Home » History » East Asian History » The Second Opium War

The Second Opium War

© John Walsh

The First Opium War (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1817... had resulted in western powers, notably Britain, obtaining unequal treaties with China that enabled them to increase their trade. However, the anticipated huge increases failed to materialise. Westerners blamed continuing taxes and bureaucracy and resolved to remove this - in reality, the Chinese economy had always been a fairly enclosed system that accepted luxuries and tribute from outside and rice from Siam but was far from dependent on any product that could be supplied by the west. Even so, new treaties were required, especially because Chinese mandarins persisted in treating westerners with less respect than they felt they deserved. Since western representatives thought themselves variously the agents of God or the British Empire or some other supposedly lofty cause, while the Chinese considered them all to be undifferentiated red-haired devils, it is obvious that clashes were inevitable.

The murder of a French missionary and the seizure of a British ship were the timely pretexts that saw the launching of a joint Anglo-French military force that attacked and captured the city of Tientsin (also known as Tianjin). Treaty negotiations followed and resulted in an agreement opening numerous new ports for trade, legalising the opium trade and various other provisions as demanded by the westerners. The treaty was agreed locally but the Emperor's court in Beijing refused to ratify it. Of course, the western powers were further enraged by what they considered to be perfidy and launched a renewed military assault.

Looting and pillaging as they went, British and French forces fought their way to the capital. Unknown thousands of Chinese were killed and ruined in their wake. The Emperor and his court fled and left the imperial palace and Summer Palace open to the foreign invaders. The Summer Palace, with its astonishing and wonderful collection of art and artifacts representing the very highest flowering of Chinese culture, was burnt to the ground - although not before the great majority of treasures were either stolen or destroyed. The French army alone packed up and wheeled off some 300 wagon loads of stolen goods within hours of reaching the palace. The value of the treasures is incalculable.

In due course, the Emperor was obliged to ratify the treaty and attempt to begin to repair the damage caused. Other western powers took the opportunity to inflict other forms of extortion on the Chinese state. Russia, for example, had been attracted by Chinese weakness to increase its boundaries at Chinese expense and at this time enforced an agreement transferring some 400,000 square miles of Chinese territory to Russian control, among other provisions.