First Opium War Begins

Setting the scene

The First Opium War (1839-1842) began as a conflict between Britain and Qing China over the opium trade. By the 1830s, Britain had a massive trade deficit with China, importing tea, silk, and porcelain but having little China wanted in return. British merchants, led by the East India Company, began smuggling opium from India into China, creating widespread addiction—by 1835, an estimated 12 million Chinese were addicts. The trade reversed the silver flow, causing economic crisis in China. The Daoguang Emperor, alarmed by social decay and silver outflow, appointed Lin Zexu as imperial commissioner to end the trade.

What happened

Lin arrived in Canton in March 1839 and demanded foreign merchants surrender their opium. When they refused, he blockaded the foreign factories and confiscated 20,000 chests (1,400 tons) of opium, which he destroyed in June 1839 by mixing it with salt and lime and flushing it into the sea. He also wrote to Queen Victoria appealing for a halt to the trade. Britain, viewing this as destruction of private property and an affront to free trade, sent an expeditionary force. The war began in November 1839 when British ships attacked Chinese junks.

Why it still matters

The war demonstrated Western military superiority. British steam-powered gunboats and disciplined troops defeated larger Chinese forces, capturing Canton, Shanghai, and Nanjing. The Treaty of Nanjing (1842) ended the war, forcing China to pay $21 million in reparations, cede Hong Kong to Britain, open five treaty ports to trade, and grant extraterritoriality to British citizens. The war began China's 'Century of Humiliation,' exposing Qing weakness and leading to further unequal treaties. It also established the pattern of Western imperialism in Asia—using military force to open markets—and the opium trade continued, devastating Chinese society for decades.

Background

The First Opium War, also known as the Anglo-Chinese War, was a series of military engagements fought between the British Empire and the Chinese Qing dynasty between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of their ban on the opium trade by seizing private opium stocks from mainly British merchants at Guangzhou and threatening to impose the death penalty for future offenders. Despite the opium ban, the British government supported the merchants' demand for compensation for seized goods, and insisted on the principles of free trade and equal diplomatic recognition with China. Unequal treaties followed Qing defeat.