The Second Opium War

Opium trade has high profit margins that can help a country to develop and also to reconstruct them irrespective of it being illegal1. It is because of this opium trade which led to the outbreak of the opium wars both first and second opium wars. Opium was one of the major sources of currency for many people and it was one of the cash crops that were cultivated by people during their hard times thus making it a major crop for trade as it was also very profitable2. The trade of opium fuelled corruption in the government and among the government officials of Chinese and this is something that broke the hearts of the European people and they thus raised their demands that they wanted to carry out an open trade in the Chinese major cities3.

The Chinese were not pleased by these demands and thus there emerged a fight between china and the European or the western powers4. The Nanking treaty favored the Britaion status and thus named an unequal treaty6. In order to end the First Opium war, Qiying was one of the commissioners together with Henry Pottinger who had agreed to sign the Nanking treaty which later led to the Second Opium war. The purpose of the Bogue treaty signed in October 8, 1843 was made to regulate trade between Britain and China which happened in Guangzhou. Bogue treaty gave the regulations in details and it granted the Western powers extraordinary privileges and this meant that Britain was in position to enjoy all the privileges granted to any power.

This treaty facilitated foreign trade thus opening China to foreigners and this divided Europeans with the citizens of China and this division later led to the second Opium war. This led to hostilities in China with the effort to rebel against the Taiping’s version of Christianity and thus led to Second war on Opium. The other reason for Second Opium war was the Beijing convention which was a treaty signed where parties of the state agreed to have certain actions of terrorists against civil aviation criminalized. Criminalization was to happen by the use of a civil aircraft and use of dangerous materials. The signing of this treaty later spearheaded the Second Opium war. The background of the Second Opium war was based on the political outcomes that led to the signing of various treaties to end the First Opium war but this later became unequal treaties and hence the cause of the Second Opium war.

This war, opium war together with the unequal treaties transformed China into an indirect European’s empire. This transformation occurred when China agreed to be ruled by the British when they were forced to sign the treaty as per the previous research carried out. This second opium war occurred after the first opium war because of the treaty’s failure to satisfy the goals of the British people on the improvement of trade and relations of the diplomacy leading to the second opium war (1856-1860). In the year 1850s, there was a rapid growth of the imperialism of western powers with the goals of expanding their markets in the overseas and also expanding their new ports of call. The Huangpu’s treaty of French and the Wangxia’s treaty of the Americans contained clauses that were to allow the treaties to renegotiate after 12 years of effect.

Finally, the diplomats of Britain were allowed to establish their legislations of having to live in the city of Beijing. The agreement of the treaty also set a low tariff for goods which were from imports and this gave an advantage to the foreign traders because the treaty gave foreigners a stress free life while carrying out trade, something which made them make much profit out of trade. The United States of America and the merchants from Britain got frustrated by the Chinese irregularities in custom services of imperial maritime so as to regulate trade to benefit the merchants from other countries and to provide a source of revenue which was steady to the government of china. Hence, , the European powers had started to dominate the operations in the country of China thus forcing China to comply with the European powers.

The Chinese people were forced by Britain or the European powers to accept the terms of the treaties and they therefore showed resistance to the principle clauses like foreign ambassadors having to live in the city of Beijing. China had to sign those unequal treaties after being defeated by the European powers especially England in the war of opium during the second time. The second opium war was also known as the Arrow war and was fought by European powers with the help of France against China. The war took place in China’s grounds and the foreign powers which were the European powers that are England, Britain, and France were seen to emerge as victorious gaining commercial privileges and concessions of territory in China simply because they emerged as winners in the second war over opium drug.

The conflict between European powers and China then marked the unequal treaties era. In the years of 1850s, the government of Qing tried to quell the rebellion of Taiping, the British were at the same time seeking to have expansion of their rights of trade in China and this renewed hostilities between the European powers with the strength of France all against China. They knew this through the local missionaries whom they used to bribe so as to acquire information about the army of Qing but the Qing did not know even where the England’s heck was. There was no any given time the Qing would know the whereabouts of their opponents who were the European powers particularly England with extra force from French, there were many chances they could have had the table flipped, with easy and this way included making sure that the England forces were not engaged in the sea and that the Chinese or the Qing lured them away to inland so as to cut their supply of the weapons thus forcing them to fight in uncomfortable ways which they were not prepared for17.

