The Treaty of Nanjing was signed between the Chinese Empire and Britain in 1842. The British representative was Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pottinger, the first Governor of Hong Kong, and the Chinese representative was Keying, a Qing dynasty official.
The Treaty of Nanjing was the result of the First Opium War (1839–1842), a conflict between Britain and China over trade and control of opium trade in China. The war was fought mainly between British forces and the Qing dynasty, the ruling dynasty of China at the time. It ended with a decisive victory for Britain, as it forced China to open its ports to foreign trade and cede the island of Hong Kong to Britain.
The Treaty of Nanjing included a number of provisions, such as the opening of additional Chinese ports to British trade, the payment of large reparations by China to Britain, the recognition of British citizens’ extraterritoriality (immune from local laws), and the legalization of the opium trade. In addition, the British Empire gained commercial and diplomatic privileges in China, including the establishment of an embassy in Beijing.
The Treaty of Nanjing ultimately served as the foundation for subsequent treaties between foreign powers and the Qing dynasty, and marked the beginning of the “unequal treaties” period in Chinese history. These treaties allowed foreign powers to impose their own tariffs, laws, and regulations on the Chinese people, effectively reducing them to semi-colonial status.