Treaty of Nanking
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Nanking, August 29, 1842, Peace Treaty between the Queen of Great Britain and the Emperor of China |
The
Treaty of Nanking (
Chinese: 南京條約,
Nánjīng Tiáoyu") is the agreement which marked the end of the
First Opium War between the
United Kingdom and
China.
It was signed on
29 August 1842 aboard the British warship
HMS Cornwallis in
Nanjing (then known as "Nanking"). It is the first of the
Unequal Treaties signed by China with a foreign power.
Under the
treaty, China agreed to cede
Hong Kong Island (together with some small nearby islands) to the
British Empire, and open the following
treaty ports of China for foreign trade:
* Canton (
Guangzhou)
*
Amoy (
Xiamen)
* Foochow (
Fuzhou)
* Ningpo (
Ningbo)
*
Shanghai(The first of the
romanizations are in
Postal System Pinyin, which were used in the treaty; the second
Hanyu Pinyin, the modern spellings.)
Also, Great Britain received:
* 21 million ounces silver for compensation
* Fixed
tariffs*
Extraterritoriality for British Citizens on Chinese soil
*
Most Favored Nation status
In addition to these indemnities, China allowed British missionaries into the interior of China for the first time, and allowed British merchants to establish "spheres of influence" in and around British ports.
The treaty left several unsettled issues. In particular it did not resolve the status of the
opium trade with China, which was profitable for the British and which many historians believe has been devastating to the Chinese. The equivalent American treaty forbade the opium trade, but, as both the British and American merchants were only subject to the legal control of their consuls, the trade continued.
The governments of the
United Kingdom and the
People's Republic of China (PRC) concluded the
Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong in 1984, under which the sovereignty of the leased territories, together with
Hong Kong Island and
Kowloon (south of Boundary Street) ceded under the
Convention of Peking (1860), was scheduled to be transferred to the PRC on
July 1,
1997.
*
Opium Wars*
Treaty of Tientsin*
Convention of Peking*
Imperialism in Asia*
History of Hong Kong*
Anglo-Chinese relations
