The Opium Wars | Full Documentary

0:00 [Music] hello there welcome back to the Pacific War channel the channel where we covered the complete history of the asia-pacific war from 1937 to 1945 we are currently looking at the major historical events that led up to the Pacific War and today's episode is on the disastrous situation that led to the first op war of 1839 to 1842 so if you're not already subscribed and or left a like please do so as this bird does cost a lot of seeds as you can see what were the Opium Wars as you will learn

0:45 during this episode they were two wars fought between China Britain and then later on France was also involved in the second one the major reason for the wars was the illicit opium trade that was being forced upon China by Britain mainly hey everyone I just wanted to let you know I now have a patreon account found at www.patreon.com theaf War Channel over there you can find exclusive patreon episodes and podcasts based on suggestions from patrons and other benefits like early access to all of my content live Hangouts your name in the end credits and much much more so please go check it out why does this have any relevance on the Pacific War the Opium Wars are the first real example of when Western forces disrupted Asia at a significant level the opian wars left China weak

1:35 and divided a perfect piece of cake to cut from for all the Western powers and most importantly Japan who would take advantage of this later on but now let's get to why this all occurred significant Maritime trade between Europe and China can be linked back to 1557 when Portugal leased an outpost in maau from the Ming Dynasty this led to other European nations following their lead one of which being the British Empire the British began to appear around Chinese coasts sporadically from 1635 onwards now historically China was always fearful of outside destabilizing influences and as a result they had a rigid Trade Network known as the Chinese tributary system the

2:21 Chinese tributary system was a loose international relations Network used predominantly by Japan and Korea prior to significant European involvement the system required cow toing to the emperor like such even lower actually uh to acknowledge his superiority and that of China over all other nations this was a tribute system with the attempt to establish China as a superior Nation who would overwhelm the other nations making them unequal the system also only allowed trade to take place in select ports such as Ruan Jen and Canton after the Ming Dynasty fell to the Ching Dynasty the tribute system became the Canton system relatively the same however now it was only limited to the

3:10 port of Canton and westerners had to do business through a Chinese Merchant Guild known as the Kang now the reason why westerners and particularly the British wanted desperately to trade with China was for its goods those being porcelain silk and most importantly tea the only currency allowed to pay for these Goods in China was silver now Britain had a slight problem it had begun importing tea at an exponential rate starting in the mid 17th century where did Britain get the vast majority of its tea well China of course Britain eventually became economically dependent on China for Te to sell to its citizens you may think this is a simple issue but the British population literally was addicted to the mild stimulant now as you can imagine in a situation where you you

3:59 can only buy Chinese tea with silver Britain soon ran out of silver and there was a trade deficit with China this had gone on for over a century between 1710 and 1759 the imbalance was draining British silver 26 million going into China and only about 9 million coming out on top of this growing deficit Britain lost the American Revolutionary War the war debts and the loss of the colony bankrupt Britain and the silver had finally run out with no silver to hey the Chinese how was Britain going to get its T fix Here Comes Mr opium opium had been around for hundreds of years and was usually used in a dry powdered form drank with tea for medicinal purposes opium was

4:45 cultivated mostly in India and India was being dominated by the East India Company since 1612 Britain occupied Java after the Napoleonic Wars and became the primary Traders in opium it was at this point Britain Merchants realized they could reduce the overwhelming trade deficit with China by selling opium to the Chinese for silver to then pay for goods such as tea problem solved here comes the opium trade boom though it had been around forever the East India Company pushed it to New limits initially the Ching Dynasty tolerated the Opium importation increase because the silver was going to the British was still being spent on Chinese goods and China remained in a surplus

5:31 however the Opium usage began to visibly affect Chinese society and the trade surplus was Su and turning into a deficit for the Chinese this led the Ching government to place an edict against opium in 1780 and an outright ban by 1796 ironically the tea addicted Brits had just gotten the Chinese addicted to Opium we now begin with a few stories of how people led China and Britain to war so let's start with sir McCartney so in 1792 this count McCartney was sent to China under orders from King George III to establish a British Embassy in the capital and to get permission for British ships to docket ports beside Canton Canton at this point had become overcrowded

6:19 and was a complete bottleneck the British were so eager to open up China McCartney even was given instructions to offer the end of the opium trade to sweeten the deal our friend McCartney entered Canton with a large amount of gifts for the emperor and pleaded with the Cog to allow him to go to the capital and have an audience with the emperor McCartney is brought all the way to the emperor's Summer Palace in jaul with 600 gifts requiring 90 wagons 40 wheelbarrows 200 horses and 3,000 native laborers to bring it all wow these gifts were telescopes howitzers Globes musical instruments carriages and even a hot air balloon complete with a balloonist to operate it imagine that wonder what this situation was like for that guy he was just going to be stuck in

7:08 China for the rest of his life now here's where we get into some trouble the chilong emperor expected all these gifts to be tribute because McCartney was a barbarian the Chinese even nailed a sign to McCartney's ship reading tribute from the red barbarians McCartney on the other hand believed he was bringing gifts from One Sovereign Nation to another the emperor also refused to meet McCartney inside the palace itself instead he would meet in a horse haired yurt outside the palace which was used as a hunting lodge this was done on purpose to snub McCartney and uh any chance of him being seen as an equal now comes the issue of cow toeing cow toeing was the practice of bowing kneeling

7:55 and then placing one's forehead on the floor nine times in front of the the Emperor as all tributaries had done for centuries so the Chinese immediately demanded McCartney CTO to the emperor which he begrudgingly was willing to do for the sake of the mission but on one condition believing to be the bearer of the proudest and most powerful Nation on Earth McCartney demanded the Mandarin quers of the same rank to him to CTO to a lifesize portrait of King George III that he conveniently brought with him imagine that the mandarins laughed at this outright because they believed they were the bearers of the proudest and most powerful Nation on Earth and you see where this is kind of going in the end McCartney failed and he left China empty-handed to which he compared the

