168-419: [REDACTED] United Kingdom [REDACTED] France [REDACTED] United States The Second Opium War ( simplified Chinese : 第二次鸦片战争 ; traditional Chinese : 第二次鴉片戰爭 ), also known as the Second Anglo-Chinese War or Arrow War, was fought between the United Kingdom and France against the Qing dynasty of China between 1856 and 1860. It was the second major conflict in
336-526: A crown colony , ceding it to the Queen Victoria of Great Britain , in perpetuity ( 常 遠 , Cháng yuǎn , in the Chinese version of the treaty), to provide British traders with a harbour where they could "careen and refit their ships and keep stores for that purpose" (Article III). Pottinger was later appointed the first Governor of Hong Kong . In 1860, the colony was extended with the addition of
504-719: A much more limited form of home rule , opted-out of joining the Free State and remained part of the Union under this limited form of self-government. In light of these changes, the British state was renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 12 April 1927 with the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act . The modern-day United Kingdom is the same state, that is to say a direct continuation of what remained after
672-470: A British ship and still flew the British flag at the time of its detention, though its registration had expired. Its captain, Thomas Kennedy, who was aboard a nearby vessel at the time, reported seeing Chinese marines pull the British flag down from the ship. The British consul in Canton, Harry Parkes , contacted Ye Mingchen , imperial commissioner and Viceroy of Liangguang , to demand the immediate release of
840-615: A French missionary , Auguste Chapdelaine , by Chinese local authorities in Guangxi province, which at that time was not open to foreigners. The British and the French joined forces under Admiral Sir Michael Seymour . In late 1857, a joint British and French army attacked and occupied Canton (today Guangzhou ). A joint committee of the Alliance was formed. The Allies left the city governor at his post in order to maintain order on behalf of
1008-550: A commitment to the landed aristocracy. He used his London residence as a venue for intimate dinners and private consultations, together with extensive correspondence that kept him in close touch with party leaders in the Commons and with leading figures in the Lords. He gave public rhetorical support to Ultra-Tory anti-reform positions, but then deftly changed positions toward the party's centre, especially when Peel needed support from
1176-493: A complete list, see Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs . The coalition that defeated Napoleon was financed by Britain, and held together at the Congress of Vienna in 1814–1815. It successfully broke Napoleon's comeback attempt in 1815. Castlereagh played a central role at Vienna, along with Austrian leader Klemens von Metternich . While many Europeans wanted to punish France heavily, Castlereagh insisted on
1344-595: A constitutional government there and recognising the independence of Spain's American colonies after their wars of independence in 1824. British merchants and financiers and, later, railway builders, played major roles in the economies of most Latin American nations. In the 1825 to 1867 era, widespread public demonstrations, some of them violent, escalated to demand reform. The ruling Tories were dead set against anything smacking of democracy or popular rule and favoured severe punishment of demonstrators, as exemplified by
1512-535: A few minor cabinet positions, but his reputation rests on his organising skills and his rhetorical leadership for reform. One historian summarised Bright's achievements: Treaty of Nanking The Treaty of Nanking was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–1842) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese later termed
1680-602: A general amnesty to all Chinese subjects who had cooperated with the British during the war (Article IX). The British on their part, undertook to withdraw all of their troops from Nanjing, the Grand Canal and the military post at Zhenhai , as well as not to interfere with China trade generally, after the emperor had given his assent to the treaty and the first instalment of money had been received (Article XII). British troops would remain in Gulangyu and Zhaobaoshan until
1848-428: A hundred years and marked the start of what later nationalists called China's " century of humiliation ." From the perspective of modern Chinese nationalists, the most injurious terms were the fixed trade tariff, extraterritoriality , the most favoured nation provisions and freeing the importation of British opium which continued to have social and economic consequences for the Chinese people. These terms were imposed by
SECTION 10
#17327659288652016-419: A long process, emphasising the urgent need in 1832 to settle the intense and growing political unrest across Britain. He believed that the respectable classes deserved to have their demands for greater representation met, but he refused to extend political power to the mass of the lower middle class and working class, saying that they were not ready to be trusted with it. He wanted to preserve the basic elements of
2184-521: A major impact on British opinion at the time and on history ever since as a symbol of officialdom brutally suppressing a peaceful demonstration thinking mistakenly that it was the start of an insurrection. The Ultra-Tories peaked in strength about 1819–1822 then lost ground inside the Tory Party. They were defeated in important breakthroughs that took place in the late 1820s in terms of tolerating first dissenting Protestants. An even more decisive blow
2352-572: A mild peace, with the Kingdom of France to pay 700 million livre in indemnities and lose the territory seized after 1791. He realised that harsher terms would lead to a dangerous reaction in France, and now that the conservative old-fashioned Bourbons were back in power, they were no longer a threat to attempt to conquer all of Europe. Indeed, Castlereagh emphasised the need for a " balance of power ", whereby no nation would be powerful enough to threaten
2520-488: A popular revolution along the French model, employed severe repression. In the mid-1820s, however, as popular unrest increased, the government made a series of dramatic changes. The more liberal among the Tories rejected the ultraconservative "Ultra Tory" faction. The party split, key leaders switched sides, the Tories lost power, and the more liberally minded opposition Whigs took over. The Tory coalition fell apart, and it
2688-518: A population of over 1,000,000 by less than 6,000 troops, resulted in the British and French forces suffering 15 killed and 113 wounded. 200–650 of the defenders and inhabitants became casualties. Ye Mingchen was captured and exiled to Calcutta , India, where he starved himself to death. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, there was a possible attempt to poison John Bowring and his family in January, known as
2856-632: A successful campaign against the Corn Laws. These were tariffs on imported food that kept up the price of grain to placate Tory landowners. The major factor in the cost of living was the price of food , and the Corn Laws kept the price high. Bright was a powerful speaker, which boosted him to election to parliament in 1843. His radical program included extension of the suffrage, land reform and reduction of taxation. He opposed factory reforms, labour unions and controls on hours For workers, women and children, arguing that government intervention in economic life
3024-490: A treaty containing Chinese and English characters would need special consideration. Given the distance separating the countries, the parties realised that some flexibility and a departure from established procedure in preparing treaties might be required. The fundamental purpose of the treaty was to change the framework of foreign trade imposed by the Canton System , which had been in force since 1760. Under Article V,
3192-495: A uniform fashion, and city officials were elected by the local taxpayers. By far the most important of the reforms was the democratisation of Parliament, which began in a small but highly controversial fashion in 1832 with the Reform Act of 1832 . The main impact was to drastically reduce the number of very small constituencies , with only a few dozen voters under the control of a local magnate. Industrial cities gained many of
3360-838: A watered-down reform. He routinely gave the same advice to foreign governments. Diplomats across Europe took careful note of his move from the Tories to the Whigs, and suspected him of sympathy with the reform movements which were setting off upheavals in France, Belgium and elsewhere, and which frightened the reactionary governments of the major powers Russia, Austria and Russia. In reality he drew his foreign policy ideals from Canning. His main goals were to promote British strategic and economic interests worldwide, remain aloof from European alliances, mediate peace in Europe and use British naval power sparingly as needed. He worried most about France as an adversary, although he collaborated with them as in securing
