The Second Opium War: When Britain and France Started Another War to Sell Drugs China | Countryball

China's Century of humiliation officially began with its humbling in the first Opium War it would be an era of continuous military defeats humiliating treaties and economic exploitation at the hands of the western powers and later a westernized Japan this was a remarkable turn of events for China the Qing golden age was still in living memory just a few decades ago the Empire enjoyed a full treasury formidable military and a respected Imperial government but now it was reduced to bankruptcy ruinous corruption and worst of all the taiping Civil War a conflict whose scale and viciousness would make it one of the deadliest in human history but the Civil War will only be the backdrop of today's story because today we'll be talking about the next major event in the century of humiliation you see neither Britain nor China were satisfied with the treaties of Nanking and the Bogue the Chinese would continue to nurse their resentment while the British lust for Chinese markets only grew this would result in two small clashes in the 1840s 1847 saw British punitive Expedition sent to avenge the killing of several British citizens and the destruction of their property this was in spite of the fact that the supposed victims had certainly provoked the Chinese into doing all of that and in 1849 the Royal Navy conducted anti-piracy operations off of the Chinese Coast this was intended to protect their own shipping but it also humiliated The Chain by highlighting their own inability to patrol their Coastline both operations concluded in total British victories this was all too much for the chain government who tried to Take Back Control by re-implementing trade restrictions in violation of the unequal treaties combined with the natural course of Commerce this all caused the trade imbalance between Britain and China to tip back in favor of the Chinese the British tried to negotiate a new treaty to rectify the situation but the Chinese weren't interested this led the British to once again consider their violent options as the latest military operations proved Britain still held overwhelming military superiority over the Chinese so if the Qing weren't willing to give in to British demands willingly there was nothing stopping them from extracting those concessions by force all that the British needed was an excuse and in 1856 they got one what was supposed to follow was another quick and easy Chinese Expedition but instead the British would find themselves trapped in a multinational years-long conflict that would soon drive both them and the Chinese to the very limits of desperation and depravity so you can call me Ezekiel and this is the second Opium War but first let me tell you about this video sponsor our supporters on the call me Ezekiel patreon it's because of our patrons that we're able to release a fully Illustrated documentary like this one every two weeks and make each one better than the last so help us continue to create and improve our content by 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Chinese officials who proceeded to arrest her crew the arrow was supposedly registered with the British government at the time so the British crew of her accompanying ship protested the boarding they managed to secure the release of two of the arrested crewmen but 12 remained in custody this is exactly what the British Consul in Canton Harry Parks was waiting for he reported an exaggerated version of the incident to the British government leaving out key details like how the arrow had a history of illegal activity that the Chinese had witnesses attesting that the arrow wasn't flying a British flag at the time or that the arrow wasn't even allowed to fly British colors because its registration had expired so in spite of almost certainly being in the wrong Parks sent his demands to the Chinese government for the return of the 12 prisoners and a public apology the Chinese counter by offering him to return nine prisoners and no apology this too is exactly what parks was hoping for he ordered all nearby British forces to seize Canton the Chinese tried to de-escalate by offering to release all of their prisoners but Parks refused so just like that the second Opium War had begun just like during the first Opium War the Chinese Army and Navy were still hopelessly obsolete so it wouldn't take long for the British to sink canton's Fleet and then to take the city itself thus a city with a population in the hundreds of thousands would be taken by a couple of Warships and a few hundred men the total British casualties for the operation was one dead and three wounded the Americans trapped in the city however would suffer much worse casualties you see Americans made up a large part of the foreign trade presence in Canton which meant that many Americans had suddenly found themselves in the middle of a war zone American officials were quick to declare neutrality and to send in troops to evacuate their civilians but amidst the confusion the Chinese accidentally fired on one of the American ships prompting the Americans to seize a fort in retaliation during all of this chaos seven Americans would be killed and 22 were wounded but after the fighting ended the Americans returned to neutrality foreign the sudden and unplanned breakout of the second Opium War meant that the British did not have nearly enough forces in the region to actually fight it as a result the small number of ships and soldiers they did have all withdrew to Hong Kong where they would await reinforcements but that would take far longer than expected when the massive sepoi Rebellion broke out in India the Rebellion forced all of the ships and soldiers meant for China to be reassigned to India to put down the uprising meanwhile back in Britain large sections of the public began campaigning in opposition to the war but new elections returned a pro-war parliament to power allowing the conflict to continue the Chinese were not as Idle during this period they sent saboteurs to burn down the British factory district in Canton ambushed and killed the crew of a British mail carrier and floated fire ships towards the British Fleet in the Pearl River while the fire ships failed to inflict any damage they did convince the British to abandon the river when China's taiping Rebels heard about the the outbreak of the conflict they sent a letter to British officials offering to join forces with them to defeat their Mutual enemy in the Qing Dynasty but the British had a strict policy of neutrality in the Civil War so they refused the offer by the