Opening moves The Chinese naval forces in Guangzhou were under the command of Admiral
Guan Tianpei, who had fought the British at Chuenpi. The Qing southern army and garrisons were under the command of
General Yang Fang. Overall command was invested in the
Daoguang Emperor and his court. Few preparations were made for a British reprisal, and the events leading to the eventual outbreak of the
Sino-Sikh War in 1841 were seen as a greater cause for concern. Left without a major base of operations in China, the British withdrew their merchant shipping from the region while maintaining the Royal Navy's China squadron in the islands around the mouth of the Pearl River. From London, Palmerston continued to dictate operations in China, ordering the East India Company to divert troops from India in preparation for a limited war against the Chinese. It was decided that the war would not be fought as a full-scale conflict, but rather as a
punitive expedition. The cost of the war would be paid by the British Government. Per Lord Palmerston's letter, plans were drawn up by the British to launch a series of attacks on Chinese ports and rivers. British plans to form an expeditionary force were started immediately after the January 1840 vote. Several infantry regiments were raised in the British isles, and the completion of ships already under construction was expedited. To conduct the upcoming war, Britain also began to draw on forces from its overseas empire. British India had been preparing for a war since word had arrived that the opium had been destroyed, and several regiments of Bengali volunteers had been recruited to supplement the regular British Indian Army and East India Company forces. In terms of naval forces, the ships earmarked for the expedition were either posted in remote colonies or under repair, and
Oriental Crisis of 1840 (and the resulting risk of war between Britain, France, and the
Ottoman Empire over Syria) drew the attention of the Royal Navy's European fleets away from China. In his letters, Palmerston had instructed the joint plenipotentiaries Elliot and his cousin Admiral
George Elliot to acquire the cession of at least one island for trade on the Chinese coast. With the British expeditionary force now in place, a combined naval and ground assault was launched on the Zhoushan (Chusan) Archipelago.
Zhoushan Island, the largest and best defended of the islands was the primary target for the attack, as was its vital port of
Dinghai. When the British fleet arrived off Zhoushan, Elliot demanded the city surrender. The commander of the Chinese garrison refused the command, stating that he could not surrender and questioning what reason the British had for harassing Dinghai, as they had been driven out of Guangzhou. Fighting began, a fleet of 12 small junks was destroyed by the Royal Navy, and British marines captured the hills to the south of Dinghai. The British
captured the city itself after an intense naval bombardment on 5 July forced the surviving Chinese defenders to withdraw. Having captured Dinghai, the British expedition divided its forces, sending one fleet south to the Pearl River while sending a second fleet north to the
Yellow Sea. The northern fleet sailed to the
Hai River, where Elliot personally presented Palmerston's letter to the emperor to Qing authorities from the capital.
Qishan, a high-ranking Manchu official, was selected by the Imperial Court to replace Lin as the
Viceroy of Liangguang after the latter was discharged for his failure to resolve the opium situation. Negotiations began between the two sides, with Qishan serving as the primary negotiator for the Qing and Elliot serving as the representative for the British Crown. After a week of negotiations, Qishan and Elliot agreed to relocate to the Pearl River for further negotiations. In return for the courtesy of the British to withdraw from the Yellow Sea, Qishan promised to requisition imperial funds as restitution for British merchants who had suffered damages. The war, however, was not concluded and both sides continued to engage each other. In the late spring of 1841 reinforcements arrived from India in preparation for an offensive against Guangzhou. A flotilla of transports brought 600 men of the professionally trained 37th Madras Native Infantry to Dinghai, where their arrival boosted British morale. The defeat of the Qing soldiers coupled with the arrival of the
Nemesis in Macau's harbour resulted in a wave of pro-British support in the city, and several Qing officials were driven out or killed. Portugal remained neutral in the conflict, but after the battle was willing to allow British ships to dock in Macau, a decision that granted the British a functioning port in Southern China. With the strategic harbours of Dinghai and Macau secured, the British began to focus on the war on the Pearl River. Five months after the British victory at Chusan, the northern elements of the expedition sailed south to
Humen, known to the British as The Bogue. Bremer judged that gaining control of the Pearl River and Guangzhou would put the British in a strong negotiating position with the Qing authorities, as well as allow for the renewal of trade when the war ended. The British fleet arrived in early January, and began to bombard the Qing defences at Chuenpi after a group of Chinese fire-rafts were sent drifting towards the Royal navy ships. On 7 January 1841, the British won a decisive victory in the
Second Battle of Chuenpi, destroying 11 Junks of the Chinese southern fleet and capturing the Humen forts. The victory allowed the British to set up a blockade of The Bogue, a blow that forced the Qing navy to retreat upriver. Knowing the strategic value of
