Treaty of Nanking (1842): The First of China's Unequal Treaties

The Treaty of Nanking was signed on 29 August 1842 aboard the British warship HMS Cornwallis, anchored in the Yangtze River off Nanjing. It ended the First Opium War between Britain and Qing China, ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain and opened five Chinese ports to British trade. Chinese historians regard it as the first of the “unequal treaties” that shaped China’s relations with foreign powers for a century.

Background

The war had begun in 1839 after the Chinese government confiscated and destroyed more than 20,000 chests of British-held opium at Canton (Guangzhou). An earlier attempt at a settlement, the Convention of Chuenpi of January 1841, had been rejected by both the Daoguang Emperor and the British government.

Under Sir Henry Pottinger, British forces then moved north along the coast and in 1842 entered the Yangtze. The capture of Zhenjiang on 21 July 1842 cut the Grand Canal, the main route carrying grain to Beijing. With British warships anchored off Nanjing and an assault on the city prepared, the emperor authorised his officials to make peace.

Britain’s aims had been set out by Lord Palmerston in instructions to his negotiators. He wanted compensation for the confiscated opium and the costs of the war, the security of British merchants, an end to the restrictions of the Canton System and either an island base or the opening of more ports. By 1842 the British government, now led by Sir Robert Peel, was willing to accept both.

Negotiation and signing

The Qing negotiators were Qiying, a Manchu imperial clansman, Yilibu, an elderly official who had dealt with the British before, and Niu Jian, governor-general of the provinces around Nanjing. Talks were brief, since the Chinese side had little room to bargain. The draft was prepared by the British, translated by the interpreters attached to Pottinger’s staff, among them John Robert Morrison and the missionary Karl Gützlaff, and accepted largely as presented. The treaty was signed on board the Cornwallis on 29 August 1842, in English and Chinese versions.

The Qing negotiators reported to the emperor in language that played down the scale of the concessions, presenting them as favours granted to pacify the foreigners. This habit of describing the treaties in traditional terms made it harder for the court to grasp how much had changed.

The Daoguang Emperor approved the treaty within weeks, and Queen Victoria ratified it at the end of 1842. Ratifications were exchanged in Hong Kong on 26 June 1843.

The terms

The treaty had 13 articles. Its main provisions were:

• Hong Kong: the island of Hong Kong was ceded to the British Crown “in perpetuity”, to serve as a base for British merchants.
• Treaty ports: Canton, Amoy (Xiamen), Foochow (Fuzhou), Ningpo (Ningbo) and Shanghai were opened to British merchants and their families, with British consuls stationed in each.
• Indemnity: China agreed to pay 21 million silver dollars in instalments until 1845. Of this, 6 million was for the opium destroyed in 1839, 3 million for debts owed by Chinese merchants to British traders and 12 million for Britain’s war costs.
• End of the Cohong: the monopoly of the licensed Chinese merchant guild at Canton was abolished, and the British could trade with whomever they wished.
• Tariffs: China agreed to a “fair and regular” tariff on imports and exports, to be published.
• Diplomatic equality: officials of the two countries were to correspond on terms of equality, ending the Qing practice of treating foreign representatives as inferiors.
• Prisoners and amnesty: British prisoners were to be released, and Chinese subjects who had worked with the British were to be pardoned.

The treaty did not mention the opium trade itself, other than the payment for the destroyed opium. Smuggling continued and grew. The British government declined to press for legalisation, and the Qing court refused to grant it, so the drug remained contraband while foreign ships carried it openly to receiving stations along the coast.

British forces were to withdraw from Nanjing and the Grand Canal once the first instalment of the indemnity was paid, but they kept the island of Zhoushan and the fort of Gulangyu at Xiamen as security until the whole sum had been handed over.

Supplementary treaties

Further agreements in 1843 filled in the details. Trade regulations and a tariff schedule fixed low duties of around 5 per cent on most goods and gave British subjects extraterritoriality: those accused of crimes in China would be tried by British consuls under British law. The Treaty of the Bogue, signed in October 1843, gave Britain most-favoured-nation status, meaning that any privilege China granted to another country would automatically apply to Britain.

Other powers quickly followed. The United States signed the Treaty of Wanghia in July 1844 and France the Treaty of Whampoa in October 1844, each gaining similar rights. Thanks to the most-favoured-nation clause, each new concession won by one power was shared by all of them, so the privileges of foreigners in China grew step by step.

Key people

• Sir Henry Pottinger (1789-1856): British plenipotentiary who negotiated the treaty and became the first governor of Hong Kong.
• Qiying (died 1858): Manchu official who led the Qing negotiators and later concluded the American and French treaties.
• Yilibu (1772-1843): senior Qing official who took part in the talks and died the following year.
• Niu Jian: governor-general of Liangjiang, the provinces around Nanjing, and co-signatory.
• Daoguang Emperor (reigned 1820-1850): approved the treaty after military defeat.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 1841, 20 January: The Convention of Chuenpi is agreed but later rejected by both sides.
• 1842, 21 July: British forces capture Zhenjiang.
• 1842, August: British warships arrive off Nanjing.
• 1842, 29 August: The Treaty of Nanking is signed aboard HMS Cornwallis.
• 1843, 26 June: Ratifications are exchanged in Hong Kong.
• 1843, 8 October: The supplementary Treaty of the Bogue is signed.
• 1843, November: Shanghai opens to foreign trade.
• 1844, July and October: The United States and France sign their own treaties with China.

Legacy

The treaty created the treaty-port system. Shanghai in particular grew into a great international trading city with foreign-run settlements. Hong Kong became a British colony and, after the addition of Kowloon in 1860 and the lease of the New Territories in 1898, remained British until the handover of 1997.

Many Qing officials at first saw the concessions as a way of managing foreigners, but disputes over their interpretation led to the Second Opium War of 1856-1860 and to further treaties. In the twentieth century Chinese nationalists, both Nationalist and Communist, made the abolition of the “unequal treaties” a central goal, and most foreign privileges in China were given up during the 1940s. Britain and the United States formally renounced extraterritoriality in treaties with the Republic of China in 1943.

The treaty also changed the Chinese coast. Treaty-port communities of merchants, missionaries and consuls brought new technologies, newspapers and ideas, as well as foreign gunboats and courts. Historians continue to debate how far these enclaves stimulated China’s modernisation and how far they undermined its sovereignty, but there is broad agreement that the settlement was imposed by force.

Why it matters

The Treaty of Nanking ended China’s control over the terms of its foreign trade and began a century of imposed concessions. It explains why Hong Kong became British and why the Opium War remains a powerful symbol in China today.