3528-471: Is the highest token of respect and friendship—filled a glass of wine, held the picture in front of his face, muttered some words in a low voice, drank the wine, again placed the picture on his head and then sat down" to complete the ceremony of long-term amity between the two families and the two peoples. This extravagant display has been analysed as showing an "erotically charged ... reciprocity [in] this symbolic gesture of swapping images of wives. Because of
SECTION 20
#17327659288653696-814: Is thicker than water ", and provided covering fire to protect the British convoy's retreat. The failure to take the Taku Forts was a blow to British prestige, and anti-foreign resistance reached a crescendo within the Qing imperial court. Once the Indian Mutiny was finally quelled, Sir Colin Campbell , commander-in-chief in India, was free to amass troops and supplies for another offensive in China. A 'soldiers' general', Campbell's experience of casualties from disease in
3864-719: The Allied and Associated Powers including the British Empire, France, Russia, Italy and the U.S. against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire . The deadliest conflict in human history up to that point, the war ended in an Allied victory in November 1918 but inflicted a massive cost to British manpower, materiel and treasure. Growing desire for Irish self-governance led to
4032-577: The Arrow incident (and the British military response) became the subject of controversy. The British House of Commons on 3 March passed a resolution by 263 to 249 against the Government saying: That this House has heard with the concern of the conflicts which have occurred between the British and Chinese authorities on the Canton River; and, without expressing an opinion as to the extent to which
4200-743: The Battle of Waterloo to the outbreak of World War I , Britain was almost continuously at peace with Great Powers . The most notable exception was the Crimean War with the Russian Empire , in which actual hostilities were relatively limited. However, the United Kingdom did engage in extensive wars in Africa and Asia , such as the Opium Wars with the Qing dynasty , to extend its overseas territorial holdings and influence. Britain's empire
4368-666: The British Empire . Industrial Revolution accelerated, with textile mills joined by iron and steel, coal mining, railroads and shipbuilding. The second British Empire, founded after the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in the American Revolutionary War of the 1770s, was dramatically expanded in India , other parts of Asia, and Africa. There was little friction with other colonial powers until
4536-477: The British Isles , but it was smaller in terms of industry, finance, mercantile marine and naval strength. Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from Continental Europe would end its economic hegemony. On the contrary Britain possessed the greatest industrial capacity in the world, and its mastery of the seas allowed it to build up considerable economic strength through trade to its possessions and
4704-677: The Continental System . This policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. The British Army remained a minimal threat to France; it maintained a standing strength of just 220,000 men at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, whereas the French Imperial Army exceeded a million men—in addition to the armies of numerous allies and several hundred thousand national guardsmen that Napoleon could draft into
4872-623: The Convention of Peking (1860), was transferred to the PRC on 1 July 1997. The treaty was sealed by interpreter John Robert Morrison for the British and Wang Tajin for the Chinese. Harry Parkes , who was a student of Chinese under Morrison, gave his account of the ceremony: There were four copies of the Treaty signed and sealed. They were bound in worked yellow silk, one Treaty in English and
5040-517: The Crimean War against the Russian Empire in the 1850s. That war was strictly limited in terms of scope and impact. The major result was the realisation that military medical services needed urgent reform, as advocated by the nursing leader Florence Nightingale . British diplomats, led by Lord Palmerston , promoted British nationalism, opposed reactionary regimes on the continent, helped the Spanish colonies to free themselves and worked to shut down
5208-524: The Esing Bakery incident . However, if it was deliberate, the baker who had been charged with lacing bread with arsenic bungled the attempt by putting an excess of the poison into the dough, such that his victims vomited sufficient quantities of the poison that they had only a non-lethal dose left in their system. Criers were sent out with an alert, preventing further injury. When known in Britain,
Second Opium War - Misplaced Pages Continue
5376-518: The French Revolution in 1793. Historians find that the violent radical element was small and weak; there were a handful of small conspiracies involving men with few followers and careless security; they were quickly suppressed. Nevertheless, techniques of repression included the suspension of Habeas Corpus in 1817 (allowing the government to arrest and hold suspects without cause or trial). Sidmouth 's Gagging Acts of 1817 heavily muzzled
5544-532: The Industrial Revolution progressed, society changed, becoming more urban. The postwar period saw an economic slump, and poor harvests and inflation caused widespread social unrest. British leadership was intensely conservative, ever watchful of signs of revolutionary activity of the sort that had so deeply affected France. Historians have found very few signs, noting that social movements such as Methodism strongly encouraged conservative support for
5712-539: The Irish Free State gained a degree of independence in 1922. The United Kingdom, from its islands off the coast of Europe, financed the coalition that defeated France during the Napoleonic Wars , and further developed its dominant Royal Navy enabling the British Empire to become the foremost world power for the next century. For nearly a century from the final defeat of Napoleon following
5880-680: The Irish War of Independence almost immediately after the conclusion of World War I, which resulted in British recognition of the Irish Free State in 1922. Although the Free State was explicitly governed under dominion status and thus was not a fully independent polity, as a dominion it was no longer considered to be part of the United Kingdom and ceased to be represented in the Westminster Parliament . Six northeastern counties in Ireland, which since 1920 were being governed under
6048-865: The Kowloon peninsula under the Convention of Peking and in 1898, the Second Convention of Peking further expanded the colony with the 99-year lease of the New Territories . In 1984, the governments of the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China (PRC) concluded the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong , under which the sovereignty of the leased territories, together with Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (south of Boundary Street) ceded under
6216-479: The Kowloon Peninsula to the British as part of Hong Kong . The terms "Second War" and "Arrow War" are both used in literature. "Second Opium War" refers to one of Britain's strategic objectives, legalizing the opium trade . China's defeat also opened up all of China to British merchants, and exempted foreign imports from internal transit duties. "Arrow War" refers to the name of the vessel which became
6384-564: The Old Summer Palace as soon as they captured Beijing. The emperor and his entourage fled to Rehe , while Prince Gong stayed to conduct the negotiations, signing the Convention of Peking with the alliance on 24 October 1860, thus ratifying the Treaty of Tientsin and bringing the Second Opium War to an end. During and after the Second Opium War, the Qing government was also forced to sign treaties with Russia, such as
6552-562: The Opium Wars , which were fought over the right to import opium to China, and resulted in a second defeat for the Qing and the forced legalisation of the opium trade. It caused many Chinese officials to believe that conflicts with the Western powers were no longer traditional wars, but part of a looming national crisis. On 8 October 1856, Qing officials seized the Arrow , a British-registered cargo ship, and arrested its Chinese sailors. The British consul, Harry Parkes , protested, upon which
6720-579: The Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in 1819. The Tory ranks were cracking, however, especially when Robert Peel (1788–1830) broke away on several critical issues. Nevertheless, the Whig party gets most of the credit. The middle classes, often led by nonconformist Protestants, turned against the Tories and scored the greatest gains. For example, symbolic restrictions on nonconformists called
6888-769: The Principality of Elba , peace appeared to have returned. Napoleon suddenly reappeared in 1815. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher defeated Napoleon once and for all at the Battle of Waterloo . To defeat France, Britain put heavy pressure on the United States , seizing merchant ships suspected of trading with France, and impressing sailors (conscription) born in Britain, regardless of their claimed American citizenship . British government agents armed Indigenous American tribes in Canada that were raiding American settlements on
Second Opium War - Misplaced Pages Continue