8:44 emperor uh the Empire excuse me to an old crazy First Rate man of war which a fortunate succession of able and Vigilant officers had contrived to keep afloat on top of this the EMP sent a letter to King George III stating China required nothing of Britain because it had everything the strange and costly objects that they sent were of no interest to him and they were of no value the Chinese had no use for British manufacturers this was rather harsh don't you think um did the hot air balloonist have to stay in China or did they let them go I could not find any information on this poror fellow now while opium was officially legal in China it was still being smuggled in by

9:30 the East India Company who held a royal Charter in trade for China the British didn't want to either bankrupt or run the Chinese noses in the illicit trade Britain had a fine-tuned equilibrium with the trade which was working in their favor then a technological innovation in Britain upset this equilibrium you see the invention of the steam engine resulted in the mechanized production of cotton by factories in northern England soon the market flooded with m mass produced textiles whose Surplus found a ready Market in India and whose Merchants paid cash not silver to pay for the ever increasing amount of cotton the Indians needed to cultivate and sell more opium as a result opium flooded into China and its distribution was bottlenecked all in Canton Here Comes our

10:19 friend Mr William pit Amherst Amherst was given the same task as McCartney in 1816 to meet with the new emperor of China xiangqing Amherst was also given the advice to not CTO to the emperor by King George III himself because this would result in another tributary relationship seeing the problem immediately the Mandarin courtiers thought up a way to say face for both parties they volunteered to clear the emperor's throne room and have Amherst CTO to the emperor's empty chair Amhurst agreed to Bow and to jle but refused to put his face on the floor that scared me and especially not nine times the courtiers then made a rather hilarious plan they woke Amhurst in the

11:10 middle of the night and quickly brought him to the th Throne Room half asleep they thought he would be so disoriented and tired to resist the cow toe amandin cair even tried to shove Amherst in an attempt to make him put his face on the floor but amher trusty assistant Stanton grabbed him by the elbow catching him before he could fall in the end Amherst left China without even seeing the emperor and this was humiliating so now in 1833 a reform minded British Parliament abolished the East India company's Monopoly in China this left China open to all British comers and within a year the amount of tea imported to Britain quadrupled the trade in opium to pay for all this tea in 1830 was 8

11:58 18,000 chests by 1833 it went up to 30,000 chests imagine that a large reason for the increase in demand was the innovation in China's use of the drug typically opium had been swallowed in a beverage form then in the 18th century the Chinese began smoking it opium affected China dramatically Not only was draining silver out of China but many Chinese across the socioeconomic ladder were laying off work to smoke up shopkeepers servants soldiers and even toist priests were drifting into a weak one Escapade uh smoking opium in a hut so after the East India Monopoly ended the British

12:44 realized they required a representative to be a taian or chief executive in Canton to control and conduct this trade the first Chief superintendent was Lord Napier who who arrived in maau in 1834 Napier was a tall thin gangly red-haired man unfortunately nap's physical appearance was in line with China's comical stereotype of the red-haired Barbarian nap's orders were to protect British trade protect British trade excuse me open up more Chinese ports to British merchants and yet again to establish an official presence in the emperor's Court Napier was also explicitly told not to do anything in regards to the illicit opium business strictly hands-off policy npure

13:36 had a rude reception to say the least arriving into Canton the Viceroy basically gave him the cold shoulder now at this point in time there were European factories in Canton these were living quarters and the business quarters for westerners now after some rocky engagements with the vice Roy of Canton named Lun there came some problems yukun became annoyed at Napier's arrogant Behavior he was British after all and ordered him to leave Canon and returned to maau to further the point Lun also halted all trade with Britain until Napier left pretty rude now lukan's edics actually delighted some British merchants who now believe that some sort of intervention by the British

14:22 government may occur to Aid their pockets the largest and most influential trading companies in Cana jardan and mat took this opportunity to urge Napier to retaliate for lucan's atrocious Behavior Napier took this advice and sent a letter back to England urging that force be used against China his letter read three or four frigits and Briggs with a steady few British troops would settle this thing the exploit is to be performed with a facility unknown even in the capture of poultry West Indian Island so on August 16 1834 the vice Roy of Canton enacted a partial embargo on British Imports leading Napier to write another letter to Britain calling for military intervention

15:12 Napier's letter read what can an army of bows and arrows and Pikes and shield do against a handf of British veterans meanwhile Napier decided to bypass lukan and make his case directly to the residents of Canton arguing they would be hurt by the trade embargo with Britain this enraged lukon as you can imagine who threatened to embargo all British trade permanently and force all British residents out of Canton Chinese soldiers began to surround the factory with the residents inside nap ordered three frigs andromachi omo jein and Louisa to come to Canton which was guarded by two bogy forts Napier knew the Chinese would attack the ships and ordered captain Captain Blackwood to

16:00 fire back and destroy the fort's Cannons when the British ships came the bogis 60 cannons began to fire completely shooting overhead of the British ships you see the Cannons they were using were very outdated and they were bolted literally to the ground incapable of aiming properly Jack beIN said of the event they were more like fireworks than piece of ordinance the frig sailed past the forts destroying the bogy Cannons while Charles Elliot captain of Louisa sat in a chair sunbathing on Deck as it occurred only two British Sailors were killed during what became known as the battle of the bo but outright war was averted because npure got very ill and had to leave

16:50 that's really convenient the Duke of Wellington as a result canned Napier and replaced him with John Francis Davis who immediately refused the terrible job when he figured out what was what it was going to be like then our son bathing Captain friend Captain Charles Elliot was appointed Chief superintendent of trade in June 1836 foreign minister Lord Palmerston ordered Elliot to make sure tea continued to be safely shipped out of China and into the teacups of English drawing rooms for the ritual afternoon tea the opium trade was to be ignored as it was paying for the tea so on November 1836 the djang emperor banned the importation and use of opium in China as it was

