The First Opium War, (The First Anglo-Chinese War or the Opium War) 1839-42

  1. United Kingdom vs. Qing Dynasty China
  2. Canton a busy port city
  3. Thirteen Factories on Shameen Island
  4. Thirteen Hongs
  5. British East India Trading Company
  6. Lucrative trade for British and Chinese
  7. Tea
  8. Silver
  9. Opium
  10. Grown in India
  11. Used as medicine in China
  12. Laws against abuse
  13. Opium sales increase
  14. Silver outflow from China back to Britain
  15. Opium abuse. Harmful to China
  16. Opium Competition
  17. Prices fell and sales increased
  18. British East India Trading Company loses monopoly on opium
  19. Americans get opium from Turkey
  20. British reformers break up BEITC.
  21. Qing made opium illegal
  22. Corrupt officials
  23. Bribes
  24. Lin Zexu
  25. Crackdown on opium trade
  26. Banned Sales of opium
  27. Opium trade punishable by death
  28. British Superintendent of Trade, Charles Elliot
  29. Agrees to hand over opium
  30. Avoid diplomatic catastrophe
  31. Burning and destruction of opium on June 3, 1839
  32. Letter to Queen Victoria
  33. Lin Zexu writes explaining the why opium was destroyed
  34. Never reaches Queen Victoria
  35. Atmosphere becomes tense with crackdown
  36. Chinese coast is armed
  37. Arresting foreign sailors and merchants who were in Kowloon collecting supplies
  38. Sailors riot
  39. 6 sailors kill a Chinese villager named Lin Weixi during the riot
  40. China did not have a jury trial system or evidentiary process
  41. British claimed “extraterritoriality”
  42. China demand sailors be turned over, British refused
  43. British Act of Parliament
  44. Charles Elliot had authority to try sailors
  45. However, British government claims Charles Elliot does not have ability to try sailors without permission from China
  46. Charles Elliot decides to have British leave the port and prohibit British trade
  47. Fighting breaks out
  48. Some merchants feel Charles Elliot overstepped his power
  49. Continue trading
  50. Elliot blockades the Pearl River (Port of Canton) to stop merchants from trading
  51. Merchant ship armed with weapons Royal Saxon fights the blockade
  52. Naval ships fire warning shots
  53. Chinese military Junk ships attack Royal Naval ships, “protect” merchant ship
  54. Huge losses for Chinese
  55. Chinese decree the end of aid to British ships
  56. Macau
  57. Cut off from supplies
  58. Lord Palmerston, British Foreign Secretary
  59. Leads Royal Navy in an attack on Canton
  60. Justify attacks as making Chinese government pay for the losses to British trading
  61. Treaty of Nanjing August 1842
  62. Unequal Treaty
  63. Extraterritoriality
  64. Opening of all trading ports
  65. Reparations
  66. Hand over of Hong Kong to Britain
  67. Silver paid for opium losses and war damages
  68. End of old Canton System
  69. Opening of China to foreign control