7056-590: The Second Opium War resulted in another defeat for the Qing dynasty. The Treaty itself contained no provision for the legalization of the opium trade. Stephen R. Platt writes that such a term would have provided the opponents of Lord Palmerston, who headed the Conservative government that launched the war, with a seeming confirmation for their claim that the war was fought to support the opium trade. Instead, Palmerston asked his negotiators to request
7224-525: The Test Acts were abolished in 1828 . Much more controversial was the repeal of severe discrimination against Roman Catholics after the Irish Catholics organised, and threatened rebellion, forcing major concessions in 1829 . Financial reform, led by William Huskisson and Peel, rationalised the tariff system, and culminated in the great repeal of the tariffs on imported grain in 1846, much to
7392-582: The Treaty of Aigun and the Convention of Peking . As a result, China ceded more than 1.5 million square kilometres (0.58 million square miles) of territory to Russia in its north-east and north-west. With the conclusion of the war, the Qing government was able to concentrate on countering the Taiping Rebellion and maintaining its rule. Among other things, the Convention of Peking ceded
7560-529: The Treaty of the Bogue , which granted extraterritoriality and most favoured nation status. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Britain faced a growing trade deficit with China. Britain could offer nothing to China to match the growing importation of Chinese goods to Britain, such as tea and porcelain. In British India , opium was grown on plantations and auctioned to merchants, who then sold it to Chinese who smuggled it into China (Chinese law forbade
7728-537: The Xianfeng Emperor refused to ratify the treaty, after which the Qing general Sengge Rinchen restarted the war with the British and French that month. Allied reinforcements sailed from Hong Kong , and his troops were defeated. As the alliance's forces advanced toward Beijing, Parkes and a number of British and French officers were captured as hostages, and some were tortured or murdered. These events prompted Lord Elgin to order his soldiers to loot and burn
7896-594: The destruction of opium at Humen , Britain first demanded reparations, then declared what became known as the First Opium War . Britain's use of recently invented military technology produced a crushing victory and allowed it to impose a one-sided treaty. The first working draft for articles of a treaty was prepared at the Foreign Office in London in February 1840. The Foreign Office was aware that preparing
8064-509: The frontier . The Americans felt humiliated and demanded war to restore their honour, despite their complete unpreparedness. The War of 1812 was a minor sideshow to the British, but the American army performed very poorly, and was unable to successfully attack Canada. In 1813, the Americans took control of Lake Erie and thereby of western Ontario , knocking most of the Indian tribes out of
8232-454: The independence of Belgium from the Kingdom of the Netherlands . He much preferred liberal and reform-oriented nations to reactionary powers. He placed a high priority on building up British strength in India, He spoke often of pride in British nationalism, which found favour in public opinion and gave him a strong basis of support outside Parliament. Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) was an intellectual who focused on reforming English law . He
8400-452: The right to own property , and the right to evangelize . United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state , established by the Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form for over a century. In 1927, it evolved into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , after
8568-440: The viceroy of Liangguang , Ye Mingchen , delivered most of sailors to the British on 22 October, but refused to release the rest. The next day, British gunboats shelled the city of Canton . The British government decided to seek redress from China and dispatched a naval force led by Michael Seymour , and France joined in the action, citing as its reason the murder of a French missionary in China. After coordination with each other,
SECTION 50
#17327659288658736-441: The " unequal treaties ". In the wake of China's military defeat, with British warships poised to attack Nanjing (then romanized as Nanking), British and Chinese officials negotiated on board HMS Cornwallis anchored in the Yangtze at the city. On 29 August, British representative Sir Henry Pottinger and Qing representatives Keying , Yilibu , and Niu Jian signed the treaty, which consisted of thirteen articles. The treaty
8904-486: The "betrayal" of the working classes and the "sacrificing" of their "interests" by the "misconduct" of the government. In 1838, Chartists issued the People's Charter demanding manhood suffrage, equal-sized election districts, voting by ballots, payment of Members of Parliament (so that poor men could serve), annual Parliaments, and abolition of property requirements. The ruling class saw the movement as dangerous. Multiple large peaceful meetings across England demanded change but
9072-450: The 1790–1815 period there was an improvement in morals caused by the religious efforts by evangelicals inside the Church of England, and Dissenters or Nonconformist Protestants as people: became wiser, better, more frugal, more honest, more respectable, more virtuous, than they ever were before." Wickedness still flourished, but the good were getting better, as frivolous habits were discarded for more serious concerns. The leading moralist of
9240-410: The 1890s. British foreign policy avoided entangling alliances. Britain from the 1820s to the 1860s experienced a turbulent and exciting "age of reform". The century started with 15 years of war against France, ending in Wellington's triumph against Napoleon in 1815 at Waterloo. There followed 15 difficult years, in which the Tory Party, representing a small, rich landed aristocracy that was fearful of
9408-450: The 1960s and 1970s who argued against deep meanings of Whiggish progress because each of the reforms was relatively minor in itself. Historian Richard Davis concludes that the scholarship of the 1970s represented "a vindication of the main outlines of the old " Whig interpretation ." That is, the Reform Act of 1832 was a response to mounting popular pressure. It was "the culmination of a long historical process, and an important turning point in
9576-521: The British Empire, in practice, these governments were permitted greater management of their own internal affairs, with Britain remaining primarily responsible for their foreign and trade policies. Rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the state's formation continued up until the mid-19th century. The Great Irish Famine , exacerbated by government inaction in the mid-19th century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland and increased calls for Irish land reform . The 19th century
9744-465: The British Empire. In response, London began to cooperate with Japan , France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States . Although not formally allied with any of these powers, by 1914 British policy had all but committed to declaring war on Germany if the latter attacked France. This was realized in August 1914 when Germany invaded France via Belgium , whose neutrality had been guaranteed by London. The ensuing First World War eventually pitted
9912-424: The British a day later. With the Qing army devastated, the Xianfeng Emperor fled the capital and left behind his brother, Prince Gong , to take charge of peace negotiations. Xianfeng first fled to the Chengde Summer Palace and then to Rehe Province . Anglo-French troops began looting the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) and Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) immediately (as they were full of valuable artwork). After
10080-402: The British and French stormed Canton in December 1857. Ye was captured and the governor of Guangdong surrendered. The alliance then moved north to demand a treaty from the Qing court, and on 20 May 1858, captured the Taku Forts , stormed Tianjin , and threatened the capital Beijing . The Qing asked for peace, and signed the Treaty of Tientsin with Great Britain and France in 1858. However,
10248-415: The British and extended to other Western powers with most favoured nation status, and were conceded by the ruling Qing dynasty in order to avert continued military defeats and under the hope that most favoured nation provision would set the foreigners against each other. Although China regained tariff autonomy in the 1920s, extraterritoriality was not formally abolished until the 1943 Sino-British Treaty for
SECTION 60
#173276592886510416-410: The British bombarding at intervals, causing fires. On 5 January 1857, the British returned to Hong Kong. On 3 March 1857, the British government lost a Parliamentary vote regarding the Arrow incident and what had taken place at Canton to the end of the previous year. This defeat led to a general election in April 1857 which increased the government's majority. In April, the British government asked
10584-517: The British faithfully and cheerfully... At the assault of the Peiho Forts in 1860 they carried the French ladders to the ditch, and, standing in the water up to their necks, supported them with their hands to enable the storming party to cross. It was not usual to take them into action; they, however, bore the dangers of a distant fire with great composure, evincing a strong desire to close with their compatriots, and engage them in mortal combat with their bamboos." After taking Tianjin on 23 August 1860,
