The Second Opium War was a war of aggression jointly launched by Britain, France, the United States, and Russia in collusion with each other, with the aim of further opening China's door and expanding its aggressive interests in China.
In 1856, the Treaty of Nanking and the Treaty of Wangxia had expired for twelve years, and the United States and Britain, with the support of Russia and France, repeatedly proposed comprehensive amendments to the Qing government, demanding that all of China be opened to trade, the opium trade be legalized, import and export goods exempted from sub-tariffs, and foreign ministers stationed in Beijing, which were strongly rejected by the Qing government. So Britain and France launched a new round of war of aggression against China with the support of the United States and Russia.
The Second Opium War lasted for four years, forcing the Qing government to sign the Treaty of Tianjin, the Treaty of Beijing, the Sino-Russian Treaty of Yaohun and other peace treaties, further deepening the semi-colonization of Chinese society, during which China lost more than 1.5 million square kilometers of territory in the northeast and northwest, and the royal gardens on the outskirts of Beijing, such as the Yuanmingyuan, QingyiYuan, Jingmingyuan, Jingyiyuan, and Changchunyuan, were looted and burned.
It can be said that the Second Opium War brought unprecedented disasters to China and 40,000,Chinese people, but the resistance struggle of the Chinese people has never stopped, although the disparity in strength is extremely large, and in the end it ends in bloody sacrifice, but it also shows the heroism of the Chinese people to fight their enemies to the end.