The Treaty of Nanjing was the
peace treaty
A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice, which is an agreement to stop hostilities; a surre ...
which ended the
First Opium War (1839–1842) between
Great Britain and the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese later termed the
Unequal Treaties.
In the wake of China's military defeat, with British warships poised to attack
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...
, British and Chinese officials negotiated on board
HMS ''Cornwallis'' anchored in the
Yangtze
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
at the city. On 29 August, British representative Sir
Henry Pottinger and Qing representatives
Qiying,
Yilibu
Yilibu (Manchu: ''Ilibu''; ; 1772 – 4 March 1843Boulger, Demetrius Charles (1898). The History of China'. Volume 2. p. 146.), also spelt Elepoo, was a Chinese official of the Qing dynasty. A Manchu of the Bordered Yellow Banner, he was Viceroy ...
, and Niu Jian signed the treaty, which consisted of thirteen articles.
The treaty was ratified by the
Daoguang Emperor on 27 October and Queen Victoria on 28 December. Ratification was exchanged in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
on 26 June 1843. The treaty required the Chinese to pay an indemnity, to cede the Island of Hong Kong to the British as a colony, to essentially end the
Canton system that had limited trade to that port and allow trade at
Five Treaty Ports. It was followed in 1843 by the
Treaty of the Bogue, which granted
extraterritoriality
In international law, extraterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations.
Historically, this primarily applied to individuals, as jurisdiction was usually cl ...
and
most favored nation status.
Background
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Britain faced a growing
trade deficit
The balance of trade, commercial balance, or net exports (sometimes symbolized as NX), is the difference between the monetary value of a nation's exports and imports over a certain time period. Sometimes a distinction is made between a balanc ...
with China. Britain could offer nothing to China to match the growing importation of Chinese goods to Britain, such as tea and porcelain. In
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
, opium was grown on
plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...
s and auctioned to merchants, who then sold it to Chinese who smuggled it into China (Chinese law forbade the importation and sale of opium). When
Lin Zexu seized this privately owned opium and ordered the
destruction of opium at Humen, Britain first demanded reparations, then declared what became known as the
First Opium War. Britain's use of recently invented military technology produced a crushing victory and allowed it to impose a one-sided treaty.
The first working draft for articles of a treaty was prepared at the
Foreign Office
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* Unit ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in February 1840. The Foreign Office was aware that preparing a treaty containing Chinese and English characters would need special consideration. Given the distance separating the countries, it was realised that some flexibility and a departure from established procedure in preparing treaties might be required.
[Wood, R. Derek (May 1996).]
The Treaty of Nanking: Form and the Foreign Office, 1842–43
. ''The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History''
Terms
Foreign trade
The fundamental purpose of the treaty was to change the framework of foreign trade imposed by the
Canton System, which had been in force since 1760. Under Article V, the treaty abolished the former monopoly of the ''
Cohong'' and their
Thirteen Factories
The Thirteen Factories, also known as the , was a neighbourhood along the Pearl River in southwestern Guangzhou (Canton) in the Qing Empire from to 1856 around modern day Xiguan, in Guangzhou's Liwan District. These warehouses and stores were ...
in Canton. Four additional "
treaty ports
Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...
" opened for foreign trade alongside Canton (
Shameen Island from 1859 until 1943): Amoy (
Xiamen
Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong' ...
until 1930), Foochow (
Fuzhou
Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute ...
), Ningpo (
Ningbo
Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...
) and
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
(until 1943), where foreign merchants were to be allowed to trade with anyone they wished. Britain also gained the right to send consuls to the treaty ports, which were given the right to communicate directly with local Chinese officials (Article II). The treaty stipulated that trade in the treaty ports should be subject to fixed tariffs, which were to be agreed upon between the British and the Qing governments (Article X).
[ Treaty of Nanking]
Reparations and demobilisation
The Qing government was obliged to pay the British government six million silver dollars for the opium that had been confiscated by
Lin Zexu in 1839 (Article IV), 3 million dollars in compensation for debts that the merchants in Canton owed British merchants (Article V), and a further 12 million dollars in
war reparations for the cost of the war (Article VI). The total sum of 21 million dollars was to be paid in instalments over three years and the Qing government would be charged an annual interest rate of 5 percent for the money that was not paid in a timely manner (Article VII).