10752-472: The British side - for instance, Britain received the right to establish consulates in treaty ports that held the right to an audience with local officials, an option denied to China should it have hypothetically wanted to send its own formal diplomatic missions to Britain. The one-sided nature of this treaty as a list of concessions, alongside the sovereignty ceded with the terms granting extraterritoriality and joint Sino-British determination of tariff, would earn
10920-404: The British were delayed by the Indian Rebellion of 1857 , they followed up the Arrow Incident in 1856 and attacked Guangzhou from the Pearl River . Viceroy Ye Mingchen ordered all Chinese soldiers manning the forts not to resist the British incursion. After taking the fort near Canton with little effort, the British Army attacked Canton. The capture of Canton, on 1 January 1858, a city with
11088-409: The Chartists were unable to force serious constitutional debate. In July 1839, however, the House of Commons rejected, by 235 votes to 46, a motion to debate the Chartists' national petition, bearing 1.3 million signatures. Historians see Chartism as both a continuation of the 18th century fight against corruption and as a new stage in demands for democracy in an industrial society. Prime ministers of
11256-630: The Chinese capital. The Anglo-French forces insisted on landing at Taku instead of Beitang and escorting the diplomats to Beijing. On the night of 24 June 1859, a small group of British forces blew up the iron obstacles that the Chinese had placed in the Baihe River. The next day, the British forces sought to forcibly sail into the river, and shelled the Taku Forts. Low tide and soft mud prevented their landing, however, and accurate fire from Sengge Rinchen's cannons sank four gunboats and severely damaged two others. American Commodore Josiah Tattnall III , though under orders to maintain neutrality, declared " blood
11424-405: The Chinese to legalize the sale of opium on their own initiative, outside of the treaty’s terms, which they refused. These treaties had deep and lasting effect. Nanking Treaty, together with the following treaties of 1843, 1858, and 1860, ended the Canton System as created in 1760. These treaties created a new framework for China's foreign relations and overseas trade, which would last for almost
11592-528: The Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 . The government purchased all the slaves for £20,000,000 (the money went to rich plantation owners who mostly lived in England), and freed the slaves, most of whom were in the Caribbean sugar islands. The Whigs became champions of Parliamentary reform by making the Reform Act of 1832 their signature measure. It sharply reduced the numbers of "rotten borough" and "pocket boroughs" (where elections were controlled by powerful families), and instead redistributed seats on
11760-414: The First Opium War is considered to have been the beginning of modern Chinese history. Between the two wars, repeated acts of aggression against British subjects led in 1847 to the Expedition to Canton which assaulted and took, by a coup de main , the forts of the Bocca Tigris resulting in the spiking of 879 guns. The 1850s saw the rapid growth of Western imperialism . Some of the shared goals of
11928-441: The First Opium War led him to provide the British forces with more than enough materiel and supplies, and casualties were light. The Third Battle of Taku Forts took place in the summer of 1860. London once more dispatched Lord Elgin with an Anglo-French force of 11,000 British troops under General James Hope Grant and 6,700 French troops under General Cousin-Montauban . They pushed north with 173 ships from Hong Kong and captured
12096-472: The French armies when they were needed. Although the Royal Navy effectively disrupted France's extra-continental trade—both by seizing and threatening French shipping and by seizing French colonial possessions—it could do nothing about France's trade with the major continental economies and posed little threat to French territory in Europe. France's population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of
12264-473: The Government is rising by its side, nay, daily counteracting its views." The Duke of Wellington, Britain's most famous war hero, told Peel, "If we cannot get rid of the Catholic Association, we must look to Civil War in Ireland sooner or later." Peel and Wellington agreed that to stop the momentum of the Catholic Association it was necessary to pass Catholic emancipation , which gave Catholics
12432-489: The Government of China may have afforded this country cause of complaint respecting the non-fulfilment of the Treaty of 1842, this House considers that the papers which have been laid on the table fail to establish satisfactory grounds for the violent measures resorted to at Canton in the late affair of the Arrow, and that a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the state of our commercial relations with China. In response,
12600-591: The Irish Free State's secession, as opposed to being an entirely new successor state . A brief period of limited independence for the Kingdom of Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , which occurred during the British war with revolutionary France . The Kingdom of Great Britain 's fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with Revolutionary France resulted in
12768-506: The Nanking Treaty and similar settlements that followed the name, "unequal treaty," from Chinese nationalists in later centuries. Interestingly, Joanna Waley-Cohen writes that, at the time of its signing, the Qing did not regard the treaty as “of major significance.” According to Waley-Cohen, the Treaty of Nanking’s terms remarkably resembled another treaty signed with the central Asian state of Kokand, which had also conflicted with
12936-591: The Pacific coast, where Russia founded the city of Vladivostok in 1860. On 20 May, the British were successful at the First Battle of Taku Forts , but the peace treaty returned the forts to the Qing army. In June 1858, shortly after the Qing imperial court agreed to the disadvantageous treaties, hawkish ministers prevailed upon the Xianfeng Emperor to resist Western encroachment. On 2 June 1858,
13104-493: The Parliamentary level, there was a reorganisation of the governmental system in the rapidly growing cities, putting a premium on modernisation and expertise, and large electorates as opposed to small ruling cliques. A rapidly growing middle class, as well as active intellectuals, broaden the scope of reform to include humanitarian activities such as a new poor law and factory laws to protect women and children workers. In
13272-830: The Protestant faith, and his lack of support for the initiative led the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger , to resign. During the War of the Second Coalition (1799–1801), Britain occupied most of the French and Dutch overseas possessions , the Netherlands having become a satellite state of France in 1796, but tropical diseases claimed the lives of over 40,000 troops. When the Treaty of Amiens ended
13440-498: The Qing government had paid reparations in full (Article XII). In 1841, a rough outline for a treaty was sent for the guidance of Plenipotentiary Charles Elliot . It had a blank after the words "the cession of the islands of". Pottinger sent this old draft treaty on shore, with the letter s struck out of islands and the words Hong Kong placed after it. Robert Montgomery Martin , treasurer of Hong Kong, wrote in an official report: The terms of peace having been read, Elepoo
13608-413: The Qing over control of trade along Qing frontiers. Failing to achieve results with a complete trade ban, the Qing arranged a treaty with Kokand that granted Kokandis “the right to live, trade, and levy taxes […] appoint consuls with extraterritorial jurisdiction over their compatriots in China,” alongside an indemnity. The precedent set by the treaty with Kokand made the Nanking Treaty palpable enough that
13776-507: The Relinquishment of Extra-Territorial Rights in China . The stipulation of legal equality in diplomatic proceedings between Britain and China ended the centuries-long Sinocentric tributary system of interstate relations that placed China atop a formal hierarchy in its interactions with other states. Despite this stipulation, the treaty's contents featured entirely concessions from the Chinese side with no reciprocity of provisions on
13944-476: The Royal Navy blasted a hole in the poorly defended and inadequate city walls. The troops entered Canton, with the flag of the United States being planted on the walls and residence of Ye Mingchen by James Keenan, the U.S. Consul. Losses were three killed and 12 wounded. Negotiations failed and the city was bombarded. On 6 November, 23 war junks attacked and were destroyed. There were pauses for talks, with
14112-457: The Second Opium War. Throughout 1857, British forces began to assemble in Hong Kong, joined by a French force. In December 1857 they had sufficient ships and men to raise the issue of the non-fulfilment of the treaty obligations by which the right of entry into Canton had been accorded. Parkes delivered an ultimatum, supported by Hong Kong governor Sir John Bowring and Admiral Sir Michael Seymour , threatening on 14 December to bombard Canton if
