However, they were not satisfied with the privileges and interests they had obtained, and deliberately stepped up their aggression against China and plundered the economy.
1854, the 12th anniversary of the signing of treaty of nanking.
Britain misinterpreted the provisions of the Wang Xia Treaty between China and the United States on trade and sea areas 12 years later, invoked the most-favoured-nation clause, and demanded a comprehensive revision of the treaty of nanking.
The main contents are as follows: trade throughout China, legalization of opium trade, exemption of import and export goods from customs duties, and the presence of foreign minister in Beijing.
France and the United States also requested to amend the treaty respectively.
Qing * * * refused, and the negotiations were fruitless.
1856, the Wang Xia treaty expired for 12 years.
With the support of Britain and France, the United States once again asked for a comprehensive revision of the treaty, but it was still rejected by the Qing Dynasty.
Therefore, the western powers are determined to launch a new war of aggression against China.
It was the spring of 2008, and the Crimean War was over.
With the victory of Britain and France, more troops were transferred to China.
Russia was defeated and tried to make up for the loss by invading China.
The United States actively expanded outward and adopted the policy of collaborating with Britain and France to invade China.
1844 article 34 of the Wang Xia treaty between China and the United States stipulates that "all trade and sea areas may be slightly modified, and they shall be treated fairly after 12 years.
According to the principle of benefit sharing, Britain, France and the United States proposed to amend the treaty twice in 1854 and 1856, and Russia also took the opportunity to seek benefits.
However, the request of the four countries to amend the treaty was not allowed by the Qing dynasty, and the powers began to find excuses to send more troops.
185 1 After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom broke out, the powers thought it was a good opportunity to grab benefits from China.
After the First Opium War, the anti-foreign activities of Guangdong people occurred from time to time.
At that time, Ye, Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and Minister of Trade for Five Ports, took a tacit attitude and ignored all foreign complaints.
[Edit this paragraph] fuse
1856 10, Britain used the Yarrow Incident as an excuse for the war.
Arrow is a China ship. It was registered with the British authorities in Hong Kong for smuggling, but it has expired.
On October 8th, 65438/kloc-0, Guangdong navy arrested several pirates and suspected sailors on the Yarrow.
This is purely an internal affair of China and has nothing to do with Britain.
At the behest of the British Ambassador to China, the British acting consul in Guangzhou wrote to the Governor of Guangdong and Hong Kong, Ye, saying that the Arrow was a British ship, and fabricated a story that China soldiers insulted the British flag flying on the ship, demanding the release of the arrested persons and apologizing.
At first, Ye Chenming argued, but later compromised and sent all the prisoners to the British consulate.
In order to further expand the situation, Parkes was critical and refused to accept it.
10 year 10 on 23rd, the British ship suddenly broke into the estuary of Humen and attacked the battery along the Pearl River, flagrantly provoking a war of aggression.
Then, the British army shelled Guangzhou and once invaded the inner city.
The local soldiers and civilians bravely resisted.
Due to the shortage of troops, the British army was forced to withdraw from the Pearl River inland river in June 1857+ 10, waiting for reinforcements.
[Edit this paragraph] After the war
In order to expand the war of aggression, Britain appointed Elgin, the former governor of Canada, as the plenipotentiary in March 1857 to lead a navy and army to China. At the same time, a request for joint invasion was made to France.
Earlier, France was negotiating with China on the basis of "Father Ma incident" (also known as "Xilin religious case").
The so-called "Father Ma incident" refers to a case in which a French Catholic priest, Male, illegally entered the mainland of China, and was executed in Xilin County, Guangxi in February 1856.
This case is not closed yet.
1857, the French * * * used this as an excuse to invade China, appointed Gero as the plenipotentiary, and led troops to China to coordinate with the British.
1857 65438+in February, more than 5,600 British and French troops (including French troops 1000) gathered at the mouth of the Pearl River to prepare for a massive attack.
American envoy Li Weilian and Russian envoy Pu Yating also arrived in Hongkong, conspiring with Britain and France to invade China.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty was trying its best to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Army Uprising, and it was "difficult to pay" to adopt a policy of "focusing on soldiers" against foreign invaders.
Ye faithfully carried out the policy of * * * and did not fight for it.
12 On February 28th, the British and French allied forces shelled Guangzhou and landed to attack the city.
Du Tonglai Village, Qian Zong Deng Anbang and others led the troops to resist tenaciously and fell the next day.
