The second war of the Opium lasted of 1856 with 1860 and opposed the France and the the United Kingdom to the China. This war can be seen like the prolongation of the First war of opium, from where the name that one allotted to him.

Context

The Treated of Nankin, making following the First war of opium, left only five ports to provision of the Westerners for the trade.

In spite of this agreement, the European powers, whose trade balance was largely adverse, wished to extend their trade towards the North and the interior of China.

Moreover, the trade of the Opium was always illegal in China. However, the viceroy of the town of Canton practiced it while making condemn to dead the marked foreigners of this trade. Thus the France and the the United States required, in 1854, of the revisions in the Traité of Huangpu and the Traité Wangxia. The the United Kingdom made the same request, quoting the articles on the “levelling treatment” in the statutes of the most favoured nations.

In 1854, the Western ministers and étasunien contacted the Chinese authorities again and asked for amendments of the treaties:

1. To be able to penetrate without hostility in Canton.
2. To be able to extend the trade to China of North and along the river Yangzi.
3. the trade of opium was always illicit, they wanted to legalize it.
4. the Westerners wanted to treat with the court directly with Beijing.

The imperial court of the Dynastie Qing then refused the applications of revision of the United Kingdom, France and the United States of America. Consequently, the western powers sought other means to manage to rebalance a very adverse trade balance.

The war

The western powers estimated that only the war could lead the Chinese Empire to change position. Consequently, the western powers awaited the event which could bring the conflict. This event took place the October 8th 1856, when Chinese officers approached the Arrow , a recorded Chinese ship with HongKong under British house, suspecté of Piraterie and traffic of opium. They captured the twelve men of crew and imprisoned them. This episode is often called “the incident of the Arrow ”.

The British asked for officially the release of these sailors while putting forward the promise by the emperor of the protection of the British ships. These arguments were ignored by the Chinese authorities. The British evoked then the insult made with the British Drapeau by the soldiers of the Qing Empire.

The first part of the war

Although weakened by a mutiny difficult to repress with the the Indies, the Revolt of Cipayes, the British answered the incident of the Arrow in 1857 by attacking Canton since the Rivière of the Pearls. Ye Mingchen, then governor of the provinces of the Guangdong and the Guangxi, ordered to the Chinese soldiers in station in the forts not to resist. After having taken without difficulty the strong close one to Canton, the British army attacked the city itself. The American warships, including the USS Raising , bombarded Canton. The inhabitants as well as the soldiers resisted the attack and forced the attackers to beat a retreat towards Humen.

The British Parliament, decided to obtain costs which repair on behalf of China for the incident of the Arrow costs, asked the France, the the United States and the Russia to be combined with it. France joined the British against China after the execution of the missionary Auguste Chapdelaine (incidental said of the Chapdelaine father), by the Chinese local authorities in the province of Guangxi. The Americans and the Russians made offers of assistance to the British and with the French, but, finally, did not help them militarily.

The British and the French united their force under the command of the Admiral Sir Michael Seymour. The British army directed by Lord Elgin and the French Army directed by the General Large, attacked and occupied Canton with the end of the year 1857. Ye Mingchen was captured and Baigui, the governor of Guangdong, went. A joint committee of Alliance was formed. Baigui was maintained at its original station to maintain the order in the name of Alliance. Alliance maintained Canton under its control during nearly four years. Ye Mingchen was exiled with Calcutta, in India, where it was let die of hunger.

The coalition moved then towards north to take the forts of Dagu, beside Tianjin, in May 1858.

The Treaty of Tianjin

In June 1858, the Traité of Tianjin concludes the first part of the war to which France, Russia and the United States were recipients. This treaty opened eleven additional ports with the Western trade. But, initially, the Chinese refused to ratify it.

The principal points of the treaty were:

1. the United Kingdom, France, Russia and the United States will have the right to establish diplomatic missions with Beijing, until there, quoted prohibited.

