First Opium War

Encyclopedia : F : FI : FIR : First Opium War

This article is part of the
History of Hong Kong series

Prehistory
Imperial China'''
First contacts with the West
Opium Wars
First Opium War
Second Opium War
British colony (pre-war)
Founding of crown colony
Early 20th century
Battle of Hong Kong
Japanese occupation
British colony (post-war)
1950s | 60s | 70s | 80s | 90s
Transition to PRC rule
After 1997

'''Economic history
Military history
Aviation history
Bus history
Postal History

'''Declared monuments

See also:
''' History of China
History of the UK

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 towards China. The conflict began a long history of Chinese suspicion of Western society that still has remnants today.

Contents

1 Background
2 Settlement
3 Legacy of the War
4 See also

Background

During the 19th century, trading in goods from China was extremely lucrative for Europeans and Chinese merchants alike. Due to 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 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 1870's. In casting about for other possible commodities, the British soon discovered opium, and production of the commodity was subsidised in the Empire's Indian domains. Between 1821 and 1837 imports of the drug to China increased fivefold. 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 after opium trade took hold, the Qing government attempted to end this trade on public health grounds, since numerous opium addicts were appearing in trading ports throughout China. 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 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 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. Preparing for war, they seized Hong Kong (then a minor outpost) as a base. In late October 1839 the Thomas Coutts arrived in China and sailed to Guangzhou. This was owned by Quakers who refused to deal in opium and the captain believed Elliot had exceeded his legal authority in banning trade. In order to prevent other British ships following the Thomas Coutts Elliot ordered a blockade of the Pearl River. Fighting began on November 3, 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 Qing navy attempted to protect the British merchant vessel, so claimed the official Qing naval report, which 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, their forces commanded the high ground around Guangzhou, then defeated the Chinese at Ningbo and the military post of Chinhai.

By the middle of 1842, the British had defeated the Chinese at the mouth of their other great trading river, the Yangtze, and had occupied Shanghai. Thousands of innocent civilian lives were lost under the advanced British weapon power. The Qing Dynasty government was proven incapable of dealing with Western Powers on equal basis, either politically or militarily. The First Opium War signalled the beginning of the end of Manchu monopoly in 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 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 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 towards Western countries today. This resentment was used by the Japanese in WWII and other totalitarian and xenophobic regimes in China and east asia to drive away Western influences.