The Opium Wars

The Opium Wars conflict which ushered in a century of enforced exploitation of China, and a still emotive symbol for Chinese resentment of the West. Four decades of mutual misunderstanding and disrespect meant that reciprocal humiliations in 1839-40 related to the illegal opium trade the confiscation of Britons' property, their enforced expulsion from Macao, and outsiders' refusal to pay even lip-service to Chinese edicts). This was lit in September 1840 when Chinese attempts to stop supplies reaching a refugee flotilla off Hong Kong ended with the sinking of four war junks by the Royal Navy. A letter of protest was sent to Peking, underlined by the blockade of Canton and the occupation of Chusan. The emperor repudiated the subsequent Convention of Chuenpi, signed by his representatives on 20 January 1841, for giving away too much, and prepared for war. The British—commanded surprisingly effectively by a naval/military/civil committee—struck pre-emptively, eventually occupying the heights commandinge Canton, from which they withdrew on payment of $6 million. The British attacked Amoy in August and went into winter quarters at Ningpo and Chinhai, where they easily repelled attacks in the spring. Counter-attacking, they seized the forts guarding Hangchow, occupied Shanghai in June, and marched to the gates of Nanking. British demands were now more intransigent and imperial commissioners could only obtain terms far more severe than those of the 1841 Convention. The Treaty of Nanking gave Britain $21 million, the right to trade in five ports (opium was not mentioned), legal jurisdiction over her own nationals, and the island of Hong Kong. Humiliatingly one-sided, the war provided a little-heeded wake-up call to the complacent imperial Manchu court.