14280-626: The Summer Palace. In a letter, he explained that the burning of the palace was the punishment "which would fall, not on the people, who may be comparatively innocent, but exclusively on the Emperor, whose direct personal responsibility for the crime committed is established". On 18 October, British soldiers burnt the Old Summer Palace, the French refusing to assist. The razing of the buildings took two days, with imperial property in
14448-404: The Treaty of Nanjing, British authorities granted the vessels British registration in Hong Kong. In October 1856, Chinese marines in Canton seized a cargo ship called the Arrow on suspicion of piracy, arresting twelve of its fourteen Chinese crew members. The Arrow , which had previously been used by pirates, was captured by the Chinese government and subsequently resold. It was then registered as
14616-475: The United States of America and Russia if they were interested in alliances, but both parties rejected the offer. In May 1857, the Indian Mutiny became serious, and British troops destined for China were diverted to India. which was considered the priority issue. France joined the British action against China, prompted by complaints from their envoy, Baron Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gros , over the execution of
14784-686: The United States. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent. The Duke of Wellington gradually pushed the French out of Spain, and in early 1814, as Napoleon was being driven back in the east by the Royal Prussian Army , the Imperial Austrian Army , and the Imperial Russian Army , Wellington invaded southern France. After Napoleon's surrender and exile to
14952-492: The United States. The trend of emigration would continue in Ireland for decades and Ireland's population has never recovered to its pre-famine levels. The Irish language was almost wiped out. The failure of the British government to respond to the crisis in the eyes of the Irish people would lead to a growth in resentment of Britain and a rise in Irish nationalism . The famine is remembered in Ireland to this day as oppression by
15120-617: The Western powers were the expansion of their overseas markets and the establishment of new ports of call. The French Treaty of Huangpu , and the American Wangxia Treaty , both contained clauses allowing renegotiation of the treaties after 12 years of being in effect. In an effort to expand its privileges in China, Britain demanded that the Qing authorities renegotiate the Treaty of Nanjing (signed in 1842), citing its most favoured nation status. The British demands included opening all of China to British merchant companies,
15288-569: The Whig Prime Minister Lord Palmerston attacked the patriotism of the Whigs who sponsored the resolution, and Parliament was dissolved, causing the British general election of March 1857 . The Chinese issue figured prominently in the election, at which Palmerston won an increased majority, silencing the voices within the Whig faction who supported China. The new parliament decided to seek redress from China based on
15456-571: The Whig coalition in 1830. The Tories despised him thereafter as a turncoat, and many of the more radical Whigs were distrustful of his basically conservative views that saw him fainthearted about or opposed to reform measures. He typically warned on the one hand against delays and on the other hand against excessive enthusiasm for reforms, preferring compromise. He was keenly sensitive to public opinion, and indeed often shapes it through his dealings with newspaper editors. When he sensed that public demand had reached an unstoppable momentum, he would work for
15624-464: The Whigs to demand for civil and religious equality. Grievances included a 1753 law that to be legally recognised marriage had to take place in the Anglican parish church . The Anglican parish register was the only legally accepted birth documentation. The Anglican parish controlled the only religious burial grounds. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge had to reject non-Anglican applicants. At
15792-582: The Xianfeng Emperor ordered the Mongol general Sengge Rinchen to guard the Taku Forts (also romanized as Ta-ku Forts and also called Daku Forts) near Tianjin. Sengge Rinchen reinforced the forts with additional artillery pieces. He also brought 4,000 Mongol cavalry from Chahar and Suiyuan . The Second Battle of Taku Forts took place in June 1859. A British naval force with 2,200 troops and 21 ships, under
15960-481: The allied demands, the emperor having fled to Chengde on 22 September. British and French troops entered Beijing, where the Treaty of Tientsin was ratified by the Convention of Peking . At the time, the largest encyclopedia ever compiled in world history was the 1408 Ming Dynasty Yongle Encyclopedia , most of which was looted or destroyed by foreign soldiers during the sack of Beijing, leaving only 3.5 percent surviving volumes today. The British, French and—thanks to
16128-520: The aristocracy in terms of its control of the House of Commons. However, it ran the government: of the ten prime ministers under Victoria, six were peers. The seventh was the son of a duke. Two (Peel and Gladstone) emerged from the business community and only one (Disraeli) was a self-made man . Of the 227 cabinet members between 1832 and 1905, 139 were sons of peers. Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , who defeated Napoleon, served as
16296-611: The basis of population. It also broadened the franchise, adding 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000 in England and Wales . The main effect of the act was to weaken the power of the landed gentry , and enlarge the power of the professional and business middle-class , which now for the first time had a significant voice in Parliament. However, at this point the great majority of manual workers, clerks and farmers did not have enough property to qualify to vote. Many of them received
16464-536: The brevity of the Treaty of Nanking and its terms being phrased only as general stipulations, the British and Chinese representatives agreed that a supplementary treaty should be concluded to establish more detailed regulations for relations. On 3 October 1843, the parties concluded the supplementary Treaty of the Bogue at the Bocca Tigris outside Canton. Nevertheless, the treaties of 1842–43 left several unsettled issues. In particular they did not resolve
16632-616: The command of Admiral Sir James Hope , sailed north from Shanghai to Tianjin with newly appointed Anglo-French envoys for the embassies in Beijing. They sailed to the mouth of the Hai River guarded by the Taku Forts near Tianjin and demanded to continue inland to Beijing. Sengge Rinchen replied that the Anglo-French envoys might land up the coast at Beitang and proceed to Beijing but he refused to allow armed troops to accompany them to
16800-534: The conquest of Europe the way Napoleon had. Vienna ushered in a century of peace, with no great wars and few important localised ones until the Crimean War (1853–1856). Prussia, Austria, and Russia, as absolute monarchies , tried to suppress liberalism wherever it might occur. Britain first took a Reactionary position at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, but relented and broke ranks with the absolute monarchies by 1820. Britain intervened in Portugal in 1826 to defend
16968-433: The crew, and an apology for the alleged insult to the flag. Ye released nine of the crew members but refused to release the other three. On 23 October, the British destroyed four barrier forts. On 25 October, a demand was made that the British be allowed to enter Canton. The next day, the British began to bombard the city, firing one shot every 10 minutes. Ye Mingchen issued a bounty on every British head taken. On 29 October,
17136-572: The decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801. The Irish had been led to believe by the British that their loss of legislative independence would be compensated with Catholic emancipation , that is, by the removal of civil disabilities placed upon Roman Catholics in both Great Britain and Ireland . Despite personal sympathy for Roman Catholics, King George III believed that agreeing to Catholic Emancipation would violate his Coronation Oath to uphold
17304-468: The dismay of grain farmers. The 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws established free trade as the basic principle by which British merchants came to dominate the globe, and brought cheap food to British workers. A depoliticised civil service based on merit replaced patronage policies rewarding jobs for partisan efforts. Efficiency was a high priority in government, with the goal of low taxation. Overall, taxation
17472-439: The emergence of a more liberal and broadly based political system… it deserves its old designation of 'Great.'" David Thompson has stressed the revolutionary nature of the entire package of reforms: Chartism was a large-scale popular protest movement that emerged in response to the failure of the 1832 Reform Bill to give the vote to the working class. It lacked middle-class support, and it failed repeatedly. Activists denounced
