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Sep 8, 2024 · Opium Wars, two mid-19th-century armed conflicts between China and Western countries. The first Opium War (1839–42) was fought between China and Britain; the second Opium War (1856–60), also known as the Arrow War or the Anglo-French War in China, was fought by Britain and France against China.
It was the second major conflict in 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 ...
- 8 October 1856-24 October 1860
- Allied victory (see § Aftermath)
- China
It was a bitter conflict within China that took an estimated 20 million lives before it finally came to an end in 1864. So as well as the issue of opium continually being sold illegally in China by the British, the Emperor also had to quell a Christian rebellion.
Jan 28, 2019 · For the Qing Dynasty, the Second Opium War marked the beginning of a slow descent into oblivion that ended with the abdication of Emperor Puyi in 1911. The ancient Chinese imperial system would not vanish without a fight, however.
- Kallie Szczepanski
Jul 20, 2020 · How did the second one come about? With China humiliated and Britain seeking further gains, the situation remained tense. The spark for the second conflict occurred in 1856 when Chinese officers searched a Chinese owned (but British registered) ship and lowered the British flag.
The outbreak of the second war resulted in the treaties of Tianjin (1858), which required further Chinese concessions. When China later refused to ratify the treaties, Beijing was captured and the emperor’s summer palace burned.
March 3, 1857 marked the unofficial beginning of the so-called Second Opium War (officially 1856-1860), a conflict that not only forced that narcotic drug deep into China’s politics, public health, and economics but also cemented the country’s status as both a prize and a battleground for Euro-American imperialist powers.
