The Second Opium War, also known as the Arrow War, was the second of two Opium Wars fought between the United Kingdom and China, taking place from 1856 to 1860. The French joined the British in their second punitive expedition against China, using the murder of a Christian missionary in China as a pretext, and the war ended with the burning of the Summer Palace and the Treaty of Tientsin. The Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island were ceded to British Hong Kong, while Outer Manchuria was ceded to the Russian Empire.
History[]
Despite the lifting of trade restrictions after the First Opium War, opium remained officially illegal, and on 8 October 1856 Chinese officials boarded the Arrow, a ship flying the British flag and suspected of drug smuggling. This provided the British with the pretext to mount an invasion. Using the murder of a French missionary as an excuse, French forces joined with British under the command of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour to occupy Guangdong. The Second Opium War had begun. The coalition sailed north and Seymour launched an attack on forts near Tianjin. Once more the Chinese were no match for the technologically superior Europeans, and the first phase of the war ended with the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin. A year later, China broke the truce by refusing to allow foreign legations in Beijing, prompting an Anglo-French assault on the city. The Xianfeng Emperor fled and the Summer Palace was set alight on the orders of British commander Lord Elgin. Xianfeng now had little choice but to sign away further sovereignty in the Convention of Peking, which ratified the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin, provided a large indemnity to Britain and France, legalized the opium trade, and guaranteed the safety of Christian missionaries.