17640-529: The era, William Wilberforce , saw everywhere "new proofs presenting themselves of the diffusion of religion". Nonconformists, including Presbyterians , Congregationalists , the Baptists and the rapidly-growing Methodist denomination , as well as Quakers , Unitarians and smaller groups. They were all outside the established Church of England (except in Scotland, where the established Church of Scotland
17808-441: The event as an opening battle against revolutionaries. In reaction Lord Liverpool 's government passed the " Six Acts " in 1819. They prohibited drills and military exercises; facilitated warrants for the search for weapons; outlawed public meetings of more than 50 people, including meetings to organise petitions; put heavy penalties on blasphemous and seditious publications; imposing a fourpenny stamp act on many pamphlets to cut down
17976-490: The existing constitution by removing obvious abuses, thinking that this would strengthen aristocratic leadership. He persuaded the king to promise to create enough new peers to force the bill through the House of Lords. The king made the promise while also advising the peers to stop blocking the bill. The Reform Act was Grey's principal achievement; it reflects his pragmatic, moderate and conservative character, as well as his parliamentary skills of timing and persuasion. His cabinet
18144-555: The face of determined House of Commons action. After defeating the first two versions of the Reform Act of 1832, the Whigs got the King to agree to appoint as many new peers as was necessary to change the outcome. He promised to do so, but convinced the Lords it would be much wiser for them to approve the law. A weak ruler as regent (1811–1820) and king (1820–1830), George IV let his ministers take full charge of government affairs. He
18312-461: The flow on news and criticism. Offenders could be harshly punished including exile in Australia . In practice the laws were designed to deter troublemakers and reassure conservatives; they were not often used. One historian would write: "Peterloo was a blunder; it was hardly a massacre." It was a serious mistake by local authorities who did not understand what was happening. Nevertheless, it had
18480-412: The imperial emissary and word arrived that the British had kidnapped the prefect of Tianjin. Parkes was arrested in retaliation on 18 September. Also captured were a number of British and French officers, Sikh soldiers, and a journalist from The Times . Parkes and the others were imprisoned, tortured, and interrogated. The prisoners had been tortured by having their limbs bound with rope until their flesh
18648-470: The importation and sale of opium). The use of opium within China had become a nation wide emergency. China's social stability had significantly decreased because the lower class had been all but demolished from the easy access citizens had to opium. This in turn led to major health concerns and labor productivity within China also dropping drastically. When Lin Zexu seized this privately owned opium and ordered
18816-466: The international slave trade. It was a time of prosperity, population growth and better health, except in Ireland where over one million deaths were caused by the Great Famine when the potato crop failed in the 1840s. The Government did little to help the starving poor in Ireland. Along with the one million deaths, another one million would emigrate in a few short years, mostly to Britain and to
18984-401: The key legal, political, economic and social reforms of the 1830s and 1840s. He especially influenced the reform of education, prisons, poor laws, legal procedures and Parliamentary representation. John Bright (1811–1889) built on his middle-class Quaker heritage and his collaboration with Richard Cobden to promote all varieties of humanitarian and parliamentary reform. They started with
19152-509: The king. The fiasco helped ruin the prestige of the monarchy and it recovered a fraction of the power wielded by King George III in his saner days. Historian Eugene Black says: The Ultra-Tories were the leaders of reaction and seemed to dominate the Tory Party , which controlled the government. Every untoward event seemed to point to a conspiracy on the left which necessitated more repression to head off another terror such as happened in
19320-469: The leader of the Conservative party in the House of Lords, 1828–1846. Some writers have belittled him as a befuddled reactionary, but a consensus reached in the late 20th century depicts him as a shrewd operator who hid his cleverness behind the facade of a poorly-informed old soldier. Wellington worked to transform the Lords from unstinting support of the Crown to an active player in political manoeuvring, with
19488-505: The legalising of the opium trade , the exemption of foreign imports from internal transit duties, the suppression of piracy, the regulation of the coolie trade, permission for a British ambassador to reside in Beijing, and that the English-language version of all treaties takes precedence over the Chinese language one. To give Chinese merchant vessels operating around treaty ports the same privileges accorded to British ships by
19656-598: The local level, everyone who lived in the boundaries of an Anglican church was required to pay taxes to support the parish. The Test and Corporation laws required all national and local government officials had to attend Anglican church services. In February 1828, Whig leader Lord John Russell , presented petitions assembled by the main Nonconformist pressure group, the United Committee, which represented Congregationalist, Baptists and Unitarians. Their demand
19824-425: The majority. The great Reform Act 1832 came at a time of intense public and elite anxiety and broke the logjam. The parliamentary system, based on a very small electorate and large numbers of seats that were tightly controlled by a small elite, was radically reformed. For the first time the growing industrial cities had representation in Parliament. This opened the way for another decade of reform that culminated in
19992-482: The men were not released within 24 hours. The remaining crew of the Arrow were then released, with no apology from Viceroy Ye Mingchen who also refused to honour the treaty terms. Seymour, Major General van Straubenzee and Admiral de Genouilly agreed the plan to attack Canton as ordered. This event came to be known as the Arrow Incident and provided the alternative name of the ensuing conflict. Though
20160-489: The merchants in Canton owed British merchants (Article V), and a further 12 million dollars in war reparations for the cost of the war (Article VI). The total sum of 21 million dollars was to be paid in instalments over three years and the Qing government would be charged an annual interest rate of 5 percent for the money that was not paid in a timely manner (Article VII). The Qing government undertook to release all British prisoners of war (Article VIII), and to give
20328-548: The mobilisation of all possible support in each constituency; about 80% of the men voted. The Tories discovered that their conservatism had an appeal to skilled workers, and also to women, hundreds of thousands of whom were organised by the Primrose League . Women's suffrage was not on the agenda. The abolition of the House of Lords , while often discussed, was never necessary because the upper house repeatedly retreated in
20496-569: The opposition newspapers; the reformers switched to pamphlets and sold 50,000 a week. In industrial districts in 1819, factory workers demanded better wages, and demonstrated. The most important event was the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester , on 16 August 1819, when a local militia unit composed of landowners charged into an orderly crowd of 60,000 which had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. The crowd panicked and eleven died and hundreds were injured. The government saw
20664-457: The outskirts of Beijing for a decisive battle in Tongzhou (also romanized as Tungchow). On 21 September, at Baliqiao (Eight Mile Bridge) , Sengge Rinchen's 10,000 troops, including the elite Mongol cavalry, were annihilated after doomed frontal charges against concentrated firepower of the Anglo-French forces. The French army arrived at the Summer Palace outside Beijing on 6 October, followed by
20832-496: The period included: William Pitt the Younger , Lord Grenville , Duke of Portland , Spencer Perceval , Lord Liverpool , George Canning , Lord Goderich , Duke of Wellington , Lord Grey , Lord Melbourne , Lord Palmerston and Robert Peel . The aristocracy remained dominant: there were 200 hereditary peers in the House of Lords in 1860; by 1837 they numbered 428; in 1901, there were 592. The number rose to 622 by 1910. Reform legislation in 1832, 1867, 1884 and 1918 weakened
21000-454: The political and social status quo. The major constitutional changes included a reform of Parliament, and a sharp decline in the power and prestige of the monarchy. The Prince regent, on becoming King George IV in 1820 asked Parliament to divorce his wife Queen Caroline of Brunswick so that he could marry his favourite lover. Public and elite opinion strongly favoured the Queen and ridiculed
21168-491: The port cities of Yantai and Dalian to seal the Bohai Gulf. On 3 August they carried out a landing near Beitang (also romanized as "Pei-t'ang"), some 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the Taku Forts, which they captured after three weeks on 21 August. Southern Chinese laborers served with the French and British forces. One observer reported that the "Chinese coolies", as he called them, "renegades though they were, served
