Editing Opium Wars (section)

===Second Opium War===
{{main|Second Opium War}}
[[File:Capture of the Peiho Forts.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Depiction of the [[Battle of Taku Forts (1860)|1860 battle of Taku Forts]]. Book illustration from 1873.]]

In 1853, northern China was convulsed by the [[Taiping Rebellion]], which established its capital at [[Nanjing]]. In spite of this, a new Imperial Commissioner, [[Ye Mingchen]], was appointed at Canton, determined to stamp out the opium trade, which was still technically illegal. In October 1856, he seized the ''Arrow'', a ship claiming British registration, and threw its crew into chains. [[Sir John Bowring]], Governor of British Hong Kong, called up Rear Admiral [[Michael Seymour (Royal Navy officer, born 1802)|Sir Michael Seymour]]'s [[East Indies and China Station]] fleet, which, on 23 October, bombarded and captured the [[Pearl River (China)|Pearl River]] forts on the approach to Canton and proceeded to bombard Canton itself, but had insufficient forces to take and hold the city. On 15 December, during a riot in Canton, European commercial properties were set on fire and Bowring appealed for military intervention.<ref name="Haythornthwaite, 2000, p.239" /> The execution of a French missionary inspired support from France.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MIT Visualizing Cultures |url=https://visualizingcultures.mit.edu/opium_wars_02/ow2_essay02.html |access-date=2023-09-09 |website=visualizingcultures.mit.edu}}</ref> The United States and Russia also intervened in the war.

Britain and France now sought greater concessions from China, including the legalization of the opium trade, expanding of the transportation of ''[[coolie]]s'' to European colonies, opening all of China to British and French citizens and exempting foreign imports from [[Likin (taxation)|internal transit duties]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Zhihong Shi|title=Central Government Silver Treasury: Revenue, Expenditure and Inventory Statistics, ca. 1667–1899|year=2016|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-30733-9|page=33}}</ref>  The war resulted in the 1858 [[Treaty of Tientsin]] (Tianjin), in which the Chinese government agreed to pay [[war reparations]] for the expenses of the recent conflict, open a second group of ten ports to European commerce, legalize the opium trade, and grant foreign traders and missionaries rights to travel within China.<ref name="Haythornthwaite, 2000, p.239" /> 

China was also required to use diplomacy in the Western, egalitarian style instead of their normal way of conducting business with lesser states through a [[tribute]] system.  This treaty led to the era in Chinese history known as the "[https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/3.10.11Kaufman.pdf Century of Humiliation]".  This term refers to China's loss of control of many territories to its enemies after being forced into treaties which they considered unfair.  Even though the treaties were signed in 1858, there was still Chinese resistance to its principles including the residence of foreign ambassadors in Beijing.  The British continued to attack the Chinese.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/china-2 | title=Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations - Office of the Historian }}</ref>  After a second phase of fighting which included the sack of the [[Old Summer Palace]] and the occupation of the [[Forbidden City]] palace complex in [[Beijing]], the treaty was confirmed by the [[Convention of Peking]] in 1860.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}