end of 1857 the sapoi rebellion was crashed allowing the British to refocus on China by this point it was decided that three Allied nations would join the Expedition the most important of which was France who had also been Britain's Ally in the recent Crimean War supposedly the French were here to avenge the murder of Catholic missionaries in China but it was obvious to everyone that this was just another excuse like The Arrow and what they were really after was another round of unequal treaties Russia and the United States would be the other two participants in the Expedition but they only sent minimal forces with strict orders not to participate in the fighting their only mission was to escort their ambassadors accompanying the Expedition so they could participate in the final negotiations by December sufficient forces had arrived to resume the war so the fleet steamed to its first goal of retaking Canton the second Opium War was finally back on foreign the chief British Diplomat for the operation was James Bruce the eighth Earl of Elgin his objectives were to enforce the existing unequal treaties with China secure new trade concessions get compensation for the arrow and France's dead missionaries and finally to station permanent ambassadors in the Chinese Capital at Peking that way they could communicate with the Chinese government directly instead of having to resort to gunboats every time they wanted a new treaty the original War plan was to sail right up the piho river that led to P King but the reinforcements had taken so long to arrive that the river had frozen over for the winter forcing the Allies to settle for retaking Canton when the Expedition arrived at the city they sent an ultimatum to our government including all of elgin's Demands the city replied by explaining that they didn't have the power to Grant any of those concessions and that the Allies would have to take it up with the emperor the Allies responded by assaulting the city this fourth Battle of Canton would be a relatively easy victory for the Allies costing the British 13 dead and 83 wounded and the French two dead and three wounded as usual Chinese casualties were much higher at several hundred the Expedition then waited for winter to end and for the piho to thaw sailing North when it finally did the key obstacle to sailing up the pihoe were the taku forts guarding its mouth those forts were in a strong position and their garrisons were committed to defending the approach to their Capital as a result capturing them cost the British five dead and 17 wounded and the French six dead and 61 wounded when the Expedition entered the fortresses in search of loot they found a surprising amount of modern technology inside including newly cast Cannons of local design and even some foreign gods this was an early sign that the Chang were finally beginning to very slowly modernize as the Expedition sailed up the piho they received a surprisingly positive reception from the locals many kowtowed to show their submission to what they believed to be their new Imperial overlords later when a ship ran aground the local peasants helped to pull her free while the Chinese people were clearly interested in European rule which to them wouldn't have been much different from foreign Manchu rule the Europeans were totally uninterested Britain was the only Power in a position to even consider Chinese conquest and they really didn't want it the situation in China was reminding them way too much of their almost accidental conquest of India wherein modest initial interventions destabilize the local Powers forcing the British to fill in the vacuum to protect their Frontiers and in some cases for the genuinely humanitarian reason of protecting the local peoples from Anarchy but India was largely an unprofitable colony and in the wake of the sepoy mutiny a source of instability no one wanted another India luckily for the British it was looking like things wouldn't have to get that bad because when intense summer heat forced the expedition to stop at tanjin they were approached by the emperor's negotiators foreign representing the British where Elgin and his younger brother Lord Frederick Bruce talks between them dragged on for weeks as the brothers played Hardball Elgin would storm out of the room and threaten to resume military action while his brother had his translator Scream and Shout at the Chinese so much that the Chinese had to appeal to the Russian and American ambassadors for help calming them down there were two issues that the Chinese were in particular opposition to the first was the free passage of foreigners to Chinese territory and the second was the stationing of permanent ambassadors in P King both would seriously damage the legitimacy of the already unstable Qing government but thanks to Elgin and Bruce the Chinese were forced to even concede on those issues in the end each of the four powers France Russia the United Kingdom and the United States would sign their own new treaty with the Chinese collectively known as the Treaty of Tian sin Tian sin included pretty much everything the Western Powers wanted the Salient points were the opening of 11 New Ports to foreign trade including some up the Yangtze River in the nation's interior the right for foreign Merchants to travel into the nation's interior for trade the payment of 2 million teals of silver in compensation for the losses incurred in Canton and another 2 million to cover the cost of the Expedition rules concerning Chinese tariffs on opium implicitly legalizing the drug throughout the country and finally the stationing of permanent ambassadors inside of P King tangentially related to tiansin was the Russian Treaty of igon signed during the conflict this treaty annexed parts of Chinese Siberia into Russia so with the war seemingly over the Expedition returned home with plans to send ambassadors to Peking the next year back in Britain the war was viewed as an overwhelming success but Elgin wasn't as sure for one he thought they should have continued on to Peking and signed it with higher ranking officials there but Elgin was also personally disgusted by his country's behavior in China he would soon leave the country to lead the British mission to Japan hoping to recreate American success there lucky for elgin's conscience this mission was both peaceful and successful Elgin remembered the Japanese as the nicest people possible with none of the stiffness and bigotry of the Chinese by October of 1853 Elgin was back in China on a mission to exercise Britain's newly won right to navigate the Yangtze River his plan was to lead five gun boats up its whole