Pearl River Delta to China and aware that British naval superiority made a reconquest of the region unlikely, Qishan attempted to prevent the war from widening further by negotiating a peace treaty with Britain. On 21 January Qishan and Elliot drafted the
Convention of Chuenpi, a document which both parties hoped would end the war. The convention would establish equal diplomatic rights between Britain and China, exchange
Hong Kong Island for
Zhoushan, facilitate the release of shipwrecked and kidnapped British citizens held by the Chinese, and reopen trade in Guangzhou by 1 February 1841. The British commanders ordered another blockade of the Pearl River and resumed combat operations against the Chinese. The British captured the remaining Bogue forts on 26 February during the
Battle of the Bogue and the
Battle of First Bar on the following day, allowing the fleet to move further upriver towards Guangzhou. Major General Gough, who had recently arrived from
Madras aboard , personally directed the attack on Whampoa. Superintendent Elliot (who was unaware that he had been dismissed), and the Governor-General of Guangzhou declared a 3-day truce on 3 March. Between the 3rd and the 6th the British forces that had evacuated Zhoushan per the Convention of Chuenpi arrived in the Pearl River. The Chinese military was likewise reinforced, and by 16 March General Yang Fang commanded 30,000 men in the area surrounding Guangzhou. While the main British fleet prepared to sail up the Pearl River to Guangzhou, a group of three warships departed for the
Xi River estuary, intending to navigate the waterway between Macau and Guangzhou. The fleet, led by
Captain James Scott and Superintendent Elliot, was composed of the frigate and the steamships HEIC ship
Nemesis and . Although the waterway was in places only 6 feet deep, the shallow
drafts of the steamships allowed the British to approach Guangzhou from a direction the Qing believed to be impossible. In a series of engagements along the river from 13 to 15 March, the British captured or destroyed Chinese ships, guns, and military equipment. 9 junks, 6 fortresses, and 105 guns were destroyed or captured in what was known as the
Broadway expedition. With the Pearl River cleared of Chinese defences, the British debated advancing on Guangzhou. Although the truce had ended on 6 March, Superintendent Elliot believed that the British should negotiate with the Qing authorities from their current position of strength rather than risk a battle in Guangzhou. The Qing army made no aggressive moves against the British and instead began to fortify the city. Chinese military engineers began to establish a number of mud earthworks on the riverbank, sank junks to create
blockships on the river, and started constructing
fire rafts and gunboats. Chinese merchants were ordered to remove all of the silk and tea from Guangzhou to impede trade, and the local populace was barred from selling food to the British ships on the river. On 16 March a British ship approaching a Chinese fort under a flag of truce was fired upon, leading to the British setting the fort on fire with rockets. These actions convinced Elliot that the Chinese were preparing to fight, and following the return of the ships of the Broadway expedition to the fleet, the British
attacked Guangzhou on 18 March, taking the Thirteen Factories with very few casualties and raising the
Union Jack above the British factory. This order was leaked and became widely circulated in Guangzhou among foreign merchants, who were already suspicious of Chinese intentions after learning of the Qing military build-up. In May many
Cohong merchants and their families left the city, raising further concerns about a renewal of hostilities. Rumours spread that Chinese divers were being trained to drill holes in the hulls of British ships, and that fleets of fire rafts were being prepared for deployment against the Royal Navy. During the build-up, the Qing army was weakened by infighting between units and lack of confidence in Yishan, who openly distrusted Cantonese civilians and soldiers, instead choosing to rely on forces drawn from other Chinese provinces. On 20 May, Yishan issued a statement, asking the "people of Canton, and all foreign merchants who are respectfully obedient, not to tremble with alarm and be frightened out of their wits at the military hosts that are gathering around, there being no probability of hostilities." The next day Elliot requested that all British merchants evacuate the city by sundown, and several warships were recalled to their positions in front of Guangzhou. On the night of 21 May the Qing launched a coordinated night attack on the British army and navy. The defence of Guangzhou was declared a diplomatic success by Yishan. In a letter to the emperor, he wrote that the barbarians had begged "the chief general that he would implore the great emperor in their behalf, that he would have mercy upon them, and cause their debts to be repaid them, and graciously permit them to carry on their commerce, when they would immediately withdraw their ships from the Bocca Tigris, and never dare again to raise any disturbance." However, General Yang Fang was reprimanded by the emperor for his agreeing to a truce rather than forcefully resisting the British. The emperor was not informed the British expedition had not been defeated and was very much intact. The imperial court continued to debate China's next course of action for the war, as the Daoguang Emperor wanted Hong Kong retaken.
