Timeline of the Opium Wars - I have created this timeline to show the events that occurred during the First and Second Opium Wars in their proper order.
By rschlaf23
-
Period: to
Trade Imbalance
Great Britain, which imports a large quantity of tea from China, has a chronic trade imbalance with that country as it struggles to find products that the Chinese will buy. -
Period: to
East India Company
The East India Company, a British trading company, begins to sell opium to British traders, who then ship it to China. This is done in spite of China having first banned the drug in 1729. -
Chinese become addicted to opium - Image: https://www.cinarc.org/Choy_1877_Leslies_SF_opium_web.jpg
Importation of opium into China, which has slowly increased over time, now begins to grow dramatically. Opium has become the product that effectively reduces Great Britain’s chronic trade imbalance with China. This leads to an unfavorable balance of trade for China; it also leads to an increase in addiction among Chinese citizens and causes social problems. China has repeatedly tried to ban the trade of opium—thus far with little success—and will continue to do so. -
China Cracks Down - Image: https://i.skyrock.net/0641/84370641/pics/3140963868_1_2_ZFxgRAjS.jpg
The Chinese government confiscates and destroys a considerable amount of opium—more than 20,000 chests, or some 1,400 tons—being warehoused at Canton (Guangzhou) by British merchants. -
Hostilities between the British and Chinese - Image: https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/main_images/1-_o5drmegupxxb1qra0wv3w.jpeg
Hostilities break out between the British and the Chinese when British warships destroy a Chinese blockade of the Pearl River (Zhu Jiang) estuary at Hong Kong. -
British occupy Canton - Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/The_Bund_Canton.jpg/360px-The_Bund_Canton.jpg
After months of negotiations at Canton (Guangzhou), the British forces attack and occupy the city. Fighting in other areas will continue for at least another year. -
British forces capture Nanjing - Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/98th_Foot_at_Chinkiang.jpg
The British capture Nanjing (Nanking), which brings an end to the fighting. -
Treaty of Nanjing - Image: https://visualizingcultures.mit.edu/opium_wars_01/image/g_1846_TreatyNanking_B79155.jpg
The Treaty of Nanjing, between Great Britain and China, is signed, ending the First Opium War. Among its provisions is that China has to increase the number of treaty ports, where the British can trade and reside, from one to five. It also cedes the territory of Hong Kong to Great Britain. This treaty initiates the era of unequal treaties between China and other countries in which China is forced to concede many of its rights in regards to territory and sovereignty. -
China breaks the Treaty of Nanjing - Image: https://www.historytoday.com/sites/default/files/articles/Months-Past-Arrow.jpg
Chinese officials board a British-registered ship, the Arrow, which is docked in Canton (Guangzhou), a treaty port (one of the limited number of ports in China where British merchants are allowed to trade). They arrest several crew members of Chinese ethnicity and allegedly lower the British flag. The Chinese crew members are later released. -
Start of the Second Opium War - Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/La_bataille_de_Palikiao.jpg
Great Britain, which has been looking for an excuse to go to war so it can force China into granting more concessions that further extend British trading rights, responds to the Arrow incident by sending a warship up the Pearl River estuary and attacking Canton. Fighting between Chinese and British troops ensues. France later decides to join Great Britain in the conflict, also in the hopes of forcing concessions from the Chinese. -
British and French sweep through China - Image: https://ilookchina.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/opium-wars.jpg
The British and French capture Canton and the Dagu (Taku) forts on the Hai (Peiho) River, near Tianjin (Tientsin), forcing the Chinese into negotiations. -
Beijing captured by the British and French - Image: https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/destroyed-sites---arch-3250/_/rsrc/1457398809853/old-summer-palace/0013729e44a40e263db963.jpg
British and French troops capture Beijing and burn the emperor’s Summer Palace. -
Beijing Convention - Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Signing_the_Treaty_of_Tientsin.jpg
China signs the Beijing Convention, which ends the Second Opium War. China grants several concessions to Great Britain and France, including allowances for the opening of more ports in China, foreign travel in the interior of China, freedom of movement for Christian missionaries, and residences in Beijing (China’s capital) for Western envoys. China also gives Great Britain the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula adjacent to Hong Kong.
