On October 8, 1856, a merchant ship named Yarrow anchored on the river in Guangzhou, and the Guangdong Navy Division received a report that two sailors on board were pirates.
The ship was a Chinese ship from the outside, but the captain was an Englishman named Kennedy, and Kennedy was not on board when the sailor boarded the ship, and he was having breakfast on a nearby ship. There were 14 Chinese sailors on board, and Liang Guoding asked the sailors to bring all 14 Chinese sailors back for questioning, and after Kennedy got the news, he immediately returned to the ship, saying ** in Chinese, which he was not fluent in, but ** was ineffective.
Liang insisted on taking all 14 sailors away, and Kennedy asked to keep two sailors to watch the ship, and Liang agreed.
Kennedy immediately went to report to Pashali, who was the British consul in Canton, and Kennedy complained that the Qing sailors had arrested the sailors on the British ships under his jurisdiction, and that in the process of arrest, the Qing sailors had savagely torn off the British flag from the ship.
After receiving the report, Pashali sent someone to ascertain the news, and found out that the 12 sailors of the Yarrow were detained on a nearby ship, and Pashali immediately boarded the ship to ask for someone.
Pashali's reasoning was that the Yarrow was registered in Hong Kong, and the Qing Dynasty sailors had no authority to arrest people. Pashali demanded that Liang Guoding immediately release all the sailors and apologize, and went on to say that the Qing Dynasty sailor's act of tearing down the British flag was an insult to Britain, Liang Guoding did not agree to release them, and Pashali and the sailor clashed.
It is said that Pashali wanted to release him personally, and he was also punched.
After Pa Xiali suffered a loss, he reported the matter to the British minister Bao Ling, and at the same time sent an official letter to Ye Mingchen, the governor of Liangguang, asking Ye Mingchen to release him immediately and apologize.
Ye Mingchen was the largest official in Guangzhou at the time, and he was the foreign minister in charge of managing the trade between the five countries.
On October 10, Ye Mingchen agreed to release nine sailors, but refused to apologize. Because Ye Mingchen thought that the sailors did not tear off the British flag.
On October 16, Bao Ling sent a note to Ye Mingchen, asking Ye Mingchen to meet the British side's demands and make up for the defects in the Sino-British contract, but Ye Mingchen ignored the note after receiving the note.
On October 21, Pashali issued an ultimatum to Ye Mingchen, giving the British side 24 hours to meet the demands of the British side, otherwise the British side would use force to solve the problem. Ye Mingchen agreed to release all the sailors, but still refused to apologize. As a result, Bao ordered the British troops stationed in Hong Kong to attack Canton.
The Second Opium War began!The Yarrow incident became the trigger for the Second Opium War.
Obviously, this event is not big, and it is impossible for such an event alone to trigger a war between two countries, what exactly did the Second Opium War happen?The follow-up will be revealed.
The whole process of the Yaluo incident is full of doubts, first of all, the Yaluo ship was built by the Qing Dynasty, the owner of this ship is called Fang Yaming, also a Qing Dynasty, Fang Yaming is a comprador who has dealt with foreigners for a long time, his ship is registered in Hong Kong, and then he hired a British as the captain, and the crew hired are all Chinese.
This situation was not an exception at that time, many compradors who were very familiar with foreigners did this, obviously it was the industry of the Qing Dynasty, and they could obtain the protection of foreigners by hanging a foreign signboard, and the advantage of this was that on the one hand, they did not have to constantly supply to the Qing Dynasty, and foreigners could do it at a time, on the other hand, it was convenient for them to hang the British flag when smuggling to obtain the protection of the British.
Why did the Guangdong sailors check this ship?
Because two of the crew members of this ship were pirates, the two pirates were recognized when the Yarrow docked, and the person who recognized them was Huang Liankai, who was robbed by them a month ago, and after Huang Liankai recognized these two pirates, he immediately went to the Guangdong Naval Division to report the case, and Liang Guoding, the commander of the Guangdong Marine Division, led his troops to board the ship to arrest people, and when they boarded the ship, they saw that the ship was obviously a Chinese merchant ship, and the sailors on board were also Chinese. Unceremoniously began to arrest people.
