Encyclopedia > Treaty ports

Article Content

Treaty of