The First Opium War Britain usually called the First British-Chinese War or "Trade War", which was a war launched by Britain against China from 1840 to 1842, and it was also the beginning of China's modern history.

1840, the British government decided to send an expeditionary force to invade China on the pretext that Lin Zexu and Humen destroyed opium.

In June, 1840, 47 British ships and 4,000 troops, led by Yi Law and Yi Law, the commercial supervisor of China, arrived outside the Pearl River Estuary in Guangdong, blocked Haikou and started the Opium War.

The Opium War ended in China's failure and reparations. China and Britain signed the treaty of nanking, the first unequal treaty in the history of China. China began to plunder land, compensate and negotiate foreign tariffs, which seriously endangered China's sovereignty, became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, lost its independent status and promoted the disintegration of the natural economy.

2. The Second Opium War

The Second Opium War was a war of aggression against China jointly launched by Britain and France with the support of Russia and the United States. In order to further explore the China market, expand the interests of invading China and crush the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement in China, Britain and France jointly attacked the Qing government under the pretext of the yarrow incident and the Ma Su incident.

At the same time, because this war can be regarded as the continuation of the first opium war, it is also called the "second opium war".

1860, British and French troops invaded Beijing, and the Qing emperor fled to Chengde. British and French troops invaded Yuanmingyuan, plundered jewels and burned them. After Russia sent troops to participate in the war, it claimed that "mediation was successful" and coerced the Qing government to cede more than 6.5438+0.5 million square kilometers of territory, becoming the biggest winner. The war ended with the Qing government being forced to sign the Beijing Treaty.

3. treaty of shimonoseki

According to China's calendar, 1894, the time when the war broke out was the Sino-Japanese War, so it was called the Sino-Japanese War. During the Meiji Restoration, Japan embarked on the capitalist road, actively invaded and expanded abroad, and determined a "mainland policy" centered on China.

At this time, the Qing Dynasty was an empire exposed to the world through the Westernization Movement, with political corruption, poor people's lives, intrigue among various factions in the officialdom, strong national defense and military, and lax discipline. The world's major capitalist countries are gradually transitioning to imperialism, and Japan's aggression has been supported by western powers to some extent.

1894, the East Learning Party uprising broke out in North Korea, and the North Korean government forces were successively defeated and forced to ask for help from the sovereign state of the Qing Dynasty. Japan also took the opportunity to send troops to North Korea and deliberately provoked war.

1On July 25th, 894, the naval battle of Toyota broke out and the Sino-Japanese War began. Because the Japanese had planned for a long time, the Qing Dynasty rushed to fight, and the war ended with the defeat of China and the annihilation of the Beiyang Navy. Under the military pressure of Japanese militarism, the Qing government in China signed the treaty of shimonoseki in April 1895.

4. Xin Chou Treaty

Also known as the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty and the Beijing Protocol, it is an unequal treaty signed by the Qing government and the governments of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Italy and Austria after the boxer rebellion failed and Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing. The treaty was signed on July 25th, the 27th year of Guangxu, in the year of Xin Chou, hence the name Xin Chou Treaty. Because the signing date of the treaty is September 7 in the solar calendar, there is a saying of "1997 national humiliation".

The Xin Chou Treaty is an unequal treaty with the largest amount of compensation and the most serious loss of sovereignty in China's modern history. The treaty provides that:

1, China's compensation price and interest totaled 980 million taels of silver,

2. Designate Beijing Dongjiaominxiang as the embassy boundary, allowing countries to station troops for protection, and prohibiting China people from living in the boundary;

3. The Qing government promised to prohibit people from participating in the anti-imperialist movement;

4. The Qing government demolished the fortified fortress along the Dagukou-Beijing railway in Tianjin, and allowed the great powers to send troops to important places along the Beijing-Shanhaiguan railway.

This treaty marks that the Qing government has completely become a tool for imperialism to rule China, and China has completely become a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, which has seriously violated China's sovereignty and brought profound disasters to the people.

5. Burning Yuanmingyuan

Xianfeng occupied Yuanmingyuan after the British and French allied forces captured Beijing for ten years. China's defenders were outnumbered, and Wenfeng, the chief minister of Yuanmingyuan, committed suicide by throwing himself into Fuhai. Chang Ai, who lived in the garden, was scared to death. With the support of British Prime Minister Pa Max Don, British leader Elgin ordered the burning of Yuanmingyuan.

3,500 British and French troops rushed into Yuanmingyuan and set fire to it. The fire didn't go out for three days. Yuanmingyuan and its nearby Qingyi Garden, Jingming Garden, Jingyi Garden, Changchun Garden and Haidian Town were all burned into ruins. Nearly 300 eunuchs, ladies-in-waiting and craftsmen were buried in the fire of Anyou Palace. Turn this world-famous garden into ruins. The fire burned for three days and nights and became a rare atrocity in the history of world civilization.

According to rough statistics, the number of cultural relics robbed in Yuanmingyuan is about 6.5438+0.5 million, ranging from bronze ritual vessels in the pre-Qin period in China to famous paintings and calligraphy in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and all kinds of rare treasures. Only the architectural site is left, and the Yuanmingyuan Ruins Park has been established.

Baidu Encyclopedia-treaty of nanking

Baidu Encyclopedia-The Second Opium War

Baidu Encyclopedia-treaty of shimonoseki

Baidu Encyclopedia-The Treaty of Love and Ugliness

Baidu encyclopedia-burning Yuanmingyuan