Do you really know about the Opium Wars? It's actually far more brutal than you think.
The first battle in China's modern history during the First Opium War, when the backward Qing Dynasty 'closed the country' made the Qing Dynasty even more backward, and later british merchants discovered the status quo of the Qing Dynasty, so they tried to twist the Qing Dynasty, open the Sino-British trade market, and import a large amount of opium into the Qing Dynasty to obtain huge profits.
The effects of the First Opium War
The Opium War of 1840-1842 made feudal China the starting point of semi-colonial China, when britain just began to import a large amount of opium into the Qing Dynasty, and then the huge profits, Sino-British business became larger and larger, and the import of opium gradually increased every year, from more than 4,000 boxes to more than 40,000 boxes, which led to a large amount of real money and silver in the Qing Dynasty, the people's labor force and army combat effectiveness declined sharply, the Qing Dynasty was in danger, the Qing government learned of the status quo and ordered the resolute elimination of opium, Restore national strength, strict opium entrance. This is the story of Lin Zexu.
The cause of the First Opium War
Soon in March 1839, the Qing Dynasty minister sent Lin Zexu to Guangzhou to remove opium, Lin Zexu quickly stepped up his whip, first to inform foreign merchants to hand over all the opium within three days, and waited to be disposed of, and finally Lin Zexu captured a total of more than 2.37 million kilograms of opium, and then destroyed it in front of this person on Humen Beach, which made the people of the whole country remember it and made great contributions to The Chinese descendants.
In the face of such obstruction from the Qing government, the British could not sit still, especially when the opium interest groups suffered heavy losses, and then the British continued to clamor, so they set off an Opium War.
The course of the First Opium War
In June 1840, this was the first time in modern history to engage with foreign troops, when the British commander-in-chief led more than 40 warships, led 4000 warriors, to the South China Sea, and then the British warships locked the Pearl River estuary, for which the first Sino-British Opium War officially broke out, the British invasion of the Qing Dynasty also gradually officially began, in early July, the British army was relatively cashy, quickly invaded Dinghai, Zhejiang, in early August, arrived in Tianjin to prepare to attack the capital, directly to the gate of the Qing Government. At that time, the emperor was afraid, and in order not to let the British army invade, he hastily removed Lin Zexu from his post and appointed Qi Shan as the minister of Chincha. At the end of the year, Qi Shan negotiated with the British in Guangzhou.
Unfair treatment after the end of the First Opium War
In mid-January, Qi Shan was forced to promise to allow the British to cede Hong Kong, pay 6 million yuan in compensation for cigarette prices, and open Guangzhou. Thus, at that time, Hong Kong was ceded to the British, and the Qing Dynasty lost a piece of land. Qi Shan agreed to the conditions of the British army, violated the spirit of the instructions given to him by the imperial court, and was eventually severely punished. However, on the 26th, the British army occupied Hong Kong without the consent of the Qing government. When the Qing government learned of the loss of Shajiao and Dajiao Forts, it immediately declared war on the British. In late February, the British army stormed the Humen Fort, and Guan Tianpei, the admiral and patriotic general of the Marine Division, was unfortunately sacrificed and hundreds of soldiers were heroically sacrificed. In May, the British army quickly approached the outside of Guangzhou, and the Qing army was forced to enter and leave the city. In late May, the newly appointed Jing rebel general wanted to make peace with the British army, and at the same time formed an alliance with the British, the "Treaty of Guangzhou", and the Qing Dynasty wanted the British to hand over 6 million yuan for the redemption fee. This eased the war at the time.
The British government was not satisfied with the benefits that Yilu had obtained from the Qing Dynasty, and made Pu Dingcha a minister plenipotentiary, exaggerating the increase in troops and expanding the war against the Qing Dynasty. In late August 1841, Pu Dingcha led his troops to invade the north of Hong Kong and captured Xiamen on the 26th. In September, the British army captured Taiwan. In October, it captured Dinghai, Zhenhai, and Ningbo. In May 1842, the British army continued to invade, attacking northward, and in June captured Wusong Fort at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and Baoshan and Shanghai fell one after another. Then, the British army went up the river and reached Jiangning on August 5. The Qing Dynasty was forced to be helpless, ordered General Shengjing to go to Nanjing, and on the 29th, he signed the first unequal treaty with General Pu Dingcha on the enemy's warship, the Treaty of Nanjing, and the First Opium War ended here.
The result after the end of the war
After the end of the war, the peoples of the coastal areas began a war against aggression, which was also the time when the protests of the masses of the people were at their most intense. As a result of this war, our Qing Dynasty let British capitalism get Hong Kong, and also compensated more than 20 million yuan and the opening of various commercial ports (Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, Shanghai) seriously undermined the independence of the Qing Dynasty, making the Qing Dynasty completely change from a feudal society to a semi-colonial Qing Dynasty, and since the Treaty of Nanjing, the United States, France and other countries will also take the opportunity to enter, making the status quo of the Qing Dynasty more dangerous.