17:39 in a full crisis the number of Chinese addicts at the time Elliot took office was estimated between 4 to 12 million Chinese the vice Roy of Canton during all of this completely ignored the business as he was corrupt and instead brutalized the local Chinese Merchants instead of attacking the British that must have pleased the the Chinese very much thus in 1838 Xiao da Jong sent and I apologize again I hope I'm pronouncing these right Lin jzu the governor of Hub and Hunan to take on the crisis Lin Jesu had an impeccable reputation having suppressed the opium trade in Hub and Hunan provinces prior nicknamed Blue Sky because it was said that he was as pure as an unblemished and cloudless Sky it's actually quite beautiful High Commissioner jzu sent a memorandum to the

18:30 emperor complaining that Chinese customers spent over 100 million Tales of silver on opium while the entire Chinese government budget was only 40 million tals he warned if we continue to allow this trade to flourish in a few Dozen Years we will find ourselves not only with no soldiers to resist the enemy but also with no money to equip the army so Lynn first sent a letter to Queen Victoria Oria appealing to her morality and sense of justice to stop the illicit trade the letter probably never even got to her regardless there was no response interesting fact Lynn's personal translator was named Peter Parker I have no reason to say anything about this I just thought it was kind of silly and funny that you know Peter Parker was the name of the person Lynn in frustration

19:21 spoke to the Emperor who accepted his evaluation of the situation and enacted Draconian edicts op addicts would be given 18 months to surrender their drugs to escape punishment foreigners who engaged in the trade would be beheaded Chinese dealers strangled and even corrupt officials who took bribes for the trade would be put also to death by Spring 1839 the first Opium War Began 1,600 residents of Canton from dealers to users to dishonest bureaucrats were arrested and over 3,000 chests of opium were confiscated Lynn knew this was just a mere fraction of the chest lying around and stepped up the threats by surrounding the factories with Chinese soldiers demanding that

20:10 chests all be handed over Elliot found out about this and he acted he ordered all British ships docked in Canton to get to the relative safety of Hong Kong while he would go to the factories himself Elliot met with everyone stuck in Canton and counseled a strategy he would try to secure passports for the refugees but was not optimistic and admitted that a failure to secure safe passage out of Canton would turn the situation into a hostage crisis on March 28th 1839 the soldiers surrounding the factories turned it into a real Siege sealing off the area's streets they banged huge gongs to the sleep deprived inhabitants forbid food and only allowed in two buckets of water they nailed giant placards to to the walls demanding all opium supplies be surrendered at

21:01 once Elliot had little choice and capitulated demanding all the Opium Traders surrender their stores to him not Lynn he then gave his word that the British government would reimburse the merchants for their losses a promise he was not authorized to make a very big mistake Elliot soon was handed 20,000 chests of opium worth an estimated $20 million please note real estimates were probably 12 million but they they said 20 they were probably fighting for more so on May 24th 1839 Lynn believed that the British had surrendered all their stores and ordered all the merchants who engaged in the opium trade to leave China and never come back they sailed out

21:49 of Canton under the command of Captain Elliott himself Lynn then dumped all the Opium into pits and destroyed them now and enraged Britain had reimbursement debt of $20 million to pay to their merchants and the road to war had finally emerged so just to recap because I know this might actually be a little bit confusing the major uh reasons for why the situation occurred number one China's overwhelming conviction sustained by over 4,000 years of historical memory representing the Pinnacle of civilization on the planet and believing all other nations to be simple barbarians who should not be dealt with as equals but instead as only tribute bearers this angered Western Nations who felt they were equals such as the British Empire number two China's

22:39 Monopoly on the production of tea and to a lesser extent porcelain and silk combine this with the insistence of being paid in only silver bullion Britain became dependent and literally addicted to the tea the bankrupt British began trading opium to China to meet their tea needs and the Chinese became addicted to Opium number three the emergence of the British Empire as being the most technological dominant industrialized power in the world broke the trade equilibrium China fell into a major deficit and had to act in order to protect its Nation so to Briefly summarize Britain became economically dependent on importing tea from China which It could only pay for using silver this trade was a major silver deficit for Britain and it went on for over a

23:30 century after the American Revolution Britain lost almost all of its remaining silver to war debts and could no longer purchase tea from China Britain then came up with the idea of selling opium to China to receive silver to pay for its tea addiction this led to the High Commissioner lyu to confiscate over 20,000 chests of opium from British merchants while taking British factories in Canton hostage which was under a Siege the chief superintendent Captain Charles Elliot promised that the British government would reimburse the merchants which the British government never agreed to do so Charles Elliott messed up when he promised the British merchants

24:16 that the British government would compensate them for the confiscated opium the British government as a result promised $2.5 million of compensation which was just a mere fraction of the $20 million lost by May 1839 the merchants began complaining to Parliament for British troops to be sent to extract the compensation from the Chinese by June Elliot Allied himself to the Merchant's cause and asked the foreign secretary for warships and troops during all of this opium business which was going on one confiscation effort was not going to stop it Elliott ordered the remaining British left in Canton to evacuate so there would be no hostages is at stake and now he felt free to attack the Chinese on June 10th 1839 the Chinese ships stopped British ships from bringing food

25:06 and water ashore to the British who were stuck in maau Elliot warned Lynn that if the Chinese ships did not stop doing this conflict would occur Lyn countered this Threat by stating the ships were being stopped because they were transporting opium which they most certainly were the situation was tense and was about to get worse in Hong Kong as Chinese warship arrested the comprador of a British ship the carnatic this enraged British Sailors who demanded his return and planned revenge on July the 12th 30 seamen of cartic and Mangalore went asore and got blind drunk on shamshu it's a fermented rice alcoholic beverage I believe they soon began destroying property in

25:51 town and beat up locals one of which was named Lyn wui who died the next next day from his beatings Lynn was Furious by this and demanded the murderer of ly wayi to be handed over for Chinese Justice which the British presumed would be an execution it most likely would have been in Lynn's words he who kills a man must pay the penalty of Life instead of handing anyone over Elliot performed his own inquiry and Court which led to charges of Riot and assault but no murder or manslaughter go figure Elliot refused to hand over anyone and Lynn saw this as British unilaterally denying Chinese sovereignty Lynn then officially forbid the sale of food or water to all British citizens under