21336-585: The release of Parkes and the surviving prisoners on 8 October, the extent of their mistreatment became apparent. The destruction of the Forbidden City was discussed, as proposed by Lord Elgin, to discourage the Qing Empire from using kidnapping as a bargaining tool, and to exact revenge on the mistreatment of their prisoners. However, an attack on Beijing was ruled out, as this had already been presented as threat for other terms. Elgin decided on burning
21504-518: The repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846—ending the tariff on imported grain that kept prices high for the landed aristocracy. Repeal was heavily promoted by the Anti-Corn Law League , grass roots activists led by Richard Cobden and based in the industrial cities; they demanded cheap food. There were a series of reforms of the electoral laws, expanding the number of male voters and reducing the level of corruption. The reactionary Tory element
21672-434: The report about the Arrow Incident submitted by Harry Parkes. The French Empire , the United States , and the Russian Empire received requests from Britain to form an alliance. In June 1858, the first part of the war ended with the four Treaties of Tientsin (Tianjin), to which Britain, France, Russia, and the U.S. were parties. These treaties opened 11 more ports to Western trade. The Chinese initially refused to ratify
21840-428: The same in Chinese stitched and bound together formed a copy. This being finished they all came out of the after-cabin and sat down to tiffin , and the different officers seated themselves all round the table, making plenty of guests. Almost directly after the Treaty was signed, a yellow flag for China at the main and a Union Jack for England at the mizen were hoisted, and at the same time a royal salute of twenty-one guns
22008-533: The schemes of Ignatiev—the Russians were all granted a permanent diplomatic presence in Beijing (something the Qing Empire resisted to the very end as it suggested equality between China and the European powers). The Chinese had to pay 8 million taels to Britain and France. Kowloon was ceded to the British owned Hong Kong. The opium trade was legalized and Christians were granted full civil rights , including
22176-449: The seats but were still significantly underrepresented in Parliament. The 1831–1832 battle over parliamentary reform was, "a year probably unmatched in English history for the sweep and intensity of its excitement." Every few years an incremental enlargement of the electorate was made by Parliament, reaching practically all male voters by the 1880s, and all the women by 1928. Both parties introduced paid professional organisers who supervised
22344-518: The second half of the nineteenth century, the Imperial government granted increasing levels of autonomy to locally elected governments in colonies where white settlers had become demographically or politically dominant, with this process eventually resulting in Canada , Australia , New Zealand , Newfoundland and South Africa becoming self-governing dominions . While these dominions remained part of
22512-419: The senior commissioner paused, expecting something more, and at length said "is that all?" Mr. Morrison enquired of Lieutenant-colonel Malcolm [Pottinger's secretary] if there was anything else, and being answered in the negative, Elepoo immediately and with great tact closed the negotiation by saying, " all shall be granted—it is settled—it is finished ." The Qing government agreed to make Hong Kong Island
22680-399: The starting point of the conflict. The war followed on from the First Opium War . In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking granted an indemnity and extraterritoriality to Britain, the opening of five treaty ports , and the cession of Hong Kong Island . The failure of the treaty to satisfy British goals of improved trade and diplomatic relations led to the Second Opium War (1856–1860). In China,
22848-454: The status of the opium traffic in favour of the British Empire. Although the Treaty of Wanghia with the Americans in 1844 explicitly banned Americans from selling opium, the trade continued as both the British and American merchants were only subject to the legal control of their permissive consuls. The opium traffic was later legalised in the Treaties of Tianjin , which China concluded after
23016-596: The treaties. The major points of the treaty were: On 28 May 1858, the separate Treaty of Aigun was signed with Russia to revise the Chinese and Russian border as determined by the Nerchinsk Treaty in 1689. Russia gained the left bank of the Amur River , pushing the border south from the Stanovoy mountains . A later treaty, the Convention of Peking in 1860, gave Russia control over a non-freezing area on
23184-475: The treaty abolished the former monopoly of the Cohong and their Thirteen Factories in Canton. Four additional " treaty ports " opened for foreign trade alongside Canton ( Shameen Island from 1859 until 1943): Xiamen (or Amoy; until 1930), Fuzhou , Ningbo and Shanghai (until 1943), where foreign merchants were to be allowed to trade with anyone they wished. Britain also gained the right to send consuls to
23352-507: The treaty ports, which were given the right to communicate directly with local Chinese officials (Article II). The treaty stipulated that trade in the treaty ports should be subject to fixed tariffs, which were to be agreed upon between the British and the Qing governments (Article X). The Qing government was obliged to pay the British government 6 million silver dollars for the opium that had been confiscated by Lin Zexu in 1839 (Article IV), 3 million dollars in compensation for debts that
23520-463: The upper house. Wellington's success was based on the 44 peers elected from Scotland and Ireland, whose election he controlled. Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey had promoted reform of Parliament since the 1790s, always to be defeated by the Ultra-Tories. The breakthrough came in his success in passage of the Reform Act of 1832. He sought this as the final step of reform, rather than a first step in
23688-443: The vicinity also destroyed. Most accounts say that the Old Summer Palace was burnt for three days and three nights. Both Britain ( Second China War Medal ) and France ( Commemorative medal of the 1860 China Expedition ) issued campaign medals. The British medal had the following clasps: China 1842, Fatshan 1857, Canton 1857, Taku Forts 1858, Taku Forts 1860, Peking 1860. On 24 October, the emperor's brother, Prince Gong , conceded to
23856-455: The victors. The British-French alliance maintained control of Canton for nearly four years. The coalition then cruised north to briefly capture the Taku Forts near Tianjin in May 1858. The United States and Russia sent envoys to Hong Kong to offer military help to the British and French, though in the end Russia sent no military aid. The U.S. was involved in a minor concurrent conflict during
24024-520: The vote and the right to sit in Parliament. That happened in 1829 using Whig support. Passage demonstrated that the veto power long held by the ultra-Tories no longer was operational, and significant reforms were now possible across the board. The stage was set for the Age of Reform. The era of reform came in a time of peace, guaranteed in considerable part by the overwhelming power of the Royal Navy. Britain engaged in only one serious war between 1815 and 1914,
24192-486: The vote in 1867. The aristocracy continued to dominate the Church of England, the most prestigious military and naval posts, and high society, but not business, industry or finance. In terms of national governmental policy, the democratic wishes of the entire people had become decisive. Most historians emphasise the central importance of the legislation of the 1830s–60s, although there was a dissenting minority of scholars in
24360-535: The war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized. The peace settlement was in effect only a ceasefire, and Napoleon continued to provoke the British by attempting a trade embargo on the country and by occupying the city of Hanover , capital of the Electorate , a German-speaking duchy of the Holy Roman Empire which was in a personal union with the United Kingdom. In May 1803, war
24528-579: The war, though it ignored the UK's offer of alliance and did not coordinate with the Anglo-French forces. In 1856, the Chinese garrison at Canton shelled a United States Navy steamer, and the U.S. Navy retaliated in the Battle of the Pearl River Forts . The ships bombarded then attacked the river forts near Canton, taking them. Diplomatic efforts were renewed afterwards, and the American and Chinese governments signed an agreement for U.S. neutrality in
24696-533: The war. When Napoleon surrendered for the first time in 1814, three separate forces were sent to attack the Americans in upstate New York , along the Maryland coast (burning Washington but getting repulsed at Baltimore ), and up the Mississippi River to a massive defeat at the Battle of New Orleans . Each operation proved a failure with the British commanding generals killed or in disgrace. The war