Later, the British captain returned, and Liang Guoding knew that it was a British ship. Liang Guoding didn't give face to the British, he directly took away 12 sailors. According to the official statement of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty government seized Chinese and had nothing to do with Britain in charge of Chinese. However, according to the British, the ship was registered in Hong Kong, and the Chinese authorities could not just get on board and arrest people, and it was not clear who was right and who was wrong in this matter at that time.
First, the ship was registered in Hong Kong on September 27, 1855, and the term of the business license was one year at the time of registration, and at the time of this incident, the Yarrow had already passed 12 days of business license. The business license has expired, and it is no longer protected by Hong Kong** according to legal principles. Therefore, it is legally problematic for the British to come forward to avenge the sailors of the Yarrow.
The second aspect is that the British asked Guangdong to apologize, on the grounds that the Guangdong sailors tore off the British flag, which was an insult to the British, and there was a lot of controversy between the two sides on this matter. Liang Guoding said: "When they got on the boat, they didn't see the national flag hoisting, so how could they tear down the national flag." "He was having breakfast on a nearby boat when he saw the process of tearing down the flag in the distance," Kennedy said.
The statements of these two people are completely opposite, there must be one who is lying, and when looking at the file, I see that there are witnesses on both sides, and the witnesses defend their clients, so we will leave aside the testimony of the witnesses first.
Let's look at another aspect:
According to British maritime practice, ships had to lower their flag when they docked and hoisted it when they left port. The merchant ship of the Yarrow had been in port for several days at the time of the incident, and it was certainly not a ship that had just entered the port, and the captain was not on board at the time of the incident, and it could not be a ship that was about to leave the port, so it was logically impossible to raise the national flag, and if the captain was not on the ship at that time, if the sailors dared to raise the national flag, it meant that the sailors would betray the captain and prepare to abscond. So it's ridiculous to say that the flag is raised.
The British authorities later made an explanation, and Lord Claranton, the British chief at the time, said: "Although the British flag was not flying on the mast at the time of the incident, it is impossible for the Chinese authorities not to know that the Yarrow was under British protection." Britain also admitted that the British flag was not raised at that time, and the biggest possibility was that Kennedy was lying about the fact that the flag was torn down, and Kennedy was probably afraid that the matter was not serious enough, and the British minister ignored him, so he deliberately exaggerated the seriousness of the matter.
It is precisely because of this that Ye Mingchen can so firmly say that he did not tear down the national flag and refused to apologize.
Taken together, these two points did not affect Britain to start a war.
From the events of October 8 to the beginning of the war on October 23. British Minister Bao Ling has always been expanding the seriousness of the situation. I had long wanted to provoke an incident, and this time just gave him a chance, and what he wanted was war.
As for why Britain provoked this war?A question mark should be drawn at this point.
One more thing – the Sirin lesson plan.
In 1844, China and France signed the Treaty of Whampoa, which meant that the Church could be officially proselytized in China. However, according to the terms of the treaty, foreign missionaries can only preach in the five countries that are open to trade, and if they are not within the scope, the Chinese authorities can expel them or send them to foreign consulates for disposal in their own countries. The five treaty ports were far from satisfying the ambitions of the missionaries, and the missionaries of all factions of the Xinxin Sect soon broke through the forbidden area to carry out missionary work in the interior.
Missionaries who entered the interior were found all over the country, and most of the magistrates in the Qing Dynasty turned a blind eye to them, expelling them from the mirror if anyone reported them, and if they didn't report them, they were completely invisible.
