The first Opium War

First Opium War
Part of the Opium Wars
The East India Company steamship Nemesis (right background) destroying Chinese war junks during the Second Battle of Chuenpi, 7 January 1841
Date 3 November 1839 – 29 August 1842 (2 years, 9 months, 3 weeks and 5 days) Location China Result British victory, Treaty of Nanking Territorial changes Hong Kong Island ceded to Britain
Belligerents
United Kingdom British East India Company	Qing China
Commanders and leaders
Lord Palmerston Charles Elliot George Elliot James Bremer Hugh Gough Henry Pottinger William Parker Humphrey Fleming Senhouse	Daoguang Emperor Lin Zexu Qishan Guan Tianpei † Chen Huacheng † Ge Yunfei † Yishan Yijing Yang Fang
Strength
19,000+ troops: British Army: 5,000 Indian Army: 7,000 Royal Marines and seamen: 7,069 37 ships: 14 sloops 8 frigates 3 ships of the line 12 other ships1	200,000 Manchu Eight Banners and Han Green Standard
Casualties and losses
69 killed in battle 451 wounded Nearly 300 executed or died in captivity in Formosa	18,000–20,000 killed and wounded2 (est.)
1 Comprising 5 troop ships, 3 brigs, 2 steamers, 1 survey vessel, and 1 hospital ship. 2 Casualties include Manchu bannermen and their families who committed mass suicide at the Battle of Chapu and Battle of Chinkiang.

 United Kingdom

19,000+ troops:

37 ships:

¹ Comprising 5 troop ships, 3 brigs, 2 steamers, 1 survey vessel, and 1 hospital ship.

The First Opium War (第一次鴉片戰爭, 1839–42), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Chinese War, was a series of military engagements fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing dynasty over conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice in China.

In the 17th and 18th centuries demand for Chinese goods (particularly silk, porcelain, and tea) in Europe created a trade imbalance between Qing Imperial China and Great Britain. European silver flowed into China through the Canton System, which confined incoming foreign trade to Canton and the Chinese merchants of the Thirteen Factories. To counter this imbalance, the British East India Company began to auction opium grown in India to independent foreign traders in exchange for silver, and in doing so strengthened its trading influence in Asia. The opium was transported to the Chinese coast where local middlemen made massive profits selling the drug inside China. The influx of narcotics reversed the Chinese trade surplus, drained the economy of silver, and increased the numbers of opium addicts inside the country, outcomes that worried Chinese officials.

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