The Qing government undertook to release all British prisoners of war (Article VIII), and to give a general amnesty to all Chinese subjects who had cooperated with the British during the war (Article IX).
The British on their part, undertook to withdraw all of their troops from Nanking, the
Grand Canal and the military post at
Zhenhai, as well as not to interfere with China trade generally, after the emperor had given his assent to the treaty and the first instalment of money had been received (Article XII). British troops would remain in
Gulangyu and
Zhaobaoshan until the Qing government had paid reparations in full (Article XII).
Cession of Hong Kong
In 1841, a rough outline for a treaty was sent for the guidance of
Plenipotentiary
A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the wor ...
Charles Elliot. It had a blank after the words "the cession of the ''islands'' of". Pottinger sent this old draft treaty on shore, with the letter ''s'' struck out of ''islands'' and the words ''Hong Kong'' placed after it.
[Martin, Robert Montgomery (1847). ]
China: Political, Commercial, and Social; In an Official Report to Her Majesty's Government
'. Volume 2. London: James Madden. p. 84. Robert Montgomery Martin, treasurer of Hong Kong, wrote in an official report:
The terms of peace having been read, Elepoo the senior commissioner paused, expecting something more, and at length said "is that all?" Mr. Morrison enquired of Lieutenant-colonel Malcolm ottinger's secretaryif there was anything else, and being answered in the negative, Elepoo immediately and with great tact closed the negotiation by saying, "''all shall be granted—it is settled—it is finished''."
The Qing government agreed to make
Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km2, . The island had a population of a ...
a
crown colony, ceding it to the
Queen Victoria of Great Britain, in perpetuity (, ''Cháng yuǎn'', in the Chinese version of the treaty), to provide British traders with a harbour where they could "careen and refit their ships and keep stores for that purpose" (Article III). Pottinger was later appointed the first
Governor of Hong Kong
The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kon ...
.
In 1860, the colony was extended with the addition of the
Kowloon
Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and ...
peninsula under the
Convention of Peking
The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. In China, they are regarded as amo ...
and in 1898, the
Second Convention of Peking further expanded the colony with the 99-year lease of the
New Territories
The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...
. In 1984, the governments of the United Kingdom and the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
(PRC) concluded the
Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong, under which the sovereignty of the leased territories, together with Hong Kong Island and
Kowloon
Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and ...
(south of Boundary Street) ceded under the
Convention of Peking
The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. In China, they are regarded as amo ...
(1860), was
transferred to the PRC on 1 July 1997.
Aftermath
The treaty was sealed by interpreter
John Robert Morrison for the British and Wang Tajin for the Chinese.
Harry Parkes, who was a student of Chinese under Morrison, gave his account of the ceremony:
There were four copies of the Treaty signed and sealed. They were bound in worked yellow silk, one Treaty in English and the same in Chinese stitched and bound together formed a copy. This being finished they all came out of the after-cabin and sat down to tiffin, and the different officers seated themselves all round the table, making plenty of guests. Almost directly after the Treaty was signed, a yellow flag for China at the main and a Union Jack for England at the mizen were hoisted, and at the same time a royal salute of twenty-one guns was fired.
The
Daoguang Emperor gave his assent for the treaty on 8 September.
After his assent arrived in Nanking on 15 September, Pottinger's secretary
George Alexander Malcolm was dispatched on board the steamer ''Auckland'' the next morning to the
Court of St James's
The Court of St James's is the royal court for the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. All ambassadors to the United Kingdom are formally received by the court. All ambassadors from the United Kingdom are formally accredited from the court – ...
with a copy for ratification by
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
. The emperor ratified the treaty on 27 October and Queen Victoria added her written assent on 28 December. Ratification was exchanged in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
on 26 June 1843.
Pottinger wrote in a letter to the
Earl of Aberdeen
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form '' jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particu ...
the following year that at a feast with
Qiying celebrating the ratification, Qiying insisted they ceremonially exchange miniature portraits of each member of each other's families. Upon receiving a miniature portrait of Pottinger's wife, Pottinger wrote that Qiying "placed
he miniatureon his head—which I am told is the highest token of respect and friendship—filled a glass of wine, held the picture in front of his face, muttered some words in a low voice, drank the wine, again placed the picture on his head and then sat down" to complete the ceremony of long-term amity between the two families and the two peoples. This extravagant display has been analysed as showing an "erotically charged ... reciprocity
nthis symbolic gesture of swapping images of wives.