24864-554: Was Presbyterian ), They proclaimed a devotion to hard work, temperance, frugality and upward mobility, with which historians today largely agree. A major Unitarian magazine, the Christian Monthly Repository asserted in 1827: The Nonconformists suffered under a series of disabilities, some of which were symbolic and others were painful, and they were all deliberately imposed to weaken the dissenting challenge to Anglican orthodoxy. The Nonconformists allied with
25032-579: Was Robert Peel , who suddenly reversed himself on the Catholic issue and was roundly denounced and permanently distrusted by the Ultra Tory faction of die-hards. Earl Grey , prime minister from 1830 to 1834, and his rejuvenated Whig Party enacted a series of major reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour restricted and, most important, the Reform Act 1832 refashioned the British electoral system. In 1832 Parliament abolished slavery in
25200-464: Was a coalition of diverse interests, so in 1834 when it divided over the Irish church question he resigned. Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston played the dominant role in shaping British foreign-policy as Foreign Secretary (1830–1834, 1835–1841 and 1846–1851) and as prime minister (1855–1858, 1859–1865). He served as Secretary at War in Tory governments for two decades, but switched over to
25368-492: Was a deeply unpopular playboy. When he tried to get Parliament to pass a law allowing him to divorce his wife Queen Caroline , public opinion strongly supported her. After four decades of rule by Pittites and Tories the first breakthrough in reform came in the removal by a Tory government of restrictions on the careers of Protestant Nonconformists in the repeal in 1828 of the laws that required Anglican church membership for many academic and government positions. Much more intense
25536-471: Was a leading promoter of utilitarianism as a working philosophy of action. The "greatest happiness principle", or the principle of utility , forms the cornerstone of Bentham's thought. By "happiness", he understood a predominance of "pleasure" over "pain". He is best known for his inspiration of the radical forces, helping them define those reforms that were most urgently needed and how they could be implemented. His intellectual leadership helped achieve many of
25704-819: Was a necessity for the rapidly growing industrial cities still labouring under a hodgepodge of centuries-old laws and traditions. When Peel took over the Home Office , he abolished the espionage and cruel punishments, ended the death penalty for most crimes, and inaugurated the first system of professional police —who in London to this day are still called "Bobbies" in his honour. The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 modernised urban government, which previously had been controlled by closed bodies dominated by Tories. Over 200 old corporations were abolished and replaced with 179 elected borough councils . Elections were to be based on registered voters, city finances had to be audited in
25872-452: Was a stalemate without purpose. A negotiated peace was reached at the end of 1814 that restored the prewar boundaries. British Canada celebrated its deliverance from American rule, Americans celebrated victory in a "second war of independence," and Britain celebrated its defeat of Napoleon. The treaty opened up two centuries of peace and open borders. Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars a very different country than it had been in 1793. As
26040-526: Was about 10%, the lowest in any modern nation. Foreign policy became moralistic and hostile to the reactionary powers on the continent, teaming up with the United States to block European colonialism in the New World through the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. The Royal Navy stepped up efforts to stop international trade in slaves. Municipal reform
26208-479: Was always mistaken. He opposed wars and imperialism. His unremitting hostility to the Crimean war led to his defeat for reelection in 1857. He was soon reelected from Birmingham, leading a national campaign for parliamentary reform to enlarge the suffrage to reach the working man. He was intensely moralistic and distrusted the integrity of his opponents. He loathed the aristocracy that continued to rule Britain. He held
26376-507: Was an era of rapid economic modernisation and growth of industry, trade and finance, in which Britain largely dominated the world economy. Outward migration was heavy to the principal British overseas possessions and to the United States. With respect to other powers, the British remained non-aligned until the early 20th century when the growing naval power of the German Empire increasingly came to be seen as an existential threat to
26544-458: Was closely linked to the Church of England , and expressed its strong hostility toward Catholics and nonconformist Protestants by restricting their political and civil rights. The Catholic started to organise in Ireland, threatening instability or even civil war, and the moderates in Parliament emancipated them. The Nonconformists were similarly freed from their restrictions. In addition to reforms at
26712-531: Was declared again. Napoleon's plans to invade Great Britain failed, chiefly due to the inferiority of his navy, and in 1805 a Royal Navy fleet led by Nelson decisively defeated the French Imperial Navy and Royal Spanish Navy at Trafalgar , which was the last significant naval action of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees , which brought into effect
26880-529: Was exchanged in Hong Kong on 26 June 1843. Pottinger wrote in a letter to the Earl of Aberdeen the following year that at a feast with Keying celebrating the ratification, Keying insisted they ceremonially exchange miniature portraits of each member of each other's families. Upon receiving a miniature portrait of Pottinger's wife, Pottinger wrote that Keying "placed [the miniature] on his head—which I am told
27048-553: Was expanded into most parts of Africa and much of South Asia. The Colonial Office and India Office ruled through a small number of administrators who managed the units of the empire locally, while local institutions began to develop. British India , by far the most important overseas possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In overseas policy, the central policy was free trade , which enabled British financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Beginning in earnest in
27216-449: Was fired. The Daoguang Emperor gave his assent for the treaty on 8 September. After his assent arrived in Nanjing on 15 September, Pottinger's secretary George Alexander Malcolm was dispatched on board the steamer Auckland the next morning to the Court of St James's with a copy for ratification by Queen Victoria . The emperor ratified the treaty on 27 October and Queen Victoria added her written assent on 28 December. Ratification
27384-410: Was lacerated and became infected with maggots, and by having dung and dirt forced into their throats. Several were executed by beheading, their corpses fed to animals. Captured coolies who had worked for the allies were buried up to their necks and left to dogs. The Anglo-French forces clashed with Sengge Rinchen 's Mongol cavalry on 18 September at the battle of Zhangjiawan before proceeding toward
27552-414: Was ratified by the Daoguang Emperor on 27 October and Queen Victoria on 28 December. The exchange of ratification took place in Hong Kong on 26 June 1843. The treaty required the Chinese to pay an indemnity, to cede the Island of Hong Kong to the British as a colony, to essentially end the Canton system that had limited trade to that port and allow trade at Five Treaty Ports . It was followed in 1843 by
27720-415: Was reassembled under the banner of the Conservative Party. Numerous Tories, such as Lord Palmerston , switched over to the Whig opposition, and it became the Liberal Party . Constitutionally, the 1830s marks a watershed: the end of Crown control over the cabinet. King William IV in 1834 was obliged to accept a Prime Minister who had a majority in Parliament, and the Crown ever since has gone along with
27888-532: Was the immediate repeal of the hated laws. Wellington and Peel originally were opposed, but then tried to compromise. They finally gave, splitting the Tory party, and signaling that the once unstoppable power of the Anglican establishment was now unexpectedly fragile and vulnerable to challenge. Three men shaped British foreign policy from 1810 to 1860, with only a few interruptions, Viscount Castlereagh (especially 1812–1822). George Canning (especially 1807–1829) and Viscount Palmerston (especially 1830–1865). For
28056-414: Was the long battle over the civil rights of Roman Catholics. Catholic emancipation came in 1829, which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland. The Duke of Wellington, as Tory prime minister, decided that the surging crisis in largely Catholic Ireland necessitated some relief for the Catholics, although he had long opposed the idea. The other main Tory leader
28224-400: Was the unexpected repeal of the many restrictions on Catholics, after widespread organised protest by the Catholic Association in Ireland under Daniel O'Connell , with support from Catholics in England . Robert Peel was alarmed at the strength of the Catholic Association, warning in 1824, "We cannot tamely sit by while the danger is hourly increasing, while a power co-ordinate with that of
#864135