26:43 penalty of death until the murderer of wayi was handed over on August 24th macau's Governor Don adrio AIO de Sil Pinto I'm sorry that's a little difficult name announced the Chinese had ordered him to expel the British from The Colony the same day two ships the Harriet and black joke arrived in maau black joke is a really cool name for a ship the black joke had blood all over its decks the entire crew disappeared being towed in by the Harriet the British soon learned that the night before unidentified Chinese boarded the black joke as it passed lantao Island massacring the entire crew reported by a sole survivor of the incident actually this guy was holding on

27:29 to one of the Rudders on the back of the ship and he just wasn't seen by the Chinese apparently and he survived the entire trip being dragged in the water it's pretty fascinating when I read that little remark side note a day later the gunboat vage arrived from India with news that another warship the highin would be arriving shortly Elliot ordered everyone to Sail Out from maau to colun Peninsula above Hong Kong Lynn sailed out to find the British all stuck on their boats in colun and made a naval standoff Elliott realized the Chinese were again stopping food and water shipments to his people and demanded that food and water be given to them by 2: p.m. or else he would attack the Chinese warships when 2: p.m came without response Captain Henry Smith of the

28:16 bage fired on the nearest Chinese ship this is technically known as the first shot of the Opium War the Chinese named it the Battle of Kon the British fired grape shot and round shot at the Chinese killing and wounding a few the outdated cannons on the Chinese warships were aimed too high and missed all the British warships when they fired please take note of this as it's going to be a very large issue for the next two episodes these cannons in question the British ships soon ran out of cartridges and fled the scene with the Chinese in Pursuit but eventually they gave up the Chinese reported to ly a great Naval victory over the British Interlopers including the sinking of

29:02 enemy ships and inflicting 50 casualties but in reality the British ships were not sunk there was no casualties on the British side and uh the British honestly they only reported maybe one drowned sailor so it uh they were lying Lynn made a surprising compromise by asking Elliott to deliver him the drowned sailor's corpse that I just mentioned to be served up as the murderer of wayi the supposed reason for all the conflict in question Elliott refused because handing over even a corpse would be surrendering British judicial sovereignty luckily for Elliott the highin arrived and a letter from the foreign secretary Palmerston on October 20th 1839 arrived the letter informed

29:50 him that the next summer 16 British ships with four troops would arrive to rescue them from colon Hong Kong Harbor while Elliot went wanted to wait for reinforcements to arrive he had another problem British Merchant captains had been striking a deal with Lynn promising to not trade opium under the penalty of death a contract that belittled British soty was made between them Elliott made the decision to act out before more Captain signed these contracts which really went over his head to be honest and he ordered a blockade on the Pearl River when the British ships got to chume on the Pearl River they found a fleet of 15 Chinese War junks 14 fire ships all

30:35 commanded by an old and revered Admiral KH champe Elliot hesitated to attack but Captain Smith of the vage demanded they strike at the Chinese Quan anchored then his ships directly between the British warships and the merchant ships forcing Elliot to give in to Smith's demands British ships went broadside and fired on the Chinese the Chinese warships stationary guns could not aim effectively and fired over the MS of the British warships yet again one lucky volley hit the Chinese warships magazine exploding it this caused a massive panic and the vage scored more hits at closer range taking out another three Chinese warships the CH the entire Chinese Fleet fled leaving Khan's Flagship alone in which he made a suicidal Last Stand firing upon the British Elliot

31:25 and the British were so impressed by by old Khan they honestly just allowed him to flee unharmed this Fleet battle was known as the sea Battle of chumai where over 26 Chinese warships the largest Fleet that they could muster was bested by only two British warships and not a single British casualty occurred where upon around 15 Chinese had died news of the sea Battle reached British government who remained in denial on the reasons for the friction that being the elicit opium trade on June the 4th the Bombay Chamber of Commerce now petitioned Queen Victoria demanding compensation for the confiscated opium and military action to prevent future seizures on April 24th 1840

32:12 the British cabinet met to deal with the China Problem goed by his secretary and state of War Thomas Bingington Mall prime minister Melbourne came up with an ingenious way to finance the war against China frankly we're going to make China pay for it honestly this is what he said so the British saw the event as a quick and easy Victory they would force the Chinese to pay reparations which would serve to pay off the Opium confiscated debt to the government so it was a win-win to save face in the public opinion however the British government stated that Millions would be spent in the defense of British subjects in China but not a single penny of compensation over opium not as a single vote would even speak of reimbursement they needed to keep very quiet about this on top

33:03 of all this some British warhawks floated the idea that after hostilities brought upon China to heal perhaps the country would become a British Jewel similar to the British Raj Palmerston sent orders to Elliot to prepare for official war in his letter Palmerston instructed the blockade of the Pearl River yangi river and the capture of chushan Island and to then negotiate with the Ching officials his second letter was for the emperor which demanded to be treated with respect due to the Royal Envoy by Ching authorities secure the right of British superintendent to administer Justice to British subjects in China compensation for destroyed British property to

33:48 have the most favorable trading status with the Chinese government the right for foreigners to safely inhabit and own property in China and ensure that if Contraband is seized in accordance with Chinese law no harm comes to the persons of British subjects carrying elicit Goods in China and the Canton system ask for the cities of Canton Amo Shanghai and yino and the province of Northern Formosa to be freely open to trade for all foreign powers and lastly secure islands along the Chinese Coast that can easily be defended and provisioned or exchanged capture islands for favorable trading terms so on June the 9th 1840 Palmerston promised military assistance to Eliot

34:35 arrived three Third Rate ships of the line ships Welsley Blenheim and Melville four armed Steamers Atlanta Enterprise Madagascar and queen and a small Armada of 27 Troop ships all bearing with the 26 cameronians the 18th Royal Irish and the 49th Bengal volunteers all came to save China from the Chinese quite frankly and of course the ships brought with them secretly 10,000 chests of opium don't forget opium is being traded the entire time this war is going on and never stopped Sir George Elliott the cousin of Charles Elliott to make this even more confusing joined the Armada to make this

