The Opium War(鸦片战争).doc

Events 20,000 chests of Opium seized by Chinese Battle at Chinkiang British and American sailors kill a chinaman British capture Bogue forts British expelled and travelled to Hong Kong British occupiedheights overlooking Canton British refuse to give up culprit Chinese defeated at Ningpo and Chinhai Chinese Emperor attempts to stamp out Opium Convention of Cheunpi Failure of Chinese counter-offensive First Opium War HMS Hyacinth and Volage repell 29 war junks Shanghai was occupied without a fight The Treaty of Nanking The Opium War Early in the 19th cent, British merchants began smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain. The Opium War, also called the Anglo-Chinese War, was the most humiliating defeat China ever suffered. 1839–42 and 1856–60, two wars between China and Western countries. The first was between Great Britain and China. In 1839, China enforced its prohibitions on the importation of opium by destroying at Guangzhou (Canton) a large quantity of opium confiscated from British merchants. Great Britain, which had been looking to end Chinas restrictions on foreign trade, responded by sending gunboats to attack several Chinese coastal cities. China, unable to withstand modern arms, was defeated and forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) . These provided that the ports of Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai should be open to British trade and residence; in addition Hong Kong was ceded to the British. In 1856 a second war broke out following an allegedly illegal Chinese search of a British-registered ship, the Arrow, in Guangzhou. British and French troops took Guangzhou and Tianjin and compelled the Chinese to accept the treaties of Tianjin (1858), to which France, Russia, and the United States were also party. Lin Tse-hs Deeply concerned about the opium menace, Lin Tse-hs maneuverd himself into being appointed Imperial Commissioner at Canton to cut off the opium trade at its source by root