The Second Opium War, also called the Arrow War, was fought between China under the Qing dynasty and Britain and France, with some support from the United States and Russia. It began after Chinese officials boarded the ship Arrow in Canton in 1856, and was driven by Western demands for wider trade, including legal opium sales, and for diplomatic representation in Beijing. The allies took Canton and forced the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858, but fighting resumed when China refused to allow the envoys to reach Beijing. In 1860 British and French forces occupied Beijing and burned the Old Summer Palace, and the Convention of Peking opened more ports, legalized the opium trade and ceded the Kowloon peninsula to Britain. The defeat deepened the weakness of the Qing state.
Before and after
- 1856Construction of Tretyakov Gallery
- 1856Construction of Dolmabahçe Palace
- 1856Pottawatomie Massacre
- 1856Refrigerator
- from 1856 to 1860Second Opium War
- 1856Completion of Balmoral Castle
- 1856Henry Bessemer patents his steel-making process
- 30 March 1856Treaty of Paris
- 24 April 1856Birth of Philippe Pétain
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- from 24 April 1877 to 3 March 1878Tenth Russo-Turkish War
- 27 August 1896Anglo-Zanzibar War
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.