Opium Wars

The Opium Wars, also known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars, divided into the First Opium War from 1839 to 1842 and the Second Opium War from 1856 to 1860, were the climax of disputes over trade and diplomatic relations between China under the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire.

Opium has been known in China since the 7th century and for centuries it was used for medicinal purposes. It was not until the middle of the 17th century that the practice of mixing opium with tobacco for smoking was introduced into China by Europeans. In 1729, its import was 200 chests, and by 1790 it amounted to over 4,000 chests (256 tonnes) annually. In 1858, about twenty years after the first opium war, the annual import rose to 70,000 chests (4,480 tonnes), approximately equivalent to global production of opium for the decade surrounding the year 2000.

The first anti-opium edict was issued in 1729 enacting severe penalties on the sale of opium and the opening of opium-smoking divans. Similar laws were enacted in 1796 and 1800, the importation, however, continued to increase. British merchants brought opium from the British East India Company's factories in Patna and Benares, in the Bengal Presidency of British India, to the coast of China, where they sold for a good profit.

With the drain of silver and the growing number of the people became victims of the drug, the Daoguang Emperor demanded action. Officials at the court, who advocated legalization of the trade in order to tax it were defeated by those who advocated suppression. In 1838, the Emperor sent Lin Zexu to Guangzhou where he quickly arrested Chinese opium dealers and summarily demanded that foreign firms turn over their stocks. When they refused, Lin stopped trade altogether and placed the foreign residents under virtual siege, eventually forcing the merchants to surrender their opium to be destroyed.

In response, the British government sent expeditionary forces from India which ravaged the Chinese coast and dictated the terms of settlement. The Treaty of Nanking not only opened the way for further opium trade, but ceded territory including Hong Kong, unilaterally fixed Chinese tariffs at a low rate, granted extraterritorial rights to foreigners in China which were not offered to Chinese abroad, a most favored nation clause, as well as diplomatic representation. When the court still refused to accept foreign ambassadors and obstructed the trade clauses of the treaties, disputes over the treatment of British merchants in Chinese ports and on the seas led to the Second Opium War and the Treaty of Tientsin.

These treaties, soon followed by similar arrangements with the United States and France, later became known as the Unequal Treaties and the Opium Wars as the start of China's "Century of humiliation".