35:20 more complicated and both Elliots boarded the Wesley sailing for Tran Island on July the 1st the amarda anchored in the harbor of jinghai on the chusan island 100 m southeast of Shanghai 12 Chinese warships followed the British Armada from a safe distance the British sent an Envoy demanding the surrender of chushan in 24 hours or to face the consequences 24 hours passed and the Chinese did not surrender at 2: p.m. on July the 5th the wellis Le fired a single canonade at a tower which served as a buffer for dinghai a mile in land the Chinese responded with a single shot then they began returning B for about 10 minutes as Lieutenant Colonel George Burell commander of

36:09 the 18th Brigade led a landing party in small ships inexplicably the Chinese ceased fire as the assault team approached ashore the British made good use of the ceasefire by blowing up four Chinese warships the British guns demolished the fort's towers and seaw walls as men landed ashore where there was no one to fight the Chinese Defenders had fled almost as soon as the gunfire began and the Brigadier Jiang had his legs blown off by a bombardment and was fleeing on a litter a Detachment of Indian soldiers set up an artillery position on a hill overlooking dinghai and began to Shell the defenseless inhabitants the British without losing one man planted the flag by the JS house after 45 minutes between landing and taking the hill the Chinese dead the numbered

36:56 around 13 news came to piking where terrified mandarins lied to the emperor about the crisis and making it seem like the British were weak and ineffective take note of this as the emperor will be fed propaganda by his own people during the entire War as they were too afraid to admit how serious the situation had become kishan a high ranking Manu official replaced Lynn after he was discharged for his failure to solve the opioid crisis Elliot met with with kishan in beay on the Pearl River to negotiate as the capture of chushan certainly threatened the emperor kishan demanded a promise that the British would cease exporting opium Elliot said he didn't have the power to Grant such a concession and argued that if the Chinese wanted the opium trade to end they

37:47 should simply stop using it this argument would be used consistently by British during the war it's quite cute Elliot then for forcefully demanded reparations for the 20,000 chests of opium that were confiscated to reimburse British for the war kushan called these demands absurd and talks began to lead nowhere Yan advised that should they me all meet in Canton instead obviously trying to get all the British far away from the capital and the emperor you know as soon as possible because he was under threat during all this Elliot felt the fleet was unprotected in beu and he sailed away giving the Chinese the impression the Invaders were not continuing the war on November the 25th 1840 a 660 ton steam ship named Nemesis arrived at maau remember This ship's name as it

38:40 becomes a nightmare and a legend during this war an Exemplar of the state of art technology Nemesis was the first steam powered vessel to round the treacherous Cape of Good Hope steam power was to make its worldwide Naval debut in the first opium War the Nemesis arrived during the next parlay between kishan and The Elliots on November the 29th 1840 in Canton this time Elliot demanded the opening of Amo H yingbo and Shanghai the surrender of an unspecified Island and the reimbursement for the confiscated opium alongside reparations for British war costs kishan agreed to pay 5 million over 12 years Elliot demanded 7 million in 6 years and the surrender of Amai

39:28 and kushan as permanent British possessions they eventually agreed on 6 million but kushan flat out refused the territorial demands by 1841 with no movement from either side a rumor came about that the emperor had decided on F further War Elliot began preparations for an attack on chumai and told kushan that the strike would happen on January the 7th as promised on January the 7th 1,500 Indians soldiers 100 British Marines aboard Nemesis Enterprise Madagascar cop hyen Lauren samarang Druid modest and Coline attacked chumbe they targeted the walls of tyal I probably

40:14 mispronounced that one sorry and 8,000 men within the forts returned fire but stopped only after a few minutes the Chinese cannons had been tied down and couldn't be aimed at the Invaders how many times am I going to mention Chinese cannons not being able to aim very many times probably in the next episode too anyways the Anglo Indian Force took advantage of the ceasefire and the Marines went over chumai Earth walls at 9:30 a.m. the elite Manu Warrior troops waved flags and banged on gongs in defiance beginning to open fire but volleys from the British Men of War soon knocked out their guns the Manus had believed prop propaganda at the time that stated the British killed all prisoners so they resisted brutally of which uh one English participant recalled quoting

41:07 a frightful scene of Slaughter ensued despite the efforts of British officers to restrain their men by 11:00 a.m. the Chinese flag was lowered and the Union Jack flew up in its place 600 Manus had died 100 were taken prisoner and the British had roughly 30 casualties none of which were fatal apparently of these 30 wounded men apparently it wasn't even caused by The Defenders but rather an accident an explosion from an overheated artillery piece I think it goes without saying that the British officers that are uh giving this piece of information are stretching the truth a little bit the Chinese Defenders fled the city as British ships shelled them the Nemesis set Ablaze

41:54 11 Chinese warships at anchor using congrave Rockets the Chinese artillery at the Fort and on the war junks did not return fire to escape the hell storm bombardment most Defenders fled or jumped in the water where British gunfire killed many who were trying to swim away those inside the forts were burned and disfigured with their adequated matchlock gunpowder exploding on them added to the British gunfire also the seizure of chumai was followed by a naval battle at an s's Bay which was a little more than a route the steamship Nemesis demonstrated that it was a Navy onto itself firing on 15 Chinese War junks alone one congrave rocket from Nemesis had the

42:40 blind luck of hitting a Chinese junk Powder Magazine blowing it to Pieces the remaining junks began to flee and Nemesis just followed them honestly if you read accounts about this ship Nemesis it's incredible this terrified them no one had ever seen a warship like this kusan met Elliot for another parlay at the lotus flower wall 26 mil south of Canton Elliott showed up with intimidating Entourage of 50 Royal Marines and 15 member fire and drum band members by January 20th 1841 they negotiated which would be known as the chumai convention the British agreed to buy Hong Kong for $6 million ambassadors would be exchanged all contact between the two Powers would be direct

43:27 and official no more it would be official that there would be no more tribute bearing Barbarian situations so the trade would resume the British also agreed to return the captured forts including chushan Island the Chinese were to pay $6 million in reparations for the war costs thus completely neutralizing the purchase of Hong Kong if you think about it making it free uh kushan presumed that the emperor and his court would agree to this Indemnity because they plan to EXT stort the sum of money from the Hong Merchants which they did so the Chinese had a little little sneaky deal in all this as well Palmerston was outraged when he found out that Elliot did not demand reimbursement for 20,000 opium chests and the emperor was very outraged by cusan for selling Hong Kong when

