Second Opium War Background Outbreak Treaty Of Tientsin

The 1850s saw the rapid growth of capitalism. Some shared goals of the capitalist powers were to expand their overseas markets and establish new colonies. France and the USA demanded revisions in the Treaty of Huangpu and Wangxia Treaty in an effort to expand their privileges in China. Britain made the same demand citing the "equal treaty" article in the most favored nation status.

2 Outbreak

The war may be viewed as a continuation of the First Opium War ( 1839- 1842), thus the name of Second Opium War.

On October 8, 1856, Chinese officials boarded the Arrow, a Chinese-owned ship registered in Hong Kong flying the British flag and suspected of piracy, smugglingheroin when inspected by the DEA. Smuggling is illegal transport, in particular across a border. Taxes are avoided, or the goods themselves are illegal, or people are transported to a place where they are not allowed to be. It has a long and controversial and of being engaged in the opiumOpium is a narcotic drug which is obtained from the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum L. or the synonym paeoniflorum . To harvest opium, the skin of the ripening pods is scored by a sharp blade. The slashes exude a white, milky latex, trade. They captured 12 men and imprisoned them. This was referred to as the "Arrow Incident". (Recently some people stated that the flag flying was not a British flag. It was only an excuse for invasion by the British)

The British quickly responded to the "Arrow Incident" and attacked GuangzhouGuangzhou ( TC: ; SC: ; Hanyu Pinyin: Gungzhu; Wade-Giles: Kuang-chou; Tongyong Pinyin: Guangjhou) is the capital of the Guangdong Province in southern China. Its international name was formerly Canton after a French language corruption of "Guangdong". from the Pearl RiverThe are two Pearl Rivers The Pearl River (China) (See also the Pearl River Delta) The Pearl River (USA) Pearl River is also the name of some places in the United States of America: Pearl River, Louisiana Pearl River, Mississippi Pearl River, New York Pear. Ye Mingshen , the then governor of GuangdongGuangdong ( Traditional: , Simplified Chinese: , pinyin: Guangdong , Kwangtung in older transliteration and Kuang-tung in Wade-Giles), is a province on the south coast of the People's Republic of China. Together, Guangdong and neighboring Guangxi are call and GuangxiGungxi ( Simplified Chinese: , Traditional: , Wade-Giles: Kuang-hsi Tongyong Pinyin: Guangsi also transliterated as Kwangsi is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its formal name is the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region . Together, Guan provinces ordered a non-resistance command to all of the Chinese soldiers on the forts. After taking the fort near Guangzhou with no effort, the British Army attacked Guangzhou. American warships bombed Guangzhou on the pretext to "protect" its residents. The people in Guangzhou and soldiers launched a resistance against invaders and forced them to retreat from Humen .

Soon, the British Parliament decided to assault China based on the report about the "Arrow Incident" submitted by Harry Parkes, British Consul to Guangzhou. France, the USA and Russia received notice from Britain to form an alliance. France joined British action against China, using the execution by Chinese local authorities in Guangxi province of a French missionary, Father August Chapdelaine ("Father Chapdelaine Incident") as a pretext. The USA and Russia expected to be the third parties to benefit from the struggle. Although no army was dispatched, the USA and Russia sent envoys to Hong Kong to offer help to the British-French alliance in planning an assault on China.

The English and the French joined forces under Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, attacked and occupied Guangzhou in late 1857.

The British army led by Lord Elgin, and the French army led by Gros formed an alliance in 1857. At the end of that year, Guangzhou fell into the hands of the aggressors. Ye Mingshen was captured, and Bo-gui , the governor of Guangdong surrendered. The British-French Alliance plundered the city. A joint committee of the Alliance was formed. Bo-gui remained at his original post to maintain order on behalf of the aggressors. This was China's earliest local puppet regime. The British-French Alliance maintained its colonial rule for nearly 4 years in Guangzhou.

The coalition then cruised north to briefly capture the Taku forts near Tientsin ( Tianjin) in May 1858.

3 Treaty of Tientsin

In June 1858 the first part of the war ended with the Treaty of Tientsin, to which France, Russia, and the United States were party. This treaty opened eleven more ports to Western trade. The Chinese initially refused to ratify the Treaties.

The major points of the treaties were:

Britain, France, Russia and the United States would have the right to station legations in Beijing (a closed city at the time)
Ten more Chinese ports would be opened for foreign trade, including Niuzhuang , Danshui, Hankou and Nanjing
The right of foreign vessels including warships to navigate freely on the Yangtze River
The right of foreigners to travel in the internal regions of China for the purpose of travel, trade or missionary activities
China was to pay an indemnity to Britain and France in 2 million taels of silver respectively, and compensation to British merchants in 2 million taels of silver.

4 Treaty of Aigun

On May 28, 1858, Treaty of Aigun, the separate treaty is signed with Russia to revise the Chinese and Russian border as determined by the Nerchinsk Treaty in 1689. Russia regained the left bank of the Amur River lost in the earlier treaty, pushing the border back from the Argun river . The treaty gave Russia control over a non-freezing area on the Pacific coast, where Russia founded the city Vladivostok in 1860.

5 Continuation of the war

In 1859, after China refused to allow the setting up of Foreign legations in Beijing, a naval force under the command of Admiral Sir James Hope attacked the forts guarding the mouth of the Peto river . It was severely mauled and forced to withdraw under the cover of fire from an American naval squadron commanded by Commodore Josiah Tattnall.

In 1860, an Anglo-French force gathered at Hong Kong and then carried out a landing at Pei Tang on August 1, and a successful assault on the Taku forts on August 21. On September 26, the force arrived at Bejing and had captured the city by October 6. Appointing his brother, Prince Gong Yixin, to be in charge of negotiations, Emperor Xianfeng fled to the Summer Palace in Chengde. British-French troops in Beijing set the Summer Palace and the Old Summer Palace on fire. The Old Summer Palace was totally destroyed. Beijing was occupied.

6 Convention of Peking

The June 1858 Treaty of Tientsin was finally ratified by the emperor Xianfeng in the Convention of Peking on October 18, 1860.

The opium trade was legalised. 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 Second Opium War came to an end.

The content of the Convention of Peking includes:

China's recognition of the validity of the Treaty of Tientsin
Opening Tianjin as a trade port
Cede No.1 District of Kowloon (south of present day Boundary Street) to Britain
Chinese laborers were permitted to emigrate to work overseas
Indemnity to Britain and France increasing to 8 million taels of silver respectively.

7 See also

Opium War, 2nd

Opium War, 2nd Opium War, 2nd

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1 Background