Bai Gui, the governor of Guangdong Province, and General Guangzhou surrendered in Fengtian. Driven by the enemy, they continued to hold their original posts under the supervision of the "Coalition Committee" headed by Parkes.
Ye Chenming was captured by the invading army and later sent to Calcutta.
During the occupation of Guangzhou by the invading army, the local people waged an indomitable struggle.
Yimin set up a Yong Ying Yong Bureau in Foshan town near Guangzhou to resist and destroy the enemy with tens of thousands of people.
Patriotic compatriots in Hong Kong and Macao have also * * * to show * *.
After the fall of Guangzhou, the invaders of the four countries plotted to continue northward in order to pose a direct threat to the Qing Dynasty.
1in April, 858, envoys from Britain, France, Russia and the United States led ships to Dagukou one after another, demanding that plenipotentiaries be appointed to negotiate.
Russia and the United States also expressed their willingness to act as "mediators."
Emperor Xianfeng ordered the Qing army to fortify in Tianjin and Dagu, and sent Tan Tingxiang, governor of Zhili, as an imperial envoy to Dagu for negotiations, hoping for the "mediation" of Russian and American envoys.
The British and French aggressors did not have the sincerity to negotiate, but only used it to delay time and step up military preparations.
On May 20th, British and French warships shelled Dagu Fort.
The Qing army stationed in each battery fought back and launched a fierce battle with the enemy.
However, Tan Ting and others had no fighting spirit, followed the wind, the battery facilities were rudimentary, and Otani fell.
On the 26th, British and French forces invaded the suburbs of Tianjin and threatened to attack Beijing.
Qing * * * hurriedly sent Gui Liang, a university student, and Hua Shanna, a minister in the official department, as imperial envoys, and rushed to Tianjin to make peace.
Under the intimidation of the British and French aggressors, Gui Liang and others concluded the Tianjin Treaty with Britain and France on June 26th and 27th respectively.
[Edit this paragraph] Sign the treaty
Article 56 of Sino-British Tianjin Treaty, with annex; The Sino-French Tianjin Treaty consists of 42 articles, with about 6 articles attached.
The main contents are as follows: ① the minister is stationed in Beijing; Niuzhuang (later renamed Yingkou), Dengzhou (later renamed Yantai), Taiwan Province Province (later renamed Tainan), Danshui, Chaozhou (later renamed Shantou), Qiongzhou, Hankou, Jiujiang, Nanjing and Zhenjiang were turned into trading ports; (3) allowing foreign missionaries to enter the mainland to preach freely; (4) Foreigners should travel and trade in the Mainland; ⑤ Foreign merchant ships can sail in the Yangtze River port; ⑥ Revise the tariff and reduce the tonnage tax of merchant ships; All landowners to Britain four million and two thousand silver, two million and two thousand silver to France.
Prior to this, Russian and American envoys used the status of "assignors" to sign 12 Sino-Russian Tianjin Treaties and 30 Sino-American Tianjin Treaties with Qing * * * in June 13 and June 18, respectively, and seized almost the same aggression privileges as Britain and France except compensation.
Paragraph 9 of the Sino-Russian Tianjin Treaty also specifically stipulates that the two countries will send personnel to explore the "previously undefined border" and "make sure to bring the border clearing into this peace treaty" so as to solve it in the future, thus laying the groundwork for China to be further plundered by Russia.
After the Tianjin Treaty was signed, the British and French allied forces withdrew from Tianjin, and the coastal roads went south one after another.
Emperor Xianfeng was worried about the content of the treaty at this time, which made Gui Liang and others negotiate with the representatives of Britain and France to amend the Tianjin Treaty, cancel the terms of envoys' stay in Beijing, inland travel and Neijiang trade, and tried to prevent Britain and France from changing the treaty in Beijing.
165438+ 10, Gui Liang and other representatives of Britain, France and the United States signed the Treaty on the Restoration of Trade Regulations, stipulating that the opium trade should be legalized; Customs levies 100% tax on the hourly value of import and export goods; Foreign goods are transported and sold in the mainland, only paying 2.5% sub-tax, and all domestic taxes are exempted; Hire an Englishman to help with customs and taxes.
However, Britain and France cannot change the terms of the Tianjin Treaty, but insist on changing the contract in Beijing.