44:18 Elliott received news from Palmerston it read that the British government would not ratify the agreement on the same day the emperor ordered cushan to stop negotiations with the barbarians because military reinforcements were being sent to Canton from the interior of China 70-year-old General yangfang was sent an unlikely choice for General isimo to be the last hope for China to wrestle sovereignty from the encroaching British fangy Yang was reportedly so deaf at this point in his career he gave orders to his men in writing only the emperor also enlisted his cousin yishan to be the new diplomat to Canton on February the 1st 1841 despite the chumai convention not being agreed upon Elliot unilaterally proclaimed Hong Kong British territory why not husan met Elliott

45:09 again at the second bar an island 20 M southeast of Canton refusing to put the Imperial seal on the convention of chumai none of this mattered of course kushan had already been fired by the emperor and he was simply too embarrassed to let the British know on February the 6 1841 in order to secure the Canton Riverway the Melville Queen wellis Lee Druid modest began to Shell forts on wangong and unyong I'm so sorry I probably wrecked that name Islands the stationary guns of the forts yet again shot over the British ships aimlessly as they sadly always do in this within 15 minutes the Chinese stopped firing as Anglo Indian soldiers landed on Wang Tong the unfortunate Chinese

45:58 crammed into trenches begged for mercy it is reported that the Indian soldiers began executing prisoners while British officers tried to stop them but I would take that with a grain of salt it again smells like British propaganda when the forces took the empty forts it was found out that the Defenders had begun retreating as soon as the landing had even begun within 2 hours the forts of anunu were also taken with minimal effort Elliot almost died during all of this when a cannonball was shot at him while he was reclined in his hammock on deck of his ship how truly British of him over a thousand Chinese were taken prisoner old Admiral Khan was found dead with a bayet in

46:45 his chest unfortunately the British gave the old Warrior a cannon salute from Blenheim and allowed his family to retrieve his body and sail off with it with all the for Fallen the mouth of the Canton River and the gateway to Canton now belonged to the British the British continued to Canton removing barrier chains and demolishing forts as the Armada approached Canton City its 10,000 residents began to flee the harbor was too shallow for Nemesis so Elliot took her unaccompanied up the Canton River destroying more Forts and nine Chinese warships because the Nemesis was certainly just a a nightmare to do this solo the Chinese had never seen a steamship before and the Nemesis was

47:32 literally you know it could just handle them so the emperor had kishan arrested and put into chains his entire fortune and land taken from him and he was sentenced to hard labor in China's northern border with Russia poor kishan on March 13th 1841 the British had seized Canton destroying all Chinese ships in Harbor and all the defensive structures within the city a representative haai the most influential Chinese Merchant who dealt with the British begged Elliot for a truce on behalf of General Fang however however this would be it would just turn out to be a faint while the truce occurred the opium trade resumed now Under full British protection Elliot turned a blind eye to the illicit trade of course General Fang urged the emperor to allow the opium trade to continue

48:20 because he reasoned if the British occupied themselves with making money perhaps they would have little time time for war he was probably right anyways the emperor dismissed this saying if trade were the solution to the problem why would it be necessary to transfer and dispatch generals and troops Fair Point by the emperor by the end of March 1841 Elliot and his staff decided to attack muo about 400 miles Northeast of Canton with the date set for the second week of May Chinese troops began to amass around Canton and Fang uses as a bargaining chip Elliot headed the heed the warning but instead of suing for peace he canceled the attack of on onway and concentrated on the armed

49:06 camp at Canton May 25th 1841 Nemesis towed 70 sailing ships full of 2,000 troops to chingu 2 mies Northwest of Canton it was the ideal location to march on the massed Chinese forces at Canton before they could attack on May the 27th however a mandarin waving a white flag arrived at a nearby Fort while waiting for the Chinese Commander to negotiate on May 29th General Fang suddenly broke the troops and attacked Canton with the battlecry exterminate the rebels Chinese troops began looting and Carri down the factories in Canton but the British safely sailed up the Pearl River bombarding the walls of Canton while they did so the occupiers of Canton numbered 20,000

49:52 and began to fortify the city another ceasefire fire was agreed to this time the Chinese promised to pay 6 million within 7 days if the British did not attack Andor sack Canton Yan came to Canton to oversee the payment of $6 million having deemed Canton Factory safe for its re residents Elliot turned away from Canton to sale for Hong Kong now unfortunately on April the 30th 1841 Elliot was dismissed by Palmerston while he was in Hong Kong preparing for an attack on Amoy still Elliot had enraged Parliament too many times and was giving meager settlements with the Chinese didn't look good on them 6 million was a fraction of the cost of the 20,000 chests of opium Elliot's replacement

50:41 was to be Sir Henry pottinger a previous Diplomat for the East India Company as Sir William Parker became Commander in Chief and Major General go would command land forces on August August 21st 1841 the new Armada of 32 ships and 27,000 Men set on route for Amoy Amoy was fortified with 200 guns to defend the harbor 42 guns and 10,000 troops to defend the Citadel alone on nearby kongu Island which protected the approach to Amo was was over 76 guns modest blonde and Druid blasted the walls of kongu from over 400 yd away while kingo's guns could do absolutely nothing after 96 Minutes

51:32 of fire on Amo the Chinese guns fell silent and the British troops landed without opposition 26 Chinese warships were all put out Commission in Harbor sir Hugo personally led a bayonet charge circling around the fortress on Amoy as a Manu Defenders shot back with matchlock rifles the Manus were utterly destroyed and their Commander committed suicide by Drowning himself when the Invaders searched for loot there was none to be had as the Defenders had run off with all of it after weeks of delay due to storms the Armada left a Garrison to defend Amoy and then set off yet again for chushan by September 25th 1841 the Armada attacked the fort of dinghai on the island of chushan taking it while only receiving a single casualty the Manu Commander General G slit his own