In 1853, the French priest Father Marais entered the Guangxi Xilin mission, and he was found to be deported after two years of missionary work in Xilin. But soon after, he returned to Xilin to continue his missionary work, at this time Guangxi was the hardest hit area of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the government took strict precautions against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and would not tolerate it after being caught.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom believed in the worship of God, and the worship of God was the religion, and the Qing Dynasty did not know the relationship between the worship of God and the religion at this time, and generally believed that the worship of God was the religion, so the ** of Guangxi was more strictly guarded against Western missionaries. At this time, someone accused Ma Lai, and Ma Lai was arrested by the Xilin government, and the magistrate of Xilin was Zhang Mingfeng, Zhang Mingfeng was bold and xenophobic, so he directly executed Ma Lai.
According to the law of the Qing Dynasty, the magistrate has no authority to execute people without authorization, even if they are death row prisoners, the final conviction must be approved by the emperor himself, and the execution will be carried out uniformly after the autumn, so it stands to reason that Zhang Mingfeng has no authority to directly execute Ma Lai.
According to some sources, Ma Lai was tortured and then put in a war cage to die.
Although the magistrate cannot execute a prisoner, he uses a war cage to execute a person, and generally no one pursues it.
In short, Father Ma died, and died a terrible death. Ma Lai's unauthorized missionary work in the interior violated the provisions of the treaty. But the ** of the Qing Dynasty executed him privately, which was also a violation. Because according to the treaty, even if Ma Lai committed a crime, it should be dealt with by the French consul, and Ma Lai's death was related to the grim situation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Guangxi, and also related to the recklessness of Zhang Mingfeng, the magistrate.
Soon Malai's death, the French in China** knew, France** repeatedly negotiated with Qing**, France demanded compensation and an apology from Qing**, and promised that it would not happen again in the future.
It was Ye Mingchen, the governor of Liangguang, who negotiated with the French. Ye Mingchen inquired about the case, but Zhang Mingfeng denied it, saying that he had not seen any Father Ma, and there was no such thing. Ye Mingchen listened to Zhang Mingfeng's statement and did not investigate in detail. The reply to the French was also that there was no such thing. France was particularly outraged, especially in Catholic circles, causing an uproar.
When the negotiations with the Qing ** were fruitless, France put forward the slogan of "fighting for the protection of Catholicism" and formed an alliance with Britain to retaliate militarily.
So there was the Anglo-French alliance to launch the Second Opium War together.
Taking this opportunity to start a war is clearly with ulterior motives.
At this time, Britain and France wanted an excuse, and with an excuse, they could use force to bring the Qing Dynasty into submission.
So why did Britain and France start this war?
Why is this war called the Second Opium War?
It's called the Second Opium WarBecause it is a continuation of the First Opium War, but in a strict sense, this war really has nothing to do with opium, and the reason why it is a continuation of the First Opium War is because what Britain wanted to get through the First Opium War did not get after the war.
During the First Opium War, the main purpose of the British Opium War was to open up the Chinese market and trade with China in an all-round way. After the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, the British thought that as soon as the treaty was signed, the door of China would be opened, and a market with a population of almost 400 million would be opened.
But the British did not expect that the Qing Dynasty ostensibly signed a treaty for you, but it did not intend to abide by it at all, the Qing Dynasty was to abide by the treaty on the surface, but there were various restrictions in private, and in the case of being forced to sign a treaty, the Qing Dynasty did not consider this an immoral behavior.
After the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, the five ports of trade, except for some improvement in Shanghai, the other port gates seemed to be open, but in fact they were not opened. The freedom** that Westerners were expecting has not yet come. China's self-sufficient natural economy was completely unaffected by British industrial goods. Shanghai is a special point, and because of the opening up of Shanghai, the sales of British industrial goods in China have improved somewhat compared to before. Because the Yangtze River Delta region, where Shanghai is located, is the most developed area of China's commodity economy, it can be echoed by local wealthy businessmen.
But on the whole, the normal** balance between the UK and China is far from being achieved.
The British and Americans could only rely on opium trafficking to make up for their deficit. However, with the legalization of opium**, China has grown more and more opium, and the quality of opium produced in Yunnan is not bad.
