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The First Opium War or the First Anglo-Chinese War was fought between Great Britain and the Qing Empire in China from 1839 to 1842 with the aim of forcing China to import British opium. It is often seen as the beginning of European imperial hegemony toward China. The conflict began a long history of Chinese suspicion of Western society that still lingers today.
Background During the 19th century, trading in goods from China was extremely lucrative for Europeans and Chinese merchants alike. Due to the Qing Dynasty's trade restrictions, whereby international trade were only allowed to take place in Canton (Guangzhou) conducted by imperially sanctioned monopolies, it became uneconomic to trade in low-value manufactured consumer products that the average Chinese could buy from the British like the Indians did. Instead, the Sino-British trade became dominated by high-value luxury items such as tea (from China to Britain) and silver (from Britain to China), to the extent that European specie metals became widely used in China. Britain had been on gold standard since the 18th century, so it had to purchase silver from continental Europe to supply Chinese Imperial appetite for silver, which was a costly process at a time before demonetization of silver by Germany in the 1870s. In casting about for other possible commodities, the British soon discovered opium, and production of the commodity was subsidized in the Empire's Indian domains. Between 1821 and 1837 imports of the drug to China increased five-fold. The drug was produced in India under a British government monopoly (Bengal) or in the Princely states (Malwa) and was sold on condition it was shipped by British traders to China. Alarmed with the reverse in silver flow and the epidemic of addiction (an estimated 2 million Chinese were habitual users*), the Qing government attempted to end the opium trade. The effort was initially claimed to be successful, with the official in charge of the effort Lin Zexu, who wrote a letter to the Queen of Great Britain in an unsuccessful attempt to stop this illegal trade which had poisoned thousands of Chinese civilians. He eventually forced the British Chief Superintendent of Trade in China, Charles Elliott to hand over all remaining stocks of opium (20,000 chests*, each holding about 120 pounds*) for destruction in May 1839. However, in July 1839 rioting British sailors destroyed a temple near Kowloon and murdered a Chinese man Lin Weixi who tried to stop them. Because China did not have a jury trial system or evidenciary process (the magistrate was the prosecutor, judge, jury and would-be executioner), the British government and community in China wanted "extraterritoriality", which meant that British subjects would only be tried by British judges. When the Qing authorities demanded the guilty men be handed over for trial, the British refused. Six sailors were tried by the British authorities in Guangzhou (Canton), but as the court had no legal authority they were immediately released. Charles Elliott had been told by the British government that without authority from the Qing government he had no legal right to try anyone. The Qing authorities also insisted that British merchants would not be allowed to trade unless they signed a bond, under penalty of death, promising not to smuggle opium, to agree to follow Chinese laws, and acknowledged Qing legal jurisdiction. Refusing to hand over any suspects or agree to the bonds, Charles Elliot ordered the British community to withdraw from Guangzhou and prohibited trading with the Chinese. Some merchants that didn't deal in opium were willing to sign the bond and this weakened the British trading position. War Preparing for war, the British seized Hong Kong (then a minor outpost) as a base on August 23 1839. In late October the Thomas Coutts arrived in China and sailed to Guangzhou. This ship was owned by Quakers who refused to deal in opium and its captain believed Elliot had exceeded his legal authority in banning trade. In order to prevent other British ships from following the Thomas Coutts Elliot ordered a blockade of the Pearl River. Fighting began on the 3rd of November, when a second British ship, the Royal Saxon, attempted to sail to Guangzhou. When ''Volage'' and ''Hyacinth'' fired a warning shot at the Royal Saxon. The official Qing navy report claimed that the navy attempted to protect the British merchant vessel and also reported a great victory for that day. In reality, they were out-classed by the Royal Naval vessels and many Chinese ships were sunk. The next year, the British captured the Bogue forts which guarded the mouth of the Pearl River — the waterway between Hong Kong and Guangzhou. By January 1841, British forces commanded the high ground around Guangzhou and then defeated the Chinese at Ningbo and at the military post of Chinhai. By the middle of 1842, the British had defeated the Chinese at the mouth of their other great riverine trade route, the Yangtze, and had occupied Shanghai. Thousands of innocent civilian lives were lost bacuase of Britain's more advanced weaponry. The Qing Dynasty government proved incapable of dealing with Western Powers on an equal basis, either politically or militarily. The First Opium War signalled the beginning of the end of the Manchu monopoly on the human resources of China, marking the beginning of modern Chinese history. The war finally ended in August 1842, with the signing of the China's first Unequal Treaty, the Treaty of Nanjing. Gen. Sir Anthony Blaxland Stransham led the Royal Marines during the Opium War as a young officer, and as the 'Grand Old Man of the Army', was awarded two knighthoods by Queen Victoria. Settlement The Treaty of Nanjing committed the Qing government to nominal tariffs on British goods as well as granting the right of extraterritoriality. Hong Kong Island was ceded to the UK, and the Treaty Ports of Guangzhou, Xiamen (Amoy), Fuzhou (Foochow), Shanghai, and Ningbo were opened to all traders. The Qing government was forced to pay reparations for the British opium and war costs. There was also a most-favoured nation clause, stating that whatever rights the Qing government were to grant to any nation, Britain would automatically be entitled to those rights. Full text of the Treaty can be found here Legacy of the War The ease with which the British East India Company's forces had defeated the Chinese armies seriously affected the Qing Dynasty's prestige. This almost certainly contributed to the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1862). For the British, the success in the First Opium War allowed them to resume the trade of opium to China. Also it paved the way for the opening up of the lucrative Chinese market and Chinese society for missionary purposes. The First Opium War was a war which some Chinese political historians feel was initiated by the British to gain the great profit from the trade of opium. In their view, the British government still refuses to apologize to China; instead this kind of invasion was encouraged and awarded by Queen Victoria in the following conflicts in China and the rest of Asia. Such teachings remain a major factor in Asian resentment toward Western countries today. See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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