The Opium Wars were two conflicts that took place in the nineteenth century that had the net effect of extending the foreign influence in China substantially. On a broader level they also helped weaken the ruling Qing Dynasty providing further impetus to drive its eventual fall in the 1911 Revolution (the wars were a precursor to the Boxer rebellion of 1899–1901).
But why did these wars occur at all? To answer this question we have to look at the trade triangle that existed around 1830. At the top of the triangle was the rapidly emerging industrialized power of the United Kingdom (acting through the conduit of the British East India Company) who needed hard silver to subsidize its production of manufactured goods. China had the silver but there was very little that the Qing required from Britain. In fact British trade with China was largely limited to the port gateway of Canton.
If China had the silver Britain needed to supply her with a commodity in return. Something that was sustainable. The answer lay with Opium and it worked like this:
Britain would sell manufactured goods to India who would then supply the British with Opium in return. The Opium was then illegally sold to the Chinese via smugglers who then paid the Brits back in silver completing what was called the Canton (Guanghzou) triangle.
An Opium Den in China source: Asia Pacific Curriculum
The key for the British was to keep the Chinese demand for Opium at a high and in this regard they had success in Canton where addiction rates soared. For the Britain this was a win-win deal. They could cultivate the Opium in India and enrich their coffers with the silver while ensuring a market for their manufactured goods. For the Chinese in Canton the outcome was awful. Much needed silver was leaving the economy and they were saddled with the problems of addiction.
Source: UN Office on Drugs and Crime
China had to act fast and put a stop to a system that was damaging on several fronts. The Chinese High Commissioner Lin Tse-hsu published an open letter to Queen Victoria in 1839 asking for a halt to the trade. The British were willing to hand over a token amount of Opium but ruled out a cession in trade. A crackdown occurred. Shipments of Opium were confiscated, Chinese smugglers were executed and the trade was banned. The British demanded immediate reparations.
The Chinese Qing government in Canton was now in conflict with the might of the British Navy who used their advantage in gunboat warfare to decisively defeat the Chinese in 1842 forcing the latter to agree to the Treaty of Nanking that ended the First War.
Opium War source: Britannica
It was the first of the Unequal treaties. Hong Kong was ceded to Britain as were several smaller islands. It would become a Crown colony. In addition the ports of Shanghai, Canton, Ningbo, Foochow and Amoy were forced to open to British trade. Besides receiving most favored nation status from China the British also received reparation payments to the tune of 21 million dollars (about 630 million in today’s dollars). France would later secure similar concessions from the Qing Government in 1844 and 1845. The Qing hoped that these added concessions would expand less destructive trading options thus weakening the illegal opium trade. This was not the case.
Naval battle of the War source: Jeremiah Jenne
The Opium trade and the addiction scourge persisted and despite the Qing’s problems with the Taiping Rebellion of 1853 there was a concerted effort to stamp out the trade once and for all.
In 1856 another Commissioner Ye Mingchen took matters into his own hand and seized the Arrow, a ship that was believed to be involved in the illegal trade. Again the British responded with gunboat strength bombarding the city of Canton. France joined forces with Britain after one of their missionaries was killed in the Anti-European riots that wracked Canton.
However the military odds were once again stacked against the Qing who once again succumbed to the strength of a more modernized military (that included an American element as well). The Treaty of Tientsin signed in 1858 forced the Chinese to pay more reparations and open up a further ten ports to trade.
The Opium trade was legalized and missionaries were given greater access to China. However a second phase of war erupted. Again this did not work well in China’s favour with the occupation of the Forbidden City and the capture of the Old Summer Palace highlighting a dismal outcome. The stipulations of the Treaty of Tientsin were reconfirmed at the Convention of Peking in 1860.
From a territorial standpoint Britain now had control of the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island (part of Hong Kong). Outer Manchuria was ceded to Russia.
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