Opium Wars

Opium Wars
Part of the century of humiliation
Naval battle in the First Opium War (left), Battle of Palikao (right)
Date First Opium War: 4 September 1839 – 29 August 1842 Second Opium War: 8 October 1856 – 24 October 1860 Location China Result First Opium War: British victory, Treaty of Nanking Second Opium War: Anglo-French victory Treaty of Tientsin Convention of Peking Territorial changes First Opium War: Hong Kong ceded to Britain Second Opium War: Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island ceded to British Hong Kong Outer Manchuria ceded to Russia
Belligerents
First Opium War: United Kingdom East India Company Second Opium War:  British Empire  Second French Empire	Qing China

The Opium Wars (simplified Chinese: 鸦片战争; traditional Chinese: 鴉片戰爭; pinyin: Yāpiàn zhànzhēng) were two conflicts waged between China and Western powers during the mid-19th century.

The First Opium War was fought from 1839 to 1842 between China and Britain. It was triggered by the Chinese government's campaign to enforce its prohibition of opium, which included destroying opium stocks owned by British merchants and the British East India Company. The British government responded by sending a naval expedition to force the Chinese government to pay reparations and allow the opium trade.^[1] The Second Opium War was waged by Britain and France against China from 1856 to 1860, and consequently resulted in China being forced to legalise opium.^[2]

In each war, the superior military advantages enjoyed by European forces led to several easy victories over the Chinese military, with the consequence that China was compelled to sign the unequal treaties to grant favourable tariffs, trade concessions, reparations and territory to Western powers. The two conflicts, along with the various treaties imposed during the century of humiliation, weakened the Chinese government's authority and forced China to open specified treaty ports (including Shanghai) to Western merchants.^[3][4] In addition, China ceded sovereignty over Hong Kong to the British Empire, which maintained control over the region until 1997. During this period, the Chinese economy also contracted slightly as a result of the wars, though the Taiping Rebellion and Dungan Revolt had a much larger economic effect.^[5]