2. Ten additional Chinese ports will be opened with the foreign trade, including Niuzhuang, Danshui, Hankou and Nankin.
3. right for all the foreign ships, including the commercial ships, to freely sail on the Yangzi Jiang
4. the right for the foreigners to travel in the interior regions of China from which they were until now outlaws.
5. China must pay an allowance in the United Kingdom and France of two million Tael S of money each one.
6. China must pay an allowance with the British merchants of two million Tael S of money for destruction of their properties.

The negotiations continued and, in November 1858, the central government agreed to legalize the trade of opium: in 1886 the trade of opium related to 180.000 cases (approximately 10.000 tons). As of 1878: 100 million Chinese opium addicts. Problem until 1906.

The Chinese accepted that the customs duties are extremely weak and that the maritime laws pass under foreign control.

The ratification took place afterwards more than one year. The Chinese government let trail the things and the British and French had recourse to the force to go more quickly: 18.000 British and 7.000 French embarked on Chinese water.

The Treaty of Aigun with Russia

The May 28th 1858, the Traité of Aigun is signed with Russia to revise the borders between China and Russia such as they had been defined by the Traité of Nertchinsk in 1689.

The Russians extend towards China, because they cannot extend towards the Close East (lost Crimean War, 1856). Very for a long time Russians and Chinese had gotten along on common borders. Thereafter, the Russians had tried to push back the borders (beyond Long the Hei river) and had installed two forts. The Russians benefit from the second war of Opium to consolidate their projection. They collaborate under hand with French and British and are posed as a mediator. Russia gains left bank of the river Amour as well as the control of a territory except freezing along the coast Pacifique, where it founds the town of Vladivostok (the sovereign of the east) (in the past Haishenwei) in 1860.

The Russians have the same privileges that the other countries and China formally recognize their annexations of more than one million square kilometers of territories.

The second part of the war

In 1859, after the refusal of China to authorize the establishment of embassies in Beijing as stipulated in the treaty of Tianjin, a naval force under the command of the admiral Sir James Hope encircled the forts keeping the mouth of the river Hai He, but sudden of the damage and made retirement under the cover of a naval squadron ordered by Josiah Tattnall.

In 1860, a Franco-British force left HongKong accosted with Pei Tang, the August 3rd, and attacked the forts of Dagu successfully the August 21st. The September 26th, the force arrived at Beijing and occupied the city the October 6th. Naming his brother, the Prince Gong like negotiator, the Chinese emperor Xianfeng took refuge in his palate of summer of Chengde. The Franco-British troops set fire to the two palates of summer, new the and old the, in Beijing, after several days of plundering. The old palate of summer was completely destroyed. However, Beijing itself was not taken, the troops remaining confined apart from the city.

the Countryside of China of 1860 lived and told by a soldier of the 102ème regiment of infantry of line.

The unloading has Pei Tang

the Battle of Palikao

the devastation of the palate of summer

Letter of Victor Hugo, dated November 25th, 1861, criticizing the setting with bag of the Yuanmingyuan palate on October 17th, 1860:

peopledaily.com

The Convention of Beijing

After the escape of Beijing of the Xianfeng emperor and its continuation, in June 1858, the Treaty of Tianjin is finally ratified by the brother of the emperor, prince Gong, at the time of the Convention of Beijing on October 18th, 1860, putting a term at the second war of opium.

The trade of opium is legalized and the Christians see their fully recognized civil laws, including the property right private and that of évangéliser.

The convention of Beijing includes:

1. recognition by China of the validity of the treaty of Tianjin
2. the opening of Tianjin as a commercial port, intended for the trade with Beijing
3. the transfer of the district of Kowloon in the United Kingdom
4. freedom of worship to China. The French catholic missionaries have the right to buy grounds and to build churches.
5. the authorization for the British ships to lead Chinese labor to abroad replace the recently freed slaves. These Coolies will leave for the mines or the plantations Malaysia, of Australia, of Latin America, the United States.
6. the payment with the British and the French of an allowance increased to eight million money taels each one