Britain and France were far from satisfied with the privileges seized from the Tianjin Treaty, and deliberately used the opportunity of exchanging contracts to provoke war again.
1in June, 859, after British envoy Proust, French envoy Brun and American envoy John Eliott Ward rejected Gui Liang's proposal to exchange contracts in Shanghai, they led their respective fleets to Dagukou in an attempt to deter Qing * * * from exchanging the instruments of ratification of the Tianjin Treaty by force.
Qing * * * fortified with Dagu, and ordered the governor of Zhili, Hengfu, to inform the British and French envoys and appoint them to land in Beitang. After Tianjin changed the contract in Beijing, there were no more than 20 people attached and no weapons.
The British and French envoys flatly rejected the arrangement of the Qing Dynasty and insisted on returning to Beijing by boat through Dagukou.
The defense in Dagu area, 1858 After the British and French fleets retreated, Prince Horqin was put in charge of the Qing Dynasty.
On June 25, the British and French allied forces suddenly attacked Dagu Fort.
Under the command of monk Qin, the defenders fought bravely and the battle was extremely fierce.
Shi Rongchun, the magistrate of Zhili, and Ruyuan, the deputy commander of the Drum Club, took the lead and were killed successively.
As a result of fierce fighting, the British and French allied forces were defeated, losing many ships, killing more than 400 people, and the commander of the British fleet, Herb, was also seriously injured.
In the battle, the American fleet helped the British and French troops retreat.
In August, American special envoy John Eliott Ward went to Beijing from Beitang in disguise. After returning to Beitang, he exchanged the ratification of Tianjin Treaty with Hengfu, governor of Zhili.
Prior to this, the Russian representative had changed the contract in Beijing.
[Edit this paragraph] Serious violation
News of the disastrous attack on Dagu by the British and French allied forces spread to Europe, and the ruling class in Britain and France set off an uproar of war, clamoring for "massive revenge" and "occupation of the capital" against China.
1February 860, Britain and France * * * re-appointed Erkin and Gro as plenipotentiaries respectively, leading15,000 British troops and 7,000 French troops to expand the war of aggression against China.
In April, the British and French allied forces occupied Zhoushan.
In May and June, the British army occupied Dalian Bay, while the French army occupied Yantai and blocked the Bohai Bay as a forward base for attacking Dagukou.
Russian special envoy ignatieff and American special envoy John Eliott Ward also arrived in Bohai Bay in July, and once again cooperated with Britain and France in the name of "mediators".
After the victory of the Battle of Dagu, the fantasy of Qing Dynasty and the peace between Britain and France.
When the British and French warships approached Dagu Haikou, Emperor Xianfeng also instructed Sengqin and Hengfu not to "make peace after the war first" in order to avoid "the war will last until the end" and "the care bureau is always important", and sent Hengfu to negotiate with the British and French envoys.
Former enemy commander-in-chief monk Lin Qinqin thought that the enemy was not good at land warfare, so he devoted himself to Dagu and gave up Beitang defense, giving the enemy an opportunity.
Ignatieff provided Britain and France with unsuspecting information about Beitang.
1 In August, the British and French allied forces landed in Beitang without any resistance.
14, Tanggu was captured.
Then the land and water cooperated to attack the fortress on the north bank of Dagu.
Under the command of Le Shan, the governor of Zhili, the Qing army guarding Taiwan fought bravely.
But Qing * * * had no anti-Japanese determination, and Emperor Xianfeng ordered Senggelinqin to retreat from the camp.
The Qing army fled Dagu and retreated to Tongzhou (now Tongxian County, Beijing) via Tianjin.
On August 2 1, Dagu fell.
The invading army entered and occupied Tianjin on the 24th.
Qing * * * sent Gui Liang to Tianjin to make peace.
Britain and France proposed that in addition to fully accepting the Tianjin Treaty, Tianjin should be opened as a trading port, compensation should be increased, and thousands of troops from various countries should be sent to Beijing to exchange contracts.
Qing * * * refused and the negotiations broke down.
The invading army invaded Beijing from Tianjin.
Zai Yuan, Prince of Yong, and Yin Mu, Minister of War, were sent to make peace in Tongzhou instead of Gui Liang.
The negotiations broke down again because of the dispute between the two sides.