With these tricks, the Qing would have won the second opium war however; it did not apply those tricks making Europeans powers win the second opium war. The second opium war had many impacts on the modern china as it led the ultimate collapsing of the dynasty of Qing of during those centuries of war. This war convinced china that it led to the ultimate collapsing of the dynasty of Qing during those centuries of the war. The dynasty of Qing was founded by the clans of Manchurian and it led to expansion of the border of china to take their furthest reach so as to conquer Tibet, Empire of Taiwan and Uighur, Qing went against the wish of European powers to have the ambassadors of European occupy the city of Beijing.

The Qing therefore refused to accept those ambassadors from the Britain people because they were not willing to declare the Dynasty of Qing to be supreme on their own states head19. The government of Qing also denied the trade ships from foreigners to enter into the territory of Chinese. However, the foreigners were later allowed to carry out trading activist in the 13 factories of the Guangzhou’s city the payment of silver were exclusive British found it better to give the company of East India to engage in monopolistic type of trade with china. Afterwards, the ships which were based in the colony of India started exchange silver for porcelain and also tea but for the British people their silver supply was limited.

In the year 1839, Lin Zexu was the imperial commissioner newly appointed was seen to institute laws that led to the ban of opium drug in the china. Lin Zexu arrested 1700 dealers seizing the various crates of Opium drug which were already in the harbor of the Chinese and also on ships found in the sea. Lin Zexu had to destroy the crates of Opium drug and also the ships at the sea used by the dealers approximately; this Opium destroyed by Lin Zexu was 2. 6 M pounds which were thrown into to ocean21. This destruction also led to pollution of water at the sea and even wrote a letter of apology to the gods found at the sea because of pollution caused at the sea.

The Hyacinth of HMS also joined. Among the ships of the Chinese one of them was seen to explode and three of them sunk22. Their fire of return wounded one sailor of the British. After a period of 7 months, 44 ships that belonged to the British applied a lot of force so as to invade canton. British people also had ships of steam, cannons which were heavy rockets which were Congreve and their equipment had rifles with the capability of long range of fire. These deaths also weakened the soldiers of Chinese leading to their defeat and England’s winning. England could also pay locals from the missionaries to monitor the tricks of Chinese soldiers so that the England army could determine in advance on how to handle those tricks hence the England army was always prepared for the war and hence the reason for their winning.

The outcome of the second opium war Both first and second opium wars had lasting social, economic and political effects that can be witnessed even up to today. Both Nanking and Tientsin led to the opening of many ports in china and this opened china to foreign trade. This many ports opening subsequently increased foreign trade and thus allowing the industries of tea and silk in china to flourish because of foreign trade competition. The second opium war had a cost and reparations that foreign countries brought to the Chinese farmers. The government of Manchu could no longer offer protection for its people together with food provision to these people. The fact that china had signed the Nanking treaty before it could exhaust all its possible options of resisting led to lack of accreditation of the then government.

All these issues of government failure to reconsider resistance on the signing of the Nanking treaty and rising economic issues of china which made people to get upset by the then government of china24. The foreigners who had come to china were all exempted by the treaty and also the citizens of Chinese who were employed by the citizens of Britain were also exempted from the treaties. Enterprises which were private started to form without the interference of the government and this led to creation of many countries that increased the level of competition in the markets of china and this regained the economy of china which had been lost in the events of war26. Conclusion The second opium war began when the European powers wanted to find out whether china would accept them in their city to carry out trading activities.

The resistance of china is what facilitated the opium war to occur. It is true that the European powers were much prepared to attack china and the joining of forces from France strengthened their efforts to further attack and beat china. The England as part of the European powers had better tricks of war as they had better weapons and could also bribe some of the locals of Chinese so as to better understand the tricks of their opponents and this helped them much to emerge victors.  The Qing Empire and the Opium War. Cambridge University Press, 2016. Zhong, Hui Sarah. "The Return of Chinese Cultural Treasures Taken From the Second Opium War (1856-1860). " International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research 71 (2014): 28. "The Opium Wars.