A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.]Eberhard, Wolfram
History
A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.]
Eberhard, Wolfram
China -- History
This treaty introduced the period of the Capitulations. It contained the
dangerous clause which added most to China's misfortunes--the Most
Favoured Nation clause, providing that if China granted any privilege to
any other state, that privilege should also automatically be granted to
Great Britain. In connection with this treaty it was agreed that the
Chinese customs should be supervised by European consuls; and a trade
treaty was granted. Similar treaties followed in 1844 with France and
the United States. The missionaries returned; until 1860, however, they
were only permitted to work in the treaty ports. Shanghai was thrown
open in 1843, and developed with extraordinary rapidity from a town to a
city of a million and a centre of world-wide importance.
The terms of the Nanking Treaty were not observed by either side; both
evaded them. In order to facilitate the smuggling, the British had
permitted certain Chinese junks to fly the British flag. This also
enabled these vessels to be protected by British ships-of-war from
pirates, which at that time were very numerous off the southern coast
owing to the economic depression. The Chinese, for their part, placed
every possible obstacle in the way of the British. In 1856 the Chinese
held up a ship sailing under the British flag, pulled down its flag, and
arrested the crew on suspicion of smuggling. In connection with this and
other events, Britain decided to go to war. Thus began the "Lorcha War"
of 1857, in which France joined for the sake of the booty to be
expected. Britain had just ended the Crimean War, and was engaged in
heavy fighting against the Moguls in India. Consequently only a small
force of a few thousand men could be landed in China; Canton, however,
was bombarded, and also the forts of Tientsin. There still seemed no
prospect of gaining the desired objectives by negotiation, and in 1860 a
new expedition was fitted out, this time some 20,000 strong. The troops
landed at Tientsin and marched on Peking; the emperor fled to Jehol and
did not return; he died in 1861. The new Treaty of Tientsin (1860)
provided for (a) the opening of further ports to European traders; (b)
the session of Kowloon, the strip of land lying opposite Hong Kong; (c)
the establishment of a British legation in Peking; (d) freedom of
navigation along the Yangtze; (e) permission for British subjects to
purchase land in China; (f) the British to be subject to their own
consular courts and not to the Chinese courts; (g) missionary activity
to be permitted throughout the country. In addition to this, the
commercial treaty was revised, the opium trade was permitted once more,
and a war indemnity was to be paid by China. In the eyes of Europe,
Britain had now succeeded in turning China not actually into a colony,
but at all events into a semi-colony; China must be expected soon to
share the fate of India. China, however, with her very different
conceptions of intercourse between states, did not realize the full
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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