Because of the brevity of the Treaty of Nanking and its terms being phrased only as general stipulations, the British and Chinese representatives agreed that a supplementary treaty should be concluded to establish more detailed regulations for relations. On 3October 1843, the parties concluded the supplementary
Treaty of the Bogue at the
Bocca Tigris outside Canton.
Nevertheless, the treaties of 1842–43 left several unsettled issues. In particular they did not resolve the status of the opium traffic in favour of the British Empire. Although the
Treaty of Wanghia
The Treaty of Wanghia (also known as the Treaty of Wangxia; Treaty of peace, amity, and commerce, between the United States of America and the Chinese Empire; ) was the first of the unequal treaties imposed by the United States on China. As p ...
with the Americans in 1844 explicitly banned Americans from selling opium, the trade continued as both the British and American merchants were only subject to the legal control of their permissive consuls. The opium traffic was later legalised in the
Treaties of Tianjin, which China concluded after the
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire#Britain's imperial ...
resulted in another defeat for the Qing dynasty.
These treaties had deep and lasting effect. Nanking Treaty, together with the following treaties of 1843, 1858, and 1860, ended the
Canton System as created in 1760. These treaties created a new framework for China's foreign relations and overseas trade, which would last for almost a hundred years and marked the start of what later nationalists called China's "
century of humiliation." From the perspective of modern Chinese nationalists, the most injurious terms were the fixed trade tariff,
extraterritoriality
In international law, extraterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations.
Historically, this primarily applied to individuals, as jurisdiction was usually cl ...
, the
most favoured nation provisions and freeing the importation of British opium which continued to have social and economic consequences for the Chinese people. These terms were imposed by the British and extended to other Western powers with
most favoured nation status, and were conceded by the ruling Qing dynasty in order to avert continued military defeats and under the hope that most favoured nation provision would set the foreigners against each other. Although China regained tariff autonomy in the 1920s, extraterritoriality was not formally abolished until the 1943
.
[Hsu, ''The Rise of Modern China'': 190–92.]
A copy of the treaty is kept by the British government while another copy is kept by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...
at the
National Palace Museum
The National Palace Museum (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Kwet-li̍p kù-kiung pok-vu̍t-yèn), is a museum in Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan). It has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of Chinese artifacts and artworks, many of which w ...
in
Taipei
Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...
, Taiwan.
See also
*
Western imperialism in Asia
*
History of Hong Kong
The region of Hong Kong has been inhabited since the Old Stone Age, later becoming part of the Chinese Empire with its loose incorporation into the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). Starting out as a farming fishing village and salt production site, ...
*
Anglo-Chinese relations
*
Henry Collen (photographed the treaty)
*
David Sassoon
Notes
References
*
Fairbank, John King. ''Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842–1854''. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953.
*
Têng Ssu-yü
Têng Ssu-yü (; August 12, 1906 – April 5, 1988) was a Sinologist, bibliographer, and professor of history at Indiana University. Born in Hunan Province, China, he died in Bloomington, Indiana, after being struck by a car. Teng was trained ...
. ''Chang Hsi and the Treaty of Nanking, 1842.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944.
*R. Derek Wood, 'The Treaty of Nanking: Form and the Foreign Office, 1842–1843', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (London) 24 (May 1996), 181–19
online
External links
Original Treaty of Nanking in English-Chinese from
National Palace Museum
The National Palace Museum (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Kwet-li̍p kù-kiung pok-vu̍t-yèn), is a museum in Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan). It has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of Chinese artifacts and artworks, many of which w ...
, Taipei
English Text in London Gazette(Differs in some respects from Chinese text)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Treaty of Nanking
1842 in China
1842 in the United Kingdom
1842 treaties
August 1842 events
China–United Kingdom relations
History of Hong Kong
History of Nanjing
Hong Kong Island
Peace treaties of China
Peace treaties of the United Kingdom
Treaties involving territorial changes
Treaties of the Qing dynasty
Treaties of the United Kingdom (1801–1922)
Nanking