War · 1839–1842 (second war 1856–1860)
The Opium Wars
Guangzhou (Canton), China
When the Qing official Lin Zexu forced British merchants at Guangzhou to hand over some 1,420 tonnes of opium and destroyed it at Humen in June 1839, Britain went to war to win compensation and open China to trade. British victories forced the Treaty of Nanjing (29 August 1842), which ceded Hong Kong Island, opened five treaty ports and imposed an indemnity; in the Second Opium War (1856–1860) Britain and France captured Beijing, burned the Old Summer Palace and forced the legalisation of the opium trade.
Why it mattered
Chinese nationalists later counted 1839 as the start of a 'century of humiliation' under unequal treaties, and many historians date modern Chinese history from it.
Elsewhere
The weakened Qing also faced the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864), the deadliest civil war in history, in which an estimated 20 to 30 million people died.
Related
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