Central China Following their withdrawal from Guangzhou, the British relocated the expeditionary force to Hong Kong. Just as with the Chinese commanders, the British leaders debated how the war should be continued. Elliot wanted to cease military operations and reopen trade, while Major General Gough wanted to capture the city of Amoy and blockade the Yangtze River. In July, a typhoon struck Hong Kong, damaging British ships in the harbour and destroying some of the facilities the expedition was building on the island. The situation changed when, on 29 July, Elliot was informed that he had been replaced as Superintendent by
Henry Pottinger, who arrived in Hong Kong on 10 August to begin his administration. Pottinger wanted to negotiate terms with the Qing for the entire country of China, rather than just the Pearl River, and so he turned away Chinese envoys from Guangzhou and gave permission for the expeditionary force to proceed with its war plans. Admiral
William Parker, 1st Baronet of Shenstone also arrived in Hong Kong to replace
Humphrey Fleming Senhouse (who had died of a fever on 29 June) as the commander of the British naval forces in China. It was agreed by the British commanders that combat operations should be moved north to put pressure on Peking, and on 21 August the fleet sailed for Amoy. , 1841 On 25 August, the British fleet entered the
Jiulong River estuary and arrived at Amoy. The city was prepared for a naval assault, as Qing military engineers had built several artillery batteries into the granite cliffs overlooking the river. A purely naval assault was considered too risky by Parker, prompting Gough to order a combined naval and ground attack on the defences. On 26 August British marines and regular infantry under the covering fire of the Royal Navy flanked and destroyed the Chinese defences guarding the river. Several large British ships failed to destroy the largest of the Chinese batteries, which withstood over 12,000 cannonballs being fired at it, so the position was scaled and
captured by the British infantry. The city of Amoy was abandoned on 27 August, and British soldiers entered the inner town where they blew up the
citadel's powder magazine. 26 Chinese junks and 128 cannons were captured, with the captured guns being thrown into the river by the British. As Lord Palmerston wanted Amoy to become an international trade port at the end of the war, Gough ordered that no looting be tolerated and had officers enforce the death penalty for anyone found to be plundering. However, many Chinese merchants refused to ask for British protection out of fear of being branded as traitors to the Qing dynasty. The British withdrew to an island on the river, where they established a small garrison and blockaded the Jiulong River. With the city empty of any army, peasants, criminals, and deserters looted the town. The Qing army retook the city and restored order several days later, after which the city governor declared that a victory had been won and 5 British ships sunk. In Britain, changes in Parliament resulted in Lord Palmerston being removed from his post as Foreign Minister on 30 August.
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne replaced him, and sought a more measured approach to the situation in China. Lamb remained a supporter of the war. In September 1841, the British transport ship
Nerbudda was shipwrecked on a reef off the northern coast of Formosa after a brief gunnery duel with a Chinese fort. This sinking was followed by the loss of the brig
Ann on another reef in March 1842. The survivors of both ships were captured and marched to southern Taiwan, where they were imprisoned. 197 were executed by Qing authorities on 10 August 1842, while an additional 87 died from ill-treatment in captivity. This became known as the
Nerbudda incident. October saw the British solidify their control over the central Chinese coast. Zhoushan had been exchanged for Hong Kong on the authority of Qishan in January 1841, after which the island had been re-garrisoned by the Qing. Fearing that the Chinese would improve the island's defences, the British began a military invasion. The British attacked the Qing on 1 October. The battle of the
Second Capture of Chusan ensued. The British forces killed 1500 Qing soldiers and captured Zhoushan. The victory reestablished British control over Dinghai's important harbour. On 10 October, a British naval force
bombarded and captured a fort on the outskirts of
Ningbo in central China. A battle broke out between the British army and a Chinese force of 1500 men on the road between the town of Chinhai and Ningbo, during which the Chinese were routed. Following the defeat, Chinese authorities evacuated Ningbo and the empty city was taken by the British on 13 October. An imperial cannon manufactory in the city was captured by the British, reducing the ability of the Qing to replace their lost equipment, and the fall of the city threatened the nearby
Qiantang River. The capture of Ningbo forced the British command to examine their policy towards occupied Chinese territory and prizes of war. Admiral Parker and Superintendent Pottinger wanted a percentage of all captured Chinese property to be turned over to the British as legal prizes of war, while General Gough argued that this would only turn the Chinese population against the British, and that if property had to be seized, it should be public property rather than private. British policy eventually settled that 10% of all property captured by the British expeditionary forces would be seized as war loot in retaliation for injustices done to British merchants. Gough later stated that this edict would compel his men to "punish one set of robbers for the benefit of another." Fighting ceased for the winter of 1841 while the British resupplied. False reports sent by Yishan to the emperor in Beijing resulted in the continued British threat being downplayed. In late 1841 the Daoguang Emperor discovered that his officials in Guangzhou and Amoy had been sending him embellished reports. He ordered the governor of
Guangxi,
Liang Chang-chü, to send him clear accounts of the events in Guangzhou, noting that since Guangxi was a neighbouring province, Liang must be receiving independent accounts. He warned Liang that he would be able to verify his information by obtaining secret inquiries from other places. Yishan was recalled to the capital and faced trial by the imperial court, which removed him from command. Now aware of the severity of the British threat, Chinese towns and cities began to fortify against naval incursions. The British pursued the retreating Chinese army,
capturing the nearby city of
Cixi on 15 March. The important harbour of
Zhapu was captured on 18 May in the
Battle of Chapu.