If this trend continues, it will gradually develop into China's own opium, and gradually resist imported opium. China imported less opium. However, the increase in British industrial products was limited, and the British had to pay for the import of silk and tea again**, so the British felt that after the first Opium War, it seemed that they had suffered a loss.
At the same time, the French also discovered that although the ban on ** religion in China signed above the "Whampoa Treaty" was ostensibly lifted, the missionaries who risked the danger to enter the interior to preach were strongly resisted by the local gentry and were unable to carry out missionary activities.
This was also an embarrassment for the French, who had always relied on missionary expansion.
The British and the French, and indeed all the Westerners, discovered the harsh fact that the Qing Dynasty seemed to be open, but in fact there was a glass door hidden in the open door, and they wanted to continue to open the Qing Dynasty so that their goods could enter the interior of China smoothly.
So how do you do that?In the Treaty of Nanking signed by the Qing Dynasty and the British, there was no clause that could be amended, but the Treaty of Wangxia signed between the Americans and the Qing Dynasty added a clause that could be amended after 12 years. Although the British did not have a treaty amendment clause, they had one-sided most-favored-nation treatment, and as long as the Americans had this clause in their terms, Britain could enjoy it.
When the Qing Dynasty signed a contract with the Americans, it did not realize the seriousness of this treaty at all, but it was this clause of the treaty that gave Britain and the United States a reason to make further demands on China.
By the 50s of the 19th century, the British people's desire to revise the treaty was already quite strong. At this time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement occurred, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom swept half of China with great momentum.
In May 1853, the British solemnly raised the issue of amending the treaty with the Qing Dynasty, and the Americans also told the Qing court that as long as they agreed to revise the treaty, they could help the Qing to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
At that time, Emperor Xianfeng had just ascended the throne, and he firmly did not agree to revise the treaty. However, in the face of internal and external troubles, Emperor Xianfeng could only drag it first. A year later, in 1854, Britain and France joined forces in the Crimean War, and the relationship between Britain and France became closer, as was the case in China. Therefore, Britain and France began to join forces, in fact, Britain, France and the United States joined forces to jointly submit a request to the Qing Dynasty to revise the treaty.
In August 1854, the British, French, and American ministers held a meeting in Hong Kong, and they all agreed that there would be no progress in negotiating with the hard-line Ye Mingchen in Guangzhou, and decided to unite and go north to demand a revision of the treaty.
In October 1854, the envoys of the three countries arrived in Tianjin and demanded a revision of the treaty. Britain submitted 18 requests for amendment to the Qing Dynasty, and the United States submitted 11 requests for amendment, judging from the content submitted by Britain and the United States, it was completely beyond the scope of amendment stipulated in the "Wangxia Treaty" at that time, which was more like a new treaty.
Xianfeng decreed that except for three minor issues that could be discussed with Ye Mingchen in Guangdong, all the others were refused.
The representatives of Britain, France, and the United States spread a large circle in the north, but they gained nothing. I had to go back to Hong Kong first.
At that time, Britain and France were fighting the Crimean War with **, and they could not afford to open up another battlefield in China. Seeing that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was gaining momentum and the Qing court might collapse, the United States also advocated waiting and seeing for a while, so the first joint treaty revision activity of Britain, France, and the United States had failed.
Two years later, in 1856, the twelfth year of the signing of the "Wangxia Treaty" between the United States and the Qing Dynasty, according to which the two sides could revise the treaty, the United States contacted Britain and France to propose amendments to Ye Mingchen again, but Ye Mingchen still refused.
The United States proposed to go north and again made a request to the Qing court, but Britain and France considered it a waste of effort and rejected the American request. So the second trip north was for the United States alone. After the U.S. minister went north, he demanded a revision of the treaty. However, he was rejected by Emperor Xianfeng again.
At this point, the British, French, and American ministers understood that the only way to revise the treaty was to fight another war, and the Crimean War of 1856 had already been fought.
The Yarrow Incident and the Marais Incident that occurred in this year naturally became a pretext for Britain and France to send troops, and the Second Opium War began.