On August 29, 1842, the Treaty of Nanjing was signed between China and Great Britain, ending the First Opium War.
According to the document, the Chinese authorities undertook to pay compensation to British merchants for the opium destroyed as part of the fight against drug trafficking, transfer the island of Hong Kong to Great Britain, allow the British to trade freely in five Chinese ports and introduce customs benefits for them.
According to experts, this event marked the beginning of an era of gross interference by Western powers in China's internal affairs.
Causes of the conflict
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, China, under the rule of the Manchu Qing dynasty, was considered one of the largest and richest states in the world.
According to some reports, its gross domestic product was about a third of the world economy.
According to historians, silk, tea, porcelain and many other goods from China were in great demand in the European market.
However, trading with the Celestial Empire was not easy: the Chinese authorities calmly allowed the export of their goods, but they treated imports negatively.
They believed that everything necessary for life was already produced in China.
At the same time, foreigners were forced to pay for Chinese goods in silver and gold.
In addition, the Chinese authorities were distrustful of Europeans, who had already become famous for their cruelty during the colonization of lands in South and Southeast Asia.
Relations between the Chinese state and the Portuguese, who created the trading colony of Macau near Canton (Guangzhou), were quite tense.
“In practice, trade with Europeans looked like this: Chinese merchants climbed onto the deck of foreign ships and made deals there.
Western merchants did not have full access to the territory of China, ”said the director of the ISAA Moscow State University in an interview with RT.
M.V.
Lomonosov Alexei Maslov.
The powerful British East India Company also tried to enter the Chinese market with its goods.
But, as historians note, the Chinese did not make an exception for it: like all other Europeans, the British were deprived of the right to officially supply their goods to the Celestial Empire, and transactions for the purchase of Chinese products could only be concluded in Canton, paying for them with precious metals.
Opium ships off the coast of China, by William Huggins, 19th century
© Wikimedia Commons
As Professor of Moscow State Pedagogical University, Doctor of Historical Sciences Vitaly Zakharov said in an interview with RT, opium became the key to the British access to the Chinese market.
It has long been known in China, but was used primarily for medicinal purposes.
However, in the first half of the 19th century, perhaps under the influence of advertising from the British, it began to be massively used as a drug.
Since direct imports of foreign goods to China remained prohibited, opium was smuggled into the Celestial Empire.
At the same time, the East India Company hired independent British merchants to sell the opium produced in the Indian territories under its control.
“The profits of the British from the sale of opium grew, while many Chinese people turned into drug addicts,” said Vitaly Zakharov.
An opium warehouse in India, 19th-century British engraving
© Wikimedia Commons
According to the expert, against the backdrop of massive drug use, the working capacity of the civilian population and the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army were rapidly declining.
In addition, the Chinese economy began to rapidly shrink the amount of silver that was “washed out” of the country in exchange for opium supplied by the British.
The Chinese authorities instructed the influential and incorruptible statesman Lin Zexu to deal with the problems associated with the drug trade.
He arrived in Canton in 1839 and forced the British to destroy all the opium found on British ships.
However, the British refused to give guarantees regarding the complete cessation of the drug trade, and smuggling channels shifted to other regions of China.
The Chinese responded by introducing the death penalty for drug trafficking.
Opium War
As Andrey Karneev, head of the School of Oriental Studies at the HSE Faculty of World Economy and World Politics, noted in a conversation with RT, in China in the first half of the 19th century there were protracted crises in the socio-economic sphere.
“China relied on medieval technology, and in general the country was on the verge of collapse,” Karneev said.
Vitaly Zakharov agrees with his assessment of the current situation.
“Against the background of rapid population growth, there was a lack of agricultural land, military and industrial technologies were outdated, and the political system was totally corrupt.
All this sharply weakened the country, ”the expert explained.
The British took advantage of these problems and, according to historians, in 1839 off the coast of China there were several clashes between Chinese junks and English ships.
In June 1840, about 50 British warships, carrying a 4,000th expeditionary force, blocked Canton from the sea.
Historians note that this was one of the first wars in world history unleashed in order to establish control over the market of another state.
But the British did not dare to immediately attack Canton.
Instead, they captured the city of Dinghai, set up a military base in it, and moved along the coast of China to the north.
The Chinese authorities were frightened by the first successes of the British, and they, in turn, faced problems with navigation.
Against this background, both sides demonstrated their readiness for a diplomatic settlement of the conflict.
Episode of the First Opium War, painting by Edward Cree, 19th century
© Wikimedia Commons
However, according to historians, the British used the negotiations, which lasted about six months, to transfer reinforcements to China and at the beginning of 1841 launched an attack on Canton.
The British troops moved forward confidently, using their technical advantage, as well as the rich military experience gained during the Napoleonic and colonial wars.
At the end of May 1841, the British landed troops in the Canton area and quickly captured the forts that covered the approaches to the city.
Rocket and artillery shelling of Canton itself caused panic among its population, and the city garrison capitulated.
The British demanded that the local authorities remove all trade restrictions and pay them huge indemnities.
Scene from the First Opium War, painting by Michael Hayes and James Lynch, 19th century
© Wikimedia Commons
According to experts, the success near Canton only provoked the British, who were convinced of China's military weakness.
In August, they set off on a new sea campaign to the north, capturing the cities in their path.
The advance of the British troops was accompanied by bestial cruelty on their part: they raped women, put children on bayonets for fun, burned entire villages along with the inhabitants.
The British Expeditionary Force set up winter quarters in the city of Ningbo, creating a collaborationist police force there.
The Chinese authorities prepared to continue the campaign by purchasing European artillery and small arms through the Portuguese.
Scene from the First Opium War, painting by Michael Hayes and James Lynch, 19th century
© Wikimedia Commons
On August 29, 1842, the Treaty of Nanjing was signed.
The war, which historians call the First Opium War, was completed under extremely difficult conditions for China.
The authorities of the empire completely opened five large ports for trade and settlement of the British, the Gunhan merchant corporation, which previously had a monopoly on foreign economic activity, was abolished, Hong Kong Island was transferred to Great Britain for "perpetual possession", and the maximum customs duty on China's trade with the British was set at 5% level.
In addition, the Qing government undertook to pay compensation to the British for the destruction of opium and war indemnities.
In 1843, the British forced the Chinese authorities to sign an additional agreement, according to which British subjects received the right of extraterritoriality in five ports under consular jurisdiction - Chinese laws did not apply to them.
The signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, a painting based on an engraving by John Burnet, 19th century
© Wikimedia Commons
“After the First Opium War, the process of active penetration of European powers into China began.
Following Britain, many Europeans wanted to cut off their piece in the Chinese economy.
For China, a period known as “One Hundred Years of Humiliation” began,” Andrey Karneev said.
According to Alexey Maslov, at the same time, in the face of an external threat, the people of China began to realize themselves as a nation.
“China has been captured before: the Mongols, the Manchus, but these were well-known neighbors, “ours”.
Now, foreigners who did not recognize Chinese culture invaded China.
And this was a turning point in the formation of Chinese identity,” Maslov explained.
However, according to experts, the process of the formation of national self-consciousness continued for a long time - the people of China were able to free themselves from the political and economic dictates of foreign powers only in the 20th century.