Yangtze campaign With many Chinese ports now blockaded or under British occupation, Major General Gough sought to cripple the finances of the Qing Empire by striking up the Yangtze River. 25 warships and 10,000 men were assembled at Ningbo and Zhapu in May for a planned advance into the Chinese interior. The expedition's advance ships sailed up the
Yangtze, and captured the emperor's tax barges, a devastating blow that slashed the revenue of the imperial court in Beijing to a fraction of what it had been. in the last major battle of the war, 21 July 1842 On 14 June, the mouth of the
Huangpu River was captured by the British fleet. On 16 June, the
Battle of Woosung occurred, after which the British captured the towns of
Wusong and
Baoshan. The undefended outskirts of
Shanghai were occupied by the British on 19 June. Following the battle, Shanghai was looted by retreating Qing bannermen, British soldiers, and local civilians. Qing admiral
Chen Huacheng was killed while defending a fort in Woosong. The Qing commander in Liangjiang Province released 16 British prisoners with the hope that a ceasefire could be reached, but poor communications led both the Qing and the British to reject any overtures at peace. In secret, the Daoguang Emperor considered signing a peace treaty with the British, but only in regards to the Yangtze River and not the war as a whole. Had it been signed, the British forces would have been paid to not enter the Yangtze River. On 14 July, the British fleet on the Yangtze began to sail up the river. Reconnaissance alerted Gough to the logistical importance of the city of
Zhenjiang, and plans were made to capture it. Most of the city's guns had been relocated to Wusong and had been captured by the British when said city had been taken. The Qing commanders inside the city were disorganised, with Chinese sources stating that over 100 traitors were executed in Zhenjiang prior to the battle. The British fleet arrived off of the city on the morning of 21 July, and the Chinese forts defending the city were blasted apart. The Chinese defenders initially retreated into the surrounding hills, causing a premature British landing. Fighting erupted when thousands of Chinese soldiers emerged from the city, beginning the
Battle of Chinkiang. British engineers blew open the western gate and stormed into the city, where fierce street to street fighting ensued. Zhenjiang was devastated by the battle, with many Chinese soldiers and their families committing suicide rather than be taken prisoner.
Treaty of Nanking On 14 August a Chinese delegation led by the Manchu high court official
Keying and Llipu departed Nanking for the British fleet. Negotiations lasted for several weeks as the British delegation insisted the treaty be accepted by the Daoguang Emperor. The court advised the emperor to accept the treaty, and on 21 August the Daoguang Emperor authorised his diplomats to sign the peace treaty with the British. The First Opium war officially ended on 29 August 1842 with the signing of the
Treaty of Nanking. The document was signed by officials of the British and Qing empires aboard .
Technology and tactics British The British military superiority during the conflict drew heavily on the strength of the Royal Navy. Several of the larger British warships in China (notably the third-rates HMS
Cornwallis,
HMS Wellesley, and
HMS Melville) carried more guns than entire fleets of Chinese junks. British marines were equipped with
percussion caps that greatly reduced weapon misfires and allowed firearms to be used in damp environments. In terms of gunpowder, the British formula was better manufactured and contained more sulphur than the Chinese mixture. In battle, the British
line infantry would advance towards the enemy in columns, forming ranks once they had closed to firing range. Companies would commence firing volleys into the enemy ranks until they retreated. If a position needed to be taken, an advance or charge with
bayonets would be ordered.
