The Opium Wars were two successive wars that took place in the 19th century between China and the United Kingdom (known as the “Arrow War” or the “First Opium War”) and between China and France in the Second Opium War. These two conflicts, which lasted from 1839 to 1860, were fought over the issue of Britain and France’s unregulated sale of opium, a narcotic drug, to the Chinese populace from abroad.
The First Opium War began when the Qing government in Beijing tried to halt the illegal importation of opium. The British East India Company (EIC) had been selling opium since 1773, and after the Chinese banned it in 1836, smuggling operations exploded. In response, the Qing officials confiscated large amounts of the drug and arrested several British traders. In 1839, the British sent an envoy to Beijing demanding compensation for their confiscated opium and an end to opium prohibitions, an offer that was refused. This led to the outbreak of war.
The main theater of the conflict was the South China Sea and the Yangtze River. The British navy and merchant fleet blockaded Chinese ports and then fired upon them, bringing the Qing government to its knees. In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking, also known as the “Unequal Treaty,” was signed at the end of the First Opium War. According to the treaty, China was forced to cede Hong Kong Island to the British, open five treaty ports to European trade, grant certain trading rights to foreigners, and pay a one-time fee of 21 million silver taels.
Tensions between China and Britain again boiled over in 1856, sparking the Second Opium War. During this conflict, the Anglo-French forces forced the Chinese to open additional ports, legalize the opium trade, and extend the most-favored-nation trading rights given to the British to the other Western powers. The British and the French added insult to injury by extracting further reparations and indemnities, including a permanent lease of Kowloon Peninsula to the British.
The Opium Wars were a tremendous humiliation for the Chinese, who felt disrespected and violated by the Western powers. The actions of the British and the French in the Opium Wars also made clear to the Chinese ruling elite the need to modernize if they hoped to stand against the Western powers in the future. They did just that, and by the end of the 19th century, the Chinese had begun to catch up with the West in terms of industrial production and military technology.