Editing First Opium War (section)

{{Short description|1839–1842 war between Britain and China}}
{{redirect|Opium War}}
{{for-multi|the first and Second Opium Wars in China in the 19th century considered as a collective|Opium Wars|the film|The Opium War (film)}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = First Opium War
| partof            = the [[Opium Wars]]
| image             = Destroying Chinese war junks, by E. Duncan (1843).jpg
| image_size        = 300px
| caption           = The [[East India Company]] steamship ''[[Nemesis (1839)|Nemesis]]'' (right background) destroying war [[Junk (ship)|junks]] during the [[Second Battle of Chuenpi]], 7 January 1841
| date              = 4 September 1839 – 29 August 1842 {{nowrap|({{Age in years, months, weeks and days |month1=9 |day1=4 |year1=1839 |month2=8 |day2=29 |year2=1842}})}}
| place             = China
| territory         = [[Hong Kong Island]] ceded to Britain
| result            = British victory
| combatant1        = {{plainlist|
{{flagcountry|UKGBI}}
}}
* {{flag|East India Company}}
| combatant2        = {{flagicon image|Flag of China (1862–1889).svg|border=no}} [[Qing dynasty|Qing China]]
| commander1        = {{plainlist}}
* [[Queen Victoria]]
* [[William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne|William Lamb]]
* [[Robert Peel]]
* [[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Henry Temple]]
* [[Charles Elliot]]
* [[George Elliot (Royal Navy officer, born 1784)|George Elliot]]
* [[Gordon Bremer]]
* [[Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough|Hugh Gough]]
* [[Henry Pottinger]]
* [[Sir William Parker, 1st Baronet, of Shenstone|William Parker]]
* [[Humphrey Fleming Senhouse|Humphrey Senhouse]]
{{endplainlist}}
| commander2        = {{plainlist|
* [[Daoguang Emperor]]
* [[Lin Zexu]]
* [[Qishan (official)|Qishan]]
* [[Yishan (official)|Yishan]]
* [[Yijing (prince)|Yijing]]
* [[Yilibu]]
* [[Guan Tianpei]]{{KIA}}
* [[Chen Huacheng]]{{KIA}}
* [[Ge Yunfei]]{{KIA}}
* [[Yang Fang (general)|Yang Fang]]
* [[Keying (official)|Keying]]
}}
| strength1         = 19,000+ troops:<ref name="martin">[[Martin, Robert Montgomery]] (1847). ''[https://archive.org/details/chinapoliticalc00martgoog China: Political, Commercial, and Social; In an Official Report to Her Majesty's Government]''. Volume 2. London: James Madden. pp.&nbsp;80–82.</ref>
* [[British Army]]: 5,000
* [[Presidency armies|Indian Army]]: 5,000
* [[Royal Navy]] & [[Royal Marines]]: 6,700
37 ships:<ref name="martin" />
* 14 [[sloops-of-war]]
* 8 [[frigates]]
* 3 [[ships of the line]]
* 12 other ships{{efn|Comprising 5 [[troopship]]s, 3 [[brig]]s, 2 [[Steamship|steamers]], 1 [[survey vessel]], and 1 [[hospital ship]].}}
| strength2         = 222,212 total troops{{efn|Refers to total troops in the provinces that were in the theatre of war, but only about 100,000 troops were actually mobilised for the war itself.<ref>{{harvp|Mao|2016|pp=50–53}}</ref>}}
* [[Eight Banners]]: 16,708
* [[Green Standard Army]]: 205,504
| casualties1       = {{plainlist|
* 69 killed in battle<ref name="martin" />
* 451 wounded<ref name="martin" />
* 284 [[Nerbudda incident|executed or died in captivity in Formosa]]<ref name="p. 248">''The Chinese Repository'', vol. 12, p.&nbsp;248.</ref><ref>Bate 1952, p.&nbsp;174.</ref>}}
| casualties2       = {{est.}} 3,100 killed{{efn|Casualties include Manchu bannermen and their families who committed mass suicide at the [[Battle of Chapu]] and [[Battle of Chinkiang]].<ref name="Ref-1">Rait, Robert S. (1903). ''[https://archive.org/stream/cu31924088002120#page/n307/mode/2up The Life and Campaigns of Hugh, First Viscount Gough, Field-Marshal]''. Volume 1. p.&nbsp;265.</ref><ref name="John 2008">{{Cite book |last=Makeham |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQ4NAQAAMAAJ&q=Bannermen+desperately |title=China: The World's Oldest Living Civilization Revealed |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-500-25142-3 |page=331}}</ref>}}|4,000 wounded<ref>{{Cite web |last=张莉 |title=第一次鸦片战争中、英军队的伤亡及其影响 |url=http://cdmd.cnki.com.cn/Article/CDMD-10200-2008108293.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219155528/http://cdmd.cnki.com.cn/Article/CDMD-10200-2008108293.htm |archive-date=19 December 2014 |access-date=19 December 2014 |website=2008年}}</ref>
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox First Opium War|}}
}}
{{Infobox Chinese
| t = 第一次鴉片戰爭
| s = 第一次鸦片战争
| p = Dìyīcì yāpiàn zhànzhēng
| tp = Dì-yi-cìh ya-piàn jhàn-jheng
| w = {{tonesup|Ti4-i1-tzʻu4 ya1-pʻien4 chan4-cheng1}}
| mi = {{IPAc-cmn|d|i|4|.|yi|1|.|ci|4|-|ya|1|.|p|ian|4|-|zh|an|4|.|zh|eng|1}}
| bpmf = {{bpmfsp|ㄉㄧˋ|ㄧ|ㄘˋ|ㄧㄚ|ㄅㄧㄢˋ|ㄓㄢˋ|ㄓㄥ}}
| y = Daihyātchi Āpin Jinjāng
| j = Dai6 jat1 ci3 aa1 pin3 zin3 zang1
| ci = {{IPAc-yue|d|ai|6|-|j|at|1|-|c|i|3|-|aa|1|-|p|in|3|-|z|in|3|-|z|ang|1}}
}}