/kloc-in September of 0/8, the British and French allied forces captured Tongzhou.
On 2 1 day, the Qing army fought fiercely with the British and French allied forces at Baliqiao, and the commander-in-chief monk Qin took the lead in escaping, which led to the whole army shaking and defeat.
The next day, Emperor Xianfeng led his empresses and a group of officials to flee to Jehol (now Chengde, Hebei Province) in a hurry, and made his brother Prince Gong go to war? Stay in Beijing and take charge of the peace talks.
When the British and French allied forces attacked Beijing, Russian Ambassador ignatieff provided Britain and France with information on Beijing's defense.
10 10 13, the British and French forces invaded Andingmen and took control of Beijing.
The invading army burned and looted all the way, plundered the precious cultural relics, gold and silver jewelry and set fire to the buildings in the Yuanmingyuan, which the Qing court had long operated.
65438+1October 24th 25th, huh? The ratification documents of Tianjin Treaty were exchanged with Elgin and Gro respectively, and China, Britain and France concluded the Beijing Treaty.
The main contents of the Beijing Treaty between China, Britain and France include: ① opening Tianjin as a commercial port; (2) Allow Britain and France to recruit Chinese workers to go abroad; (3) ceding Kowloon to Britain; (4) Return the previously confiscated Catholic assets.
The French side also added to the Chinese contract without authorization: "and served as a French missionary, renting and buying fields in various provinces and building their own houses"; (5) British and French military compensation increased to eight million and two thousand each, with a pension of five hundred and two thousand for Britain and two hundred and two thousand for France.
[Edit this paragraph ][ 1] Russian profit
1856, when the British and French allied forces attacked Guangzhou, Russia sent Puyatin (e? v？ Putiatine) as a minister, and Qing * * * to negotiate on the border issue.
1858 in may, Muraviev, governor of Siberia, Russia, forced Yishan, the general of Heilongjiang province in the Qing dynasty, to sign the Sino-Russian love-fainting treaty under the condition that Dagukou was captured by the British and French allied forces.
According to this treaty, China ceded more than 600,000 square kilometers of land north of Heilongjiang and south of the outer Xing 'an Mountains to Russia, and included about 400,000 square kilometers of Russian territory east of the Wusuli River into the Sino-Russian control.
On the other hand, Russia waited for an opportunity to intervene in mediation, and Putin signed the Sino-Russian Treaty of Tianjin with the Qing Dynasty before Britain, France and the United States.
1860165438+10 In October, after the signing of the Beijing Treaty between China and Britain, the British and French allied forces began to withdraw from Beijing.
Igna Dief, the new Russian ambassador to China, put forward new territorial claims on the grounds of "good mediation".
On June 4, 65438, the Qing Dynasty signed the Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty with Russia, transferring 400,000 square kilometers of land east of the Wusuli River to Russia, opening Kashgar as a commercial port, and setting up consulates in Kashgar and Cullen.
At the same time, Russia also imposed its proposed western border direction on China.
1864, Russia forced the Qing dynasty to conclude the northwest boundary agreement, and occupied 440,000 square kilometers of land east and south of Kashi Lake in Dzhambar.
[Edit this paragraph] result
At this point, the second opium war ended.
China once again lost a lot of territory and took another step towards semi-colonial road.
Among them, the legalization of opium trade, Chinese workers going abroad, and allowing foreigners to preach in the mainland have intensified social contradictions in China.
After the Second Opium War, the aggressive forces of foreign capitalism entered Chinese mainland from the southeast coast and expanded day by day. Foreign envoys in Beijing strengthened their influence and control over the Qing Dynasty, and China society was further semi-colonized.
At the same time, the Opium War not only changed the authority of the Qing Dynasty, but also made some officials and gentry realize the new changes in China, advocated "learning from foreigners" and forced themselves to become rich, which led to the Westernization Movement aimed at promoting the revival of the dynasty, and the idea of "change theory" became popular.
There are many reasons why the Qing army finally failed in the four-year war with the British and French Coalition forces.
The first is political corruption and reaction, and the reactionary policy of suppressing the people's uprising at home and compromising and surrendering abroad is implemented.
Secondly, the backward weapons and clumsy combat methods of the Qing army are also important reasons for the failure.
