Opium Wars

The Opium Wars were a series of two armed struggles that were fought between China and Great Britain in the 19th century. It took place in Far East Asia and the Chinese coastal areas. The first war was fought between 1840 and 1842, while the second conflict occurred between 1856 and 1860. The cause of the wars was the Chinese refusal to allow the free importation of opium from India. At the end the second armed conflict, in which France also took part, the British and French government established the free opium trade in Chinese ports, legalizing the free trade of opium poppy and its juice that contains the alkaloids.

First Opium War

The Opium War of 1840-42 was an aggressive war waged by England against China in order to turn this Far-East country into a trade dependency on England. In June 1840, England launched a plundering attack on China in the area of Kuangchou. The pretext for this attack was the destruction of large supplies of opium in 1839 by the Chinese government commissioner, Lin Tse-hsü (the illegal traffic of opium was widely practiced by the English colonialists). As a matter of fact, the armed conflict between British and Chinese military vessels had already begun as early as the end of 1839 over this issue.

By the middle of 1842, Great Britain had seized Hsiang Kang Island (Hong Kong) and the cities of Tinghai, Ningpo, Hsiamen, Shanghai, and Chenchiang. In August 1842 the British approached Nanking. The popular masses of China resisted the aggressor (the movement of Ping Ying Tuan peasant units in Kuangtung and others). However, the government of the Ching dynasty showed itself completely unable to organize the country’s defense. Not wishing to utilize the support of the people in the struggle against the aggressors, the Chinese government decided to capitulate. On August 29, the first unequal treaty for China was signed, the Treaty of Nanking of 1842.

Second Opium War

It took place between 1856 and 1860. It was an aggressive and savage war waged by Great Britain and France against China. Taking advantage of the civil war which was underway in China (the Tai Ping Rebellion) in October 1856, Britain began military actions against China in the vicinity of the city of Kuangchou. France joined at the beginning of 1857. At the end of December 1857 the Anglo-French army seized Kuangchou. In the spring of 1858 military operations shifted to the territory of the capital province, Chihli. In May 1858 the Anglo-French army seized the port of Ta Ku.

Threatening to attack Tientsin and Peking, the European powers forced the Chinese government to sign the one-sided Tientsin Anglo-Chinese Treaty of 1858 and the Tientsin French-Chinese Treaty of 1858. However, after a year, Britain and France renewed military actions in the expectation of obtaining new concessions from China. In August 1860, Anglo-French forces seized Tientsin and in October 1860, Peking. The Chinese government was bound to new one-sided treaties: the Peking Anglo-Chinese Treaty of 1860 and the Peking French-Chinese Treaty of 1860. The Opium War of 1856–60 was an important landmark in the transformation of China into a semi-colony.

Above, a British Army regiment attacking a Chinese redoubt during the First Opium War.