). Merchants of War and Peace. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-988-8390-56-4.
2. Feige1, Miron2, Chris1, Jeffrey A.2 (2008). "The opium wars, opium legalization and opium consumption in China". Applied Economics Letters. 15: 911–913 – via Scopus.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. 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.
4. Kenneth Pletcher. "Chinese history: Opium Wars". Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
5. Desjardins, Jeff (15 September 2017). "Over 2000 years of economic history, in one chart". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
6. "Opium trade – History & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
7. Hanes, Wiliam Travis III; Sanello, Frank (2004). The Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. United States: Sourcebooks. pp. 21, 24, 25. ISBN 978-1402201493.
8. "A Century of International Drug Control" (PDF). UNODC.org.
9. Meyer, Karl E. (28 June 1997). "The Opium War's Secret History". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
10. Haythornthwaite, Philip J., The Colonial Wars Source Book, London, 2000, p.237. ISBN 1-84067-231-5
11. Fay (1975), p. 143.
12. Platt (2018), p. online.
13. Hanes & Sanello 2002, p. 43.
14. Haythornthwaite, 2000, p.237.
15. Hanes, W. Travis; Sanello, Frank (2002). Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. Sourcebooks. ISBN 9781402201493.
16. Tsang, Steve (2007). A Modern History of Hong Kong. I. B. Tauris. pp. 3–13, 29. ISBN 1-84511-419-1.
17. Treaty of Nanjing inBritannica.
18. Haythornthwaite 2000, p. 239.
19. Treaty Of Nanjing (Nanking), 1842 on the website of the US-China Institute at University of Southern Carolina.
20. Xiaobing Li (2012). China at War: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 468. ISBN 9781598844160.
21. "MIT Visualizing Cultures". visualizingcultures.mit.edu. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
22. Zhihong Shi (2016). Central Government Silver Treasury: Revenue, Expenditure and Inventory Statistics, ca. 1667–1899. BRILL. p. 33. ISBN 978-90-04-30733-9.

Cited references and 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.
• 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.
  • Kenneth Pomeranz, "Blundering into War" (review of Stephen R. Platt, Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age, Vintage), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXVI, no. 10 (6 June 2019), pp. 38–41.
• 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.

External links

• "The Opium Wars", BBC Radio 4 discussion with Yangwen Zheng, Lars Laamann, and Xun Zhou (In Our Time, 12 April 2007)