During the Second Opium War, the British and French aggressor troops were equipped with the most advanced weapons in the world at that time (such as rifle-mounted rifles, rifle-mounted rifles, rifle-mounted cones, steam gunboats, guns-mounted rifles, spherical bullets, etc.). ), but the equipment of the Qing army still stays at the level of the first Opium War (still shotguns, rifles loaded with guns and cold weapons loaded with spherical projectiles), and the construction of battery is still open-air, which can not withstand the indiscriminate bombing by the invading army.
In terms of operational methods, the British and French allied forces paid attention to land-water cooperative operations, covered land landing with powerful artillery fire, and adopted skirmisher tactics in land operations, while the Qing army stood still, stuck to the rules, ignored land defense in depth, and did not understand skirmisher tactics, so it was defeated repeatedly.
Qing * * * knew nothing about this, which also proved the decline of the Qing Dynasty and its feudal system in China.
In addition, the Second Opium War also involved Yuanmingyuan: fire robbery: allied forces, bandits and soil thieves.
When the British and French allied forces looted Yuanmingyuan crazily, countless bandits took part in the robbery.
The British and French allied forces chose the most valuable things to rob, bandits plundered the remaining essence, Wang picked up the scraps abandoned by the Committee, and even the eunuchs guarding the garden took advantage of the fire to rob.
Easily available valuables were quickly collected, and some people pinned their hopes on exquisite treasures scattered and buried in the dust. They picked up brooms and dustpans and flew sand and dust on the middle road of the garden. Eunuchs and soldiers guarding the garden call them "soil-sifting thieves", and sometimes there is a saying: "soil-sifting, soil-sifting, never suffering." Fortunately, the building was not injured at this time.
Robbery of wood: Yuanmingyuan turned into a charcoal factory
Eight-Nation Alliance 1900 invaded Beijing, and the gardens in the western suburbs were looted again.
At this time, Qing * * * has completely lost control of Yuanmingyuan. People who fish in troubled waters are no longer satisfied with robbing foreigners of their surplus wealth. They sawed off the scattered buildings, pillars and stakes of wooden bridges in the park after the fire, pulled them down with big ropes, and all the trees in the park were cut down.
At that time, the timber in Qinghe town was piled up like a mountain, and the trade was busy. There were many charcoal factories in the park, and all the branches and roots were burned into charcoal.
Stone robbery: selling stones can also make a fortune.
In the early years of the Republic of China, warlords who also changed lanterns regarded Yuanmingyuan as an inexhaustible building material field. There are many helpless records in the archives of the Puyi period: "The soldiers ride cars to haul Taihu Stone 10 vehicles in the park every day.
"In fact, the situation of dismantling and selling is far more serious than that recorded in the archives.
Xu Shichang demolished the timber of Ming and Jing Spring Gardens in Yuanmingyuan, and Wang Huaiqing demolished the wall of Anyou Palace and the stone of the west building in the garden.
Since then, everything that can be used as building materials in Yuanmingyuan ruins, from square bricks, roof tiles, wall bricks and stone strips on the ground to underground wooden nails, stakes and copper pipes, has been collected and pulled intermittently for more than 20 years! Later generations called this a "stone robbery" after the fire in Yuanmingyuan.
Soil robbery: planting rice in the imperial garden forest
At this point, Yuanmingyuan has been looted by fire, wood and stone, and all the buildings, trees and bricks have disappeared, and it has to go through the final and more thorough "soil robbery".
At the end of Xuan Tong, local banners built houses on the ruins of the palace in the park, facing the former royal garden.
During the Japanese occupation period after 1940, Beijing was short of food, so it was rewarded for land reclamation.
Since then, farmers have successively entered the park to fill the lake in Pingshan and open up wasteland to grow rice.
Yuanmingyuan, a painstaking effort in the early Qing Dynasty 150 years of victory over lakes and mountains, is beyond recognition.
Hugo criticized the atrocities committed by the British and French allied forces in burning the Yuanmingyuan after the Second Opium War in the Letter to Captain Butler about the British and French allied forces' expedition to China.
"One day, two robbers broke into the Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan), one robbed and the other set fire.
It turns out that victory is a kind of plunder.
The winner stole all the wealth of the Summer Palace.
In this oriental museum, there are not only outstanding works of art, but also dazzling gold and silver products.
Even if all the treasures of Notre Dame in our country are added together, it can't compare with this magnificent Oriental Museum.
The two robbers are English and French. "