Opium War of 1840

This series has seven easy 5 minute installments. This first installment: British Expedition Arrives.

Introduction
This conflict was the immediate result of the attempt of the Chinese Government to prevent the importation of opium. At the end of the war Great Britain had won her object of opening China to general English trade and to the opium trade, in particular. By the Treaty of Nanking (1842) Hong-Kong was ceded to the conquering power, and later that island became a British Crown colony and naval station. By the same treaty Canton, Amoy, Shanghai, Fuchow, and Ningpo were opened to British commerce. China also paid an indemnity equal to twenty-one million dollars.

The proximate causes of the war arose several years earlier. Up to 1833 the English East India Company held a monopoly of the Chinese trade. In that year the monopoly was withdrawn by the British Government in its own interest. This meant that England had determined upon the opening of Chinese trade. The opposition of the Chinese officials led Great Britain to the conclusion that China must take her place, through compulsion if necessary, in the family of nations, as the only solution of the question of foreign intercourse with the Oriental power. England prepared to carry out her policy by appointing Lord Napier chief superintendent of trade with China. On his arrival there, in 1834, he attempted to open diplomatic intercourse, but his overtures met with a refusal. Reaching Canton, he found that the authorities would not recognize him, and that his presence placed a new barrier in the way of the trade he had been sent to promote. Such a storm was raised that he left Canton and went to Macao, where he soon died.

The Chinese now believed that they had defeated the English purpose implied in the transfer of authority from the East India Company to the Crown; but when in 1837 Captain Elliot, the new superintendent of trade, arrived at Canton, the former irritation was renewed, and hostilities soon began to appear inevitable. In January, 1839, the Emperor Taoukwang ordered Lin Tsihseu, Viceroy of Houkwang, to Canton, as a special commissioner to report on the situation and suggest a remedy for the opium evil, which had become serious through the increasing trade in that commodity. At this time the anti-opium party controlled the Imperial Council. Commissioner Lin was instructed to take extreme measures for doing away with the buying and selling of opium. But already Elliot had come into collision with the mandarins, and the arrival of Lin in Canton was the beginning of still more serious complications. After much controversy, and great concessions by Elliot, the Chinese prepared for summary measures. Lin destroyed ten million dollars’ worth of opium. For this and other high-handed acts he was rewarded with the viceroyalty of the Two Kiang. The seat of his government was at Nanking.

Collisions between Chinese and foreigners soon became frequent, and hostilities may be said to have begun November 3, 1839, when two British men-of-war, having already had encounters with the Bogue forts at the entrance to Canton River, fought twenty-nine Chinese junks off Chuenpec. The Chinese were worsted, but this only increased their determination to keep Europeans out of China. Soon an expedition was on its way from England to Chinese waters, and the military operations following its arrival marked a more definite beginning of the war. Boulger, who here describes the contest, is the author of the most complete history of China that thus far has appeared.

This selection is from Short History of China by Demetrius Charles Boulger published in 1893. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Demetrius Charles Boulger (1853-1928) was co-founded the Asian Quarterly Review and wrote extensively on Asian affairs.

The British expedition arrived at the mouth of the Canton River in the month of June, 1840. It consisted of four thou sand troops on board twenty-five transports, with a convoy of fifteen men-of-war. If it was thought that this considerable force would attain its objects without fighting and merely by making a demonstration, the expectation was rudely disappointed. The reply of Commissioner Lin was to place a reward on the per sons of all Englishmen, and to offer twenty thousand dollars for the destruction of an English man-of-war. The English fleet replied to this hostile step by instituting a close blockade at the mouth of the river, which was not an ineffectual retort. Sir Gordon Bremer, the commander of the first part of the expedition, came promptly to the decision that it would be well to extend the sphere of his operations, and he accordingly sailed northward with a portion of his force to occupy the island of Chusan, which had witnessed some of the earliest operations of the East India Company two centuries before.

The capture of Chusan presented no difficulties to a well-equipped force, yet the fidelity of its garrison and inhabitants calls for notice as a striking instance of patriotism. The officials at Tinghai, the capital of Chusan, refused to surrender, as their duty to their Emperor would not admit of their giving up one of his possessions. It was their duty to fight, and although they admitted resistance to be useless, they refused to yield, save to force. The English commander reluctantly ordered a bombardment, and after a few hours the Chinese defenses were demolished, and Tinghai was occupied. Chusan remained with the English as a base of operations during the greater part of the war, but its insalubrity rather dissipated the reputation it had acquired as an advantageous and well-placed station for operations on the coast of China.

Almost at the same time as the attack on Chusan, hostilities were resumed against the Chinese on the Canton River, in con sequence of the carrying off of a British subject, Mr. Vincent Stanton, from Macao. The barrier forts were attacked by two English men-of-war and two smaller vessels. After a heavy bombardment, a force of marines and blue- jackets was landed and the Chinese positions carried. The forts and barracks were destroyed, and Mr. Stanton released. Then it was said that ” China must either bend or break,” for the hour of English forbearance had passed away, and unless China could vindicate her policy by force of arms there was no longer any doubt that she would have to give way.

While these preliminary military events were occurring, the diplomatic side of the question was also in evidence. Lord Palmerston had written a letter stating in categorical language what he expected at the hands of the Chinese Government, and he had directed that it should be delivered into nobody else’s hands but the responsible ministers of the Emperor Taoukwang. The primary task of the English expedition was to give this dispatch to some high Chinese official who seemed competent to convey it to Peking. This task proved one of unexpected difficulty, for the mandarins, basing their refusal on the strict letter of their duty, which forbade them to hold any intercourse with foreigners, re turned the document and declared that they could not receive it This happened at Amoy and again at Ningpo, and the occupation of Chusan did not bring the English any nearer to realizing their mission.

Baffled in these attempts, the fleet sailed north for the mouth of the Peiho, when at last Lord Palmerston’s letter was accepted by Keshen, the Viceroy of the Province, and duly forwarded by him to Peking. The arrival of the English fleet awoke the Chinese court for the time being from its indifference, and Taoukwang not merely ordered that the fleet should be provided with all the supplies it needed, but appointed Keshen high commissioner for the conclusion of an amicable arrangement. The difficulty thus seemed in a fair way toward settlement, but as a matter of fact it was only at its commencement, for the wiles of Chinese diplomacy are infinite and were then only partially understood. Keshen was remarkable for his astuteness and for the yielding exterior which covered a purpose of iron, and in the English political officer, the Captain Elliot of Canton, he did not find an opponent worthy of his steel. Although experience had shown how great were the delays of negotiations at Canton, and how inaccessible were the local officials, Captain Elliot allowed himself to be persuaded that the best place to carry on negotiations was at that city, and after a brief delay the fleet was withdrawn from the Peiho, and all the advantages of the alarm created by its presence at Peking were surrendered.

Relieved by the departure of the foreign ships, Taoukwang sent orders for the dispatch of forces from the inland Provinces, so that he might be able to resume the struggle with the English under more favorable conditions, and at the same time he hastened to relieve his overcharged feelings by punishing the man whom he regarded as responsible for his misfortunes and humiliation. The full weight of the imperial wrath fell on Commissioner Lin, who from the position of the foremost official in China fell at a stroke of the vermilion pencil to a public criminal arraigned before the Board of Punishments to receive his deserts. He was stripped of all his offices, and ordered to proceed to Peking, where, however, his life was spared.

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