Opium Wars

In the early nineteenth century, British merchants began to smuggle opium from India into China in order to balance their purchase of Chinese tea, porcelain, silk, and other goods for export to Britain. The British resorted to opium smuggling because Britain had no more silver for the China trade, and China, a country with a self-sufficient economy, was not interested in any Western product but silver.

The effects of opium smoking on Chinese society were devastating, and the drain of silver, which was spent on purchasing opium, greatly decreased the Chinese government's revenues. In an effort to stem the tragedy, the imperial government made opium illegal in 1836, and the traffic in opium thus became a criminal activity. However, British traders still smuggled massive amounts of opium into Guangzhou (Canton) by bribing local Cantonese officials.

In order to enforce the imperial government's prohibitions on the importation of opium, the imperial commissioner, Lin Zexu (ca. 1785–1850), was sent to Guangzhou by the Chinese emperor. Lin Zexu clamped down on all traffic in opium and destroyed all the existing stores of opium confiscated from British merchants at Guangzhou in March 1839. Great Britain, which had been looking for a means to end China's restrictions on foreign trade since the middle of the eighteenth century, responded by sending warships in June 1840 to attack Guangzhou and Xiamen, but the British effort was not successful.

From January 1841 to July 1842, however, British troops captured, in succession, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Dinghai, Zhenjiang, Ningbo, and Wusongkou. The British also captured the Chinese fleet anchored off Nanjing. British forces encountered fierce resistance from the Chinese, but China had only old and outdated weapons and artillery at their disposal. Finally, on August 29, 1842, the Chinese were forced to sign the "unequal" Treaty of Nanjing.

The Treaty of Nanjing opened five ports—Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Lingbo, and Shanghai—to conduct foreign trade as "treaty ports." In addition, a war indemnity of 21 million taels (1 Custom tael = 0.0378 kilograms = 0.10127 avoirdupois pounds) of silver was to be paid to Britain, and Hong Kong was surrendered to the British. The treaty further stipulated that all customs duties must be negotiated with other countries, and import duties were lowered from 65 percent to 5 percent. The treaty abolished the decree designating Guangzhou as the sole port for foreign trade and allowed British merchants to engage in free trade in China. Finally, the treaty allowed British merchants to bring their families to live in the treaty ports, and the Chinese local authorities had to provide housing or other establishments, which British merchants could rent.

To supplement the Treaty of Nanjing, the British forced the Chinese to sign the Treaty of the Bogue in 1843. According to this supplemental treaty, all British citizens would be subject to British, not Chinese, law if they should commit any crime on Chinese soil. Furthermore, any Chinese person who either dealt with the British, or lived with them, or was employed by them did not come under Chinese jurisdiction either.

In addition, the so-called most-favored-nation clause was included. This gave the British the same privileges extorted from China by any other country. Within a few years, several other Western powers signed treaties with China and received similar commercial and residential privileges. The treaties opened the Chinese markets and resources to Western capitalism, caused the inflow of cheap Western industrial products, and toppled China's self-sufficient economy. However, the terms of the treaties also speeded up the development of capitalism in China. At the same time, the treaties opened China to the outside world against the will of the Chinese people, turning China into a semifeudal, semicolonial state, with Western domination of China's treaty ports after the war.

The second Opium War (1856–1860) is also called the Arrow War. On October 8, 1856, Chinese officials boarded the Arrow, a Chinese-owned but British-registered ship, in Guangzhou. The British quickly responded to the "Arrow Incident" and attacked Guangzhou. France soon joined British action under the pretext of seeking revenge for the execution of a French missionary, Father August Chapdelaine (1814–1856), by local Chinese authorities in Guangxi Province. The United States and Russia also sent envoys to Hong Kong to help the British-French alliance.

The joint English-French troops attacked again and occupied Guangzhou in late 1857. They maintained their colonial rule in the city for nearly four years. The coalition then cruised north to briefly capture the Dagu forts near Tianjin in May 1858. From there, they threatened to invade Beijing.

On June 23, 1858, the Chinese were forced to sign the Treaty of Tianjin, to which Britain, France, Russia, and the United States were party. The major points of the treaties were: Britain, France, Russia, and the United States would have the right to station legations in Beijing, and ten more ports would be opened for foreign trade, including Niuzhuang, Dengzhou, Tainan, Danshui, Chaozhou, Qiongzhou, Hankou, Jiujiang, Nanjing, and Zhenjing. Foreign vessels, including warships, would have the right to navigate freely on the Yangzi River. In addition, foreigners would have the right to travel within China's interior for the purpose of travel, trade, or missionary activities. China was also to pay an indemnity to Britain and France of two million taels of silver each, and compensation to British merchants of two million taels of silver.

China subsequently attempted to block the entry of diplomats into Beijing. In order to force China to comply with the terms of the new treaty, British and French allied forces landed at Beitang on August 1, 1860, and successfully attacked the Dagu forts on August 21. On October 6, the coalition occupied Beijing and burned the city's Summer Palace (Yihe Yuan) and the Old Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan), completely destroying the Old Summer Palace. The Chinese emperor finally ratified the Treaty of Tianjin in the Convention of Beijing on October 18, 1860.

The opium trade was thereafter legalized. In addition, Christians were granted full civil rights that were previously denied to them on the grounds of religious belief, including the right to own property. They were also allowed to proselytize and spread their faith unhindered. The contents of the Convention of Beijing stated that: China should recognize the validity of the Treaty of Tianjin; China would open Tianjin as a trade port; the district of Jiulong Si was ceded to Britain; Chinese laborers were permitted to emigrate to work overseas; and the indemnity to Britain and France would increase to eight million taels of silver each.

see also China, First Opium War to 1945; Opium.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chesneaux, Jean, Marianne Bastid, and Marie-Claire Bergère. China from the Opium Wars to the 1911 Revolution. Translated by Ann Destenay. New York: Pantheon, 1976.

Holt, Edgar. The Opium Wars in China. London: Putnam, 1964.

Gentzler, J. Mason, ed. Changing China: Readings in the History of China from the Opium War to the Present. New York: Praeger, 1977.

Gibson, Michael. China: Opium Wars to Revolution. London: Wayland, 1975.

Inglis, Brian. The Opium War. London: Hodder, 1976.

Melancon, Glenn. Britain's China Policy and the Opium Crisis: Balancing Drugs, Violence, and National Honour, 1833–1840. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003.

Polachek, James M. The Inner Opium War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Waley, Arthur. The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1958.

Wong, J. Y. Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism, and the Arrow War (1856–1860) in China. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1998.