navigable length this would take him past the taiping's capital of Nanchang where as they passed by they came under Fire by confused taiping forces Elgin responded by continuing to steam ahead and returning fire as he sailed past on elgin's return trip he received a letter from the rebel leader the Heavenly King and brother of Christ himself Hong Shaquan it was written on yellow silk in Vermilion Inc a form usually reserved only for the emperor's proclamations the letter explained the taiping's unique Christian theology to Elgin and implored him to help his fellow Christians in the Heavenly Kingdom to win their war against the Foreign Devil manchus the letter also forgave Elgin for firing on the taiping battery as it was rightful self-defense and even informed him that all of the men responsible for firing on him had been executed finally the Heavenly King personally invited Elgin to enter his Heavenly Kingdom Elgin however did not want to risk compromising Britain's neutrality so he neither accepted the invitation nor even responded to it instead Lord Elgin mutually continued his journey back to Shanghai [Music] Lord Frederick Bruce elgin's brother was appointed to be Britain's ambassador to P King but that plan was interrupted when the Chinese informed him that he would not be allowed to travel up the piho but by a secondary route meant for tributary missions Bruce refused to accept this change and insisted on the original course by now the Western Powers were used to Chinese recalcitrins so they immediately set about agitating for the emperor to ratify the treaty himself to ensure its compliance there was some back and forth over this until the Chinese went further and said that the foreign ambassadors wouldn't be allowed to take up residency inside a peking either and that they would instead have to live outside of the city walls the Chinese also insisted that the ambassadors performed the dreaded cow Tao tensions finally boiled over when the Chinese laid booms across the piho river this outraged the Europeans who demanded their removal when it became clear that no response was forthcoming another Allied fleet was gathered this time there were no Russians present and the French only sent a token Force at the very least the Americans were joining the Expedition but they were still under strict orders not to participate in any fighting all of this meant that the British were gonna have to do all of the heavy lifting to enforce Tian sen the plan was for the fleet to destroy the boons retake the taku Forts and steam up to the capital where they would force the Chinese back into compliance the fleet destroyed the first boom with no problem the second boom was much more durable though made out of whole tree trunks tied together by heavy chains so its destruction was planned to be carried out the following day on that day and still without any resistance the British Fleet Advanced to the second boom then the British Flagship Plover steamed forward to Ram through it but the boom didn't break instead it held firm and critically damaged the Plover it was then that taku's Defenders revealed themselves and poured fire down on the fleet the totally exposed ships were caught by surprise with multiple being destroyed or disabled by the Chinese guns watching this scene was American Commodore Josiah Tattnall the site of the British his own ethnic cousins in such distress was too much for him to bear Tattnall violated his nation's neutrality and jumped into action rushing forward to save as many British ships and sailors as he could when Tattnall found the wounded British Admiral aboard the sinking Clover Tattnall was reported to explain his actions with the now famous phrase blood is thicker than water tatnal's actions would come to be viewed as heroic by both the British and American publics likely saving him from Court martial so leave a blood drop Emoji in the comments to celebrate tattinal's coining of a kick-ass phrase eventually the Chinese guns went silent the Allies assumed that this was because the garrisons had fled so a landing party was sent ashore to storm one of the fourths but this proved to be another trap when the landing party Advanced to a sufficiently vulnerable position the Chinese revealed themselves once again and opened fire inflicting even more casualties on the British it was now clear that the battle was lost so after Nightfall all of the expedition's forces withdrew this Second Battle of the taku forts was the first major Chinese victory of the Opium Wars the Allies suffered a shocking 400 casualties including the British rear Admiral in charge of the operation who was wounded in the thigh the French suffered 12 killed and 23 wounded while the Americans suffered one dead and one wounded all of this was on top of the material loss of multiple warships this was a humiliation for the Western powers and emboldened the Chinese if they were recalcitrant before they would totally disregard Tian sin now the defeated taku would have to be Avenged and the Treaty of Tian sin enforced the Allies were going to gather every gunboat they could get their hands on blast their way past the taku forts steam all the way up the piho river land an army A P King and take the City by storm if that was what it took because the Western Powers were going to force the Chinese emperor himself to sign and abide by the Treaty of Tian and sand even if it was the last thing they do the second Opium War is about to enter its final climactic phase one that will bring both sides to the very limits of desperation and depravity how bad will it get that's what we're going to find out in part two which when it's out you'll be able to watch by clicking the link on the top right of your screen this video was funded by local British officials overstepping their government's policies to start more unwanted Wars of imperialism against waning foreign powers including GS Rogers Josiah Peter and the union of X you too can help start unprovoked wars of Imperial aggression by supporting us on patreon links in the description like comment and subscribe for more I'll see you in part two [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: CallMeEzekiel

Views: 113,302

Keywords: CallMeEzekiel, Funny, History, memes, Polandball, Countryball, Country Ball, CountryHuman, CountryPerson, Humanities, Politics, Political Philosophy, Documentary, Ideology Ball, IdeologyBall, PolCompBall, Lord Elgin, James Bruce, Frederick Bruce, Taku Forts, The Second Opium War, Century of Humiliations, Qing Dynasty

Id: MEbGPGQfKIY

Length: 21min 39sec (1299 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 05 2023