Treaty of Nanjing — 1842 treaty between Qing China and Britain which ceded Hong Kong and ended the First Opium War
Ended the First Opium War, ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain, and opened China to Western trade through five treaty ports.
Key Facts
- Date signed
- 29 August 1842
- Number of articles
- 13
- Indemnity imposed on China
- Required; amount specified in treaty
- Territory ceded
- Island of Hong Kong to Britain
- Treaty ports opened
- 5
- Ratification exchange date
- 26 June 1843, in Hong Kong
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Britain and Qing China had been at war since 1839 over trade disputes, particularly British opium imports into China and Chinese restrictions on foreign commerce through the Canton system. Following sustained British military campaigns and naval superiority, Chinese forces suffered repeated defeats, leaving British warships in position to attack Nanjing by mid-1842.
British representative Sir Henry Pottinger and Qing representatives Keying, Yilibu, and Niu Jian signed the thirteen-article treaty aboard HMS Cornwallis, anchored in the Yangtze River at Nanjing, on 29 August 1842. The agreement required China to pay an indemnity, cede Hong Kong Island as a British colony, and open five treaty ports to trade, dismantling the restrictive Canton system.
China's defeat formalized Western penetration of its markets and territory. The treaty was followed in 1843 by the Treaty of the Bogue, which extended extraterritoriality and most-favoured-nation status to Britain. Chinese officials later classified this and similar accords as 'unequal treaties,' and the settlement set a precedent for further concessions extracted by Western powers throughout the nineteenth century.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Sir Henry Pottinger, Charles Elliot.
Side B
1 belligerent
Keying, Yilibu, Niu Jian, Qishan.