The '''First Opium War''' ({{lang-zh|t=第一次鴉片戰爭|p=Dìyīcì yāpiàn zhànzhēng}}), also known as the '''Anglo-Chinese War''', was a series of military engagements fought between the [[British Empire]] and the Chinese [[Qing dynasty]] between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of their ban on the [[History of opium in China|opium trade]] by seizing private opium stocks from mainly British merchants at [[Guangzhou]] (then named ''Canton'') and threatening to impose the death penalty for future offenders. Despite the opium ban, the British government supported the merchants' demand for compensation for seized goods, and insisted on the principles of [[free trade]] and equal diplomatic recognition with China. Opium was Britain's single most profitable commodity trade of the 19th century. After months of tensions between the two states, the [[Royal Navy]] launched an expedition in June 1840, which ultimately defeated the Chinese using technologically superior ships and weapons by August 1842. The British then imposed the [[Treaty of Nanking]], which forced China to increase foreign trade, give compensation, and cede [[Hong Kong Island]] to the British. Consequently, the opium trade continued in China. Twentieth-century nationalists considered 1839 the start of a [[century of humiliation]], and many historians consider it the beginning of modern Chinese history.

In the 18th century, the European demand for Chinese luxury goods (particularly silk, porcelain, and tea) created a trade imbalance between China and Britain. [[Global silver trade from the 16th to 18th centuries|European silver flowed into China]] through the [[Canton System]], which confined incoming foreign trade to the southern port city of Guangzhou. To counter this imbalance, the British [[East India Company]] began to grow [[opium]] in [[Bengal]] and allowed private British merchants to sell opium to Chinese smugglers for illegal sale in China. The influx of narcotics reversed the Chinese [[trade surplus]] and increased the numbers of opium addicts inside the country, outcomes that seriously worried Chinese officials.

Senior government officials within the country had been shown to be colluding against the imperial ban due to stocks of opium in European warehouses in clear view being ignored. In 1839, the [[Daoguang Emperor]], rejecting proposals to legalise and tax opium, appointed Viceroy of Huguang [[Lin Zexu]] to go to Guangzhou to halt the opium trade completely.<ref name="Fay-2000l">Fay (2000) p.&nbsp;73.</ref> Lin wrote an open letter to [[Queen Victoria]] appealing to her moral responsibility to stop the opium trade, although she never received it.<ref name="Fay p143">Fay (2000) p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=EgSs61pjvS8C&q=letter%20queen%20victoria 143.]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=digital china/harvard: Letter of Advice to Queen Victoria |url=https://cyber.harvard.edu/ChinaDragon/lin_xexu.html |access-date=2022-11-23 |website=cyber.harvard.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Longman World History |url=https://wps.pearsoncustom.com/wps/media/objects/2427/2486120/chap_assets/documents/doc24_1.html |access-date=2022-11-23 |website=wps.pearsoncustom.com}}</ref> Lin then resorted to using force in the western merchants' enclave. He arrived in Guangzhou at the end of January 1839 and organized a coastal defence. In March 1839, British opium dealers were forced to hand over {{convert|1420|tonnes|E6lb}} of opium. On 3 June 1839, Lin ordered the opium to be destroyed in public on [[Humen|Humen Beach]] to show the Government's determination to ban smoking.<ref name="Britannica">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Opium Wars |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Opium-Wars |access-date=28 November 2021}}</ref> All other supplies were confiscated and a blockade of foreign ships on the Pearl River was ordered.<ref name="Farooqui-2005">{{Cite book |last=Farooqui |first=Amar |title=Smuggling as Subversion: Colonialism, Indian Merchants, and the Politics of Opium, 1790–1843 |date=March 2005 |publisher=Lexington |isbn=0-7391-0886-7}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2021}}

Tensions escalated in July 1839 after drunk British sailors killed a Chinese villager named Lin Weixi; the British official in charge, Admiral [[Charles Elliot]], refused to hand over those accused to Chinese authorities in an attempt to avoid their being killed on the spot, as had happened with British citizens in the [[Lady Hughes Affair|''Lady Hughes'' Affair]] of 1784. Later, fighting broke out, with the British navy destroying the Chinese naval blockade, and launching an offensive.<ref name=Britannica/> In the ensuing conflict, the Royal Navy used its superior naval and gunnery power to inflict a series of decisive defeats on the Chinese Empire.<ref>Steve Tsang, ''A modern history of Hong Kong'' (2007) pp. 3–13.</ref> In 1842, the Qing dynasty was forced to sign the [[Treaty of Nanking]]—the first of what the Chinese later called the [[unequal treaties]]—which granted an [[indemnity]] and [[extraterritoriality]] to British subjects in China, opened five [[treaty ports]] to British merchants, and ceded [[Hong Kong Island]] to the British Empire. The failure of the treaty to satisfy British goals of improved trade and diplomatic relations led to the [[Second Opium War]] (1856–1860). The resulting social unrest was the background for the [[Taiping Rebellion]], which further weakened the Qing regime.<ref>Tsang, ''A modern history of Hong Kong'' p.&nbsp;29.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=November 2022}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Mechanics of Opium Wars |url=https://australian.museum/learn/cultures/international-collection/chinese/the-mechanics-of-opium-wars/ |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=The Australian Museum |language=en}}</ref>