In 1644 AD, the Manchu Qing Eight Banner Iron rode into the main Shanhaiguan, began more than 200 years of Qing Dynasty rule, and later through the Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng three dynasties, the Qing Dynasty's national strength reached its peak, when China was the strongest country in the world, but unfortunately in the middle and late Qianlong, Western countries gradually rose, the Industrial Revolution made Britain become the hegemon of the sea, they expanded colonies everywhere, occupied India, Burma, in order to expand the eastern route, the British government decided to contact the Qing Dynasty, but also sent a powerful mission.
In britain's view, the Qing Dynasty is the largest country in the East, if you can join hands with the Qing Dynasty, you can monopolize all the navigation routes between the East and the West, on September 26, 1792, the British mission thought that the Qianlong Emperor wished the birthday as a mission to the Qing Dynasty, the size of this mission is also very large, there are 80 people in the entourage, including astronomers, doctors, artists and 95 soldiers, as well as tribute worth 13,000 pounds, which are the achievements of the British Industrial Revolution, including modern warships and military supplies, as can be seen, Britain attaches great importance to this mission.
In August 1793, the British delegation arrived in Beijing and handed over the national letter to Hezhen, under the arrangement of Hezhen, on September 14, the Qianlong Emperor met them, and the British representative Macartney made 6 demands to the Qianlong Emperor, first, to allow the British to operate legally in Zhuhai, Ningbo, and Tianjin, second, to allow British merchants to set up a trading point in Beijing, third, hoping that the Qing Dynasty would allocate small islands near Zhushan to the British, fourth, British merchants could free trade in Guangzhou, fifth, to give convenience in taxation, and sixth Once the trade is concluded, no additional fees are allowed.
In order to show britain's sincerity, britain also presented to the Qing Dynasty breech guns, 110 warship models, as well as many astronomical instruments and clocks, telescopes, globes, etc. The Qianlong Emperor saw these rare things but said: The so-called strange things, only to see the ordinary, that is to say, the things you offer are not so rare, very ordinary, in the Yuanmingyuan, these things can be seen everywhere, so Qianlong did not pay attention to the development of British science and technology at that time.
Later, when the two sides were negotiating the conditions, Qianlong asked the British envoy to bow down on his birthday ceremony, but unfortunately the British envoy was unwilling and said that he could only kneel on one knee, and the Qianlong Emperor was very unhappy, and also refused the conditions proposed by the British.