Light infantry companies screened the line infantry formations, protecting their flanks and utilising skirmishing tactics to disrupt the enemy. The use of naval artillery to support infantry operations allowed the British to take cities and forts with minimal casualties. The overall strategy of the British during the war was to inhibit the finances of the Qing Empire, with the ultimate goal of acquiring a colonial possession on the Chinese coast. This was accomplished through the capture of Chinese cities and by blockading major river systems. Once a fort or city had been captured, the British would destroy the local arsenal and disable all of the captured guns. The large number of private British merchants and East India Company ships deployed in
Singapore and the India colonies ensured that the British forces in China were adequately supplied. Although the Qing had invested in naval defences for their adjacent seas in earlier periods, after the death of the
Qianlong Emperor in 1799, the navy decayed as more attention was directed to suppressing the
Miao Rebellion and White Lotus Rebellion. These conflicts left the Qing treasury bankrupt. The remaining naval forces were badly overstretched, undermanned, underfunded and uncoordinated. From the onset of the war, the Chinese navy was severely disadvantaged. Chinese war junks were intended for use against pirates or equivalent types of vessels, and were more effective in close range river engagements. Due to their ships' slow speeds, Qing captains consistently found themselves sailing towards much more manoeuvrable British ships, and as a consequence the Chinese could only use their bow guns. The size of the British ships made traditional boarding tactics useless, and the junks carried fewer and inferior weapons. Apparently, the Chinese emperor was aware of this. In an 1842 edict he said: ... the invasion by the rebellious barbarians, they depended upon their strong ships and effective guns to commit outrageous acts on the seas and harm our people, largely because the native war junks are too small to match them. For this reason I, the emperor, repeatedly ordered our generals to resist on land and not to fight on seas ... When the enemy ships come, no resistance can be offered; when they go away no means of pursuit are available ... In my opinion what the rebellious barbarians rely upon is the fact that Chinese war junks are incapable of going out to sea to fight them. The defensive nature of the conflict resulted in the Chinese relying heavily on an extensive network of fortifications. The
Kangxi Emperor (1654–1722) began the construction of river defences to combat pirates, and encouraged the use of western style cannons. By the time of the First Opium War, multiple forts defended most major Chinese cities and waterways. Although the forts were well armed and strategically positioned, the Qing defeat exposed major flaws in their design. The cannons used in the Qing defensive fortifications were a collection of Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, and British pieces. The domestically produced Chinese cannon were crafted using sub-par forging methods, limiting their effectiveness in combat and causing excessive gun barrel wear. The Chinese blend of gunpowder also contained more charcoal than the British mixture did; while this made it more stable and thus easier to store, it also limited its potential as a propellant, decreasing projectile range and accuracy. Chinese forts were unable to withstand attacks by European weaponry, as they were designed without angled
glacis and many did not have protected magazines. The limited range of the Qing cannon allowed the British to bombard the Qing defences from a safe distance, then land soldiers to storm them with minimal risk. Many of the larger Chinese guns were built as fixed emplacements and were unable to be maneuvered to fire at British ships. The failure of the Qing fortifications coupled with the Chinese underestimation of the Royal Navy allowed the British to force their way up major rivers and impede Qing logistics. At the start of the war the Qing army consisted of over 200,000 soldiers, with around 800,000 men being able to be called for war. These forces consisted of Manchu
bannermen, the
Green Standard Army, provincial militias, and imperial garrisons. The Qing armies were armed with matchlocks and shotguns, which had an effective range of 100 metres. Chinese soldiers were also equipped with halberds, spears, swords, and crossbows. The Qing dynasty also employed large batteries of artillery in battle. The tactics of the Qing remained consistent with what they had been in previous centuries. Soldiers with firearms would form ranks and fire volleys into the enemy while men armed with spears and pikes would drive the enemy off of the battlefield. Cavalry was used to break infantry formations and pursue routed enemies, while Qing artillery was used to scatter enemy formations and destroy fortifications. During the First Opium War, these tactics were unable to successfully deal with British firepower. Chinese melee formations were decimated by artillery, and Chinese soldiery armed with matchlocks could not effectively exchange fire with British ranks, who greatly outranged them. The Qing military system made it difficult to deploy troops to counter the mobile British forces. In addition, the ongoing conflict with Sikhs on the Qing border with India drew away some of the most experienced Qing units from the war with Britain. File:Chinese soldiers with gingals.jpg|Chinese soldiers armed with a
gingal during the First Opium War. == Aftermath ==