52:25 throat when he realized the battle was lost the Chinese had over 1,500 casualties yeah some of these Chinese commanders they they got it rough during this time in September the British ship nuda was transporting British and Indian troops and it went around Taiwan in March the brigan transporting opium was also going around Taiwan Chinese soldiers were able to seize them they stripped them naked and put them all in chance chains the Chinese would propagandize this as a major Naval Victory to the emperor receiving praise and rewards even over 197 prisoners were then executed which would add much fuel to the British cause after a week in dinghai the British

53:13 left a Garrison and proceeded now to jinhai 10 miles east of the Mainland on October the 10th they attacked 4,000 Chinese troops defending the city and its Citadel by flanking the enemy go who commanded the British land forces at 1500 managed to take the fort in less than 24 hours after a vigorous pounding by the ships wellis Le and Blenheim by early afternoon ganh High belonged to the British who suffered three fatalities while several hundred Chinese died defending the city on October 13th the British attacked yingbo 10 m southeast of jinghai and the city opened its gates to the in to the Invaders with without a fight as the Royal Irish band played St Patrick day in the

54:00 morning the British plundered around $160,000 worth of Municipal funds and the British would then settle there for the winter now I needs to be noted all these easy victories the British had they were Puck due to illness or all the garrisons required uh to be left behind for the conquered territories go found of his 2500 troops they were reduced now to just 700 men capable of fighting the emperor at last took action and he sent his other cousin ning Khao 50 miles Northwest of yinbo to recruit more Chinese to OU the Invaders ning was a veteran of Wars against Muslim rebels in ziang Province unlike career soldiers jiing was a noble scholar and most of the men under him were

54:53 Scholars they were sometimes is referred to as intellectual Weekend Warriors who would be known to overcome fears by smoking opium needless to say they didn't have the greatest military skill and everyone kind of knew it at the time on March the 10th 1842 Ying's ill-trained force of 5,000 intellectuals attacked in yingbo where they were met the gates by impaled head with a sign reading this is the head of the Manu official who came here to obtain military information enraged by this the attackers scaled the walls and ran to the center of the city where 150 of ga's men repelled the force which appeared to be visibly impaired by opium including the general Jiang

55:42 xiong Jiang reportedly collapsed in narcotic days with an opium pipe still in his mouth as his men fled abandoning him this must have been quite the scene uh the British won this battle using howitzers which tore the enemy into pieces piling shattered corpses at a height of apparently 15 ft wow tragically a volunteer force of 150 Aboriginal Chinese from golden river were part of this attack instead of using their match locks they took up their traditional Spears and when attacking were annihilated by musket fire every single man died all 150 of them tragically the regular Chinese forces suffered 500 casualties in the attack of Ningbo and of course the British did not lose

56:30 a man all these reports are coming from British officers so like I keep saying in this grain of salt is needed uh for failing to retake Ningbo the emperor sentenced yijin to death but in a usual fashion this turned into a more lenient sentence and instead he was appointed to a position in turkistan which apparently was horrible this was seen as a huge insult to him don't no know what's wrong with turkistan at the time I guess it was rough the next big battle would be on May the 18th 1842 when the British landed at champu at Town 75 mil Northwest of chushan the British only found 300 Manu who had barricaded themselves in a Josh house refusing to surrender as a result the British blew up the stone wall and set fire to the house when the British finally got into

57:19 the house to their absolute horror they found all the manew had poisoned themselves and their wives and their children within this was because there was a Manu tradition to not be taken alive The Defenders valent delayed the fall of the city for a few hours the next attack would occur on June 16 at Wang at the mouth of the yangi river which controlled uh the river flow all the way to Nan King this would be known as the Battle of Wun where the British bombarded multiple forts on the river and captured Wong and ban hundreds of of Chinese were killed and wound and wounded as the British lost two men so at least this time the British reported two two men CU I guess it would have been too much to say that no one died again on June the 19th Shanghai was taken without

58:08 a shot the residents of Shanghai tried to bribe the British with $300,000 to not loot the city but the British did so regardless despite shanghai's strategic and Commercial importance the British stayed there for only a week before moving on to their real Target Nang King but before the British could attack Nang King the Walt city of jinang 50 miles west of nanging had to be taken excuse me I keep saying Nan King Nan Jing I think I'll I'll say Nan Jing from here on odd point of naming things on July the 21st 1842 three British brigades landed outside the city walls Mano and Mongolian bannermen fired down from the walls using 18th century guns called

58:54 jingal which were so heavy and unwieldly they had to be fired from tripods grenadiers smashed through the city's main gate baying the manw 2,800 Defenders barricaded themselves in the city many taking their own lives by strangulation poison or throat cutting the man the Manu Commander General elen had everyone gather court papers p them up high and lit them on fire estimates were that over 1,000 Chinese were killed or wounded while the British suffer roughly about 30 casualties who they claimed all died from dehydration and not the Chinese Defenders how how very cute of the British officers to State this the emperor now panicked as it seemed the British would get all the way to

59:40 Ping he appointed yibu the vice Roy of naning and yiang as plop poenar Plano potenti Aries excuse me that was a difficult word it was an English one for once to deal with the Invaders they were under orders from the emperor to do anything promise everything but halt the British Advance before it reached the capital I think I'm going to have something put up to Define when I said the word plenipotentiaries it's very oldfashioned word I imagine I have never heard that one before I forgot in my research I even wrote this one down my bad British land forces approached the walls of n with 74 Gun corn Wallace and Blondie before they could fire yibu showed up

1:00:31 the White Flag immediately I mean thank God he did negotiations went on for quite a few days yibu attempted an arrogant stance at the beginning but Pinger was quite blunt and threatening going on to say after ning Falls the capital was next yabu was attempting the classic Chinese passive aggressive Ploy of using procrastination instead of negotiation conceding nothing and hoping to worry the enemy rather than defeat them outright the British had become so accustomed to this Ploy by this point they informed him that naning would be attacked on August the 13th promptly the next day yubu swallowed his pride and made a personal appearance upon the queen promising to begin serious negotiations now four days of back and forth negotiations created a treaty but

1:01:21 despite his claim of PL potenti yibu asked to send a copy to the emperor for approval which the British accepted while waiting for word from ping Pinger questioned yobu about the opium trade which was the reason for the onset of the war and the Chinese were actually very unwilling to talk about it promising to make the minutes secret however yibu suggested then the British stopped the production of the crop in India to which pottinger countered that if the British stopped some other Nation would just pick up the trade in their stad pottinger threw in the face yibu that if your people are virtuous they will desist the evil practice and if your officers

1:02:08 are Incorruptible and obey their orders no opium can enter your country the Chinese realized the Opium issue was a deal breaker and the Empire desperately needed a deal so they dropped the matter completely the Treaty of Jing consisted of 6 million towards the confiscated opium by Lin zexu $3 million in compensation for the debts that Hong Kong Merchants owed the British merchants and a further $12 million in war reparations for the total sum of $21 million to be paid over in 3 years the Ching government was to release all British prisoners of War and the British were to withdraw all troops from ning the British were to remain in gulang and xia Bashan until the

1:02:59 Ching government paid reparations in full the treaty also handed over Hong Kong to Britain and the right of permanent residents in the ports of Canton Amoy Fus yingbo and Shanghai the treaty made no mention of the cause of all this hardship I.E the opium trade it ended the Old Canton system but it did not resolve the status of op traffic which was still in favor of the British remember for his service in settling the Chinese matter the leader of the early Victorian Vikings as the times call them Sir Henry pottinger was rewarded with the post of governor of madas Charles Elliot did Penance for his perceived failure being appointed to the

1:03:47 backwaters of Bermuda Trinidad and St Helena which is symbolically chosen as uh the place where Napoleon was also exiled it's kind of cool Jardine and M math both entered Parliament after the Chinese Affair pushing for more expansionism because let's not forget that actual Merchants were responsible for most of this and this is all about money haa the main Chinese Merchant who dealt with shardana melson died of diarrhea a year after the treaty of Nan King Nan Jin excuse me governor general Lyn's effuge was placed at a museum under his statue was plaque claiming he had destroyed $2.5 Million worth of British property without mentioning that the property was opium and

1:04:33 Contraband the emperor forgave Lynn in 1845 and assigned him a new Post in Canton where he died shortly in 1850 kiing remained in favor while yubu was sent in Exile Bound in chains by the emperor that's the end of the first Opium War and tragic i al the Treaty of naning would only be a truce and not an end to hostilities among the terms and conditions of the treaty no mention was ever made of the Opium that which was you know that was the entire problem in the first place officially the drug remained legal to use and import unofficially it continued to thrive as an elicit business providing the conditions for a second Opium War similar to the Treaty of versailes the Treaty of

1:05:21 nanging caused more problems than it solved China was under humiliating conditions surrendering symbolic and practical forms of sovereignty to Britain this would all boil over 14 years until outright aggressions which would commence in 1856 so let's just summarize all this this has been a really long episode after all the first Opium War was started by private Merchants pushing the British Parliament over confiscated opium the British Parliament realized they could go to war and make China pay for it the British technological superiority won them the war alongside a pretty incompetent Chinese military Chinese officials lied to their Emperor about the status of the war prolonging it and making it even worse the entire war ended up with a very

1:06:10 harsh and humiliating treaty which would just be a precursor for yet again another Opium War in the future let's just Briefly summarize the situation the 1842 Treaty of nank King in many ways was similar to the Treaty of Versa that ended World War I and pave the Grievances that led to World War II the Treaty of nank King was humiliating for China and it was a symbolic and practical surrender of her sovereignty to Britain the treaty consisted of China paying $21 million to Britain over a 3-year period the release of all prisoners Hong Kong was now Britain's colony and Britain could now have permanent residence at the ports of Canton Amoy Pusha yingbo and Shanghai this also ended the Canton system which was a system in which Western countries could only trade within

1:06:59 Canton last there was absolutely no resolve for the status of the illicit opium trade thus greatly favoring Britain as it would continue to thrive now the Grand Vision of northern England after the first Opium War was that its mass-produced cotton textiles would penetrate the newly opened Chinese market this turned out to be a failure China simply preferred the their own Homespun silk cloth to British products on the other hand the British couldn't get enough of Chinese silk and tea of course between the two Opium Wars the Opium business became known in China as the poison trade another business that sprang up was the hiring of Chinese coolies to serve on boats and abroad this

1:07:44 business became known as the pig trade and the term Shang HDE actually came from the fact that most coolies were drugged up and kidnapped thrown onto overcrowded and filthy ships with such a high mortality rate that half died on their way to work it's quite awful now not everyone in Britain agreed with this disgusting trade many Faith networks fought alongside empathetic Parliament leaders to combat the pig trade they secured an enactment called the Chinese passenger Act of 1855 and while this did not Outlaw the trade of kolies it codified in improved conditions in which they were transported in 1850 the da Guang Emperor died and in his will he begged forgiveness for agreeing to sign the shameful treaty of Nan King his fourth son xfang succeeded him at the age of

1:08:34 19 xfang was an opium addict and spent almost all of his time with his concubine Harum two major disasters added to the Opium crisis which ignited the second Opium War High government office was originally only obtained by rigorous examinations which guaranteed the competence of the ruling class in China after the first Opium War these positions became available to just about anybody with $800 the rich mediocrities came to power as a result and the once industrialist and educated Chinese bureaucracy decayed rapidly on top of all this there was a major overflow in 1856 from the hongi river destroying thousands of Acres of rice patties and the capital began to starve leading to

1:09:20 rather drastic decisions as has happened countless times in Chinese history the decay of the Imperial Court combined with famine led to Rebellion this would be known as the taing rebellion of 1850 to 1864 and I'll actually be covering this event in the next episode in much greater detail an anti- Manu Revolt by native Chinese populations rose up and it was almost toppled by the Manu ran Dynasty the taing Rebellion began in the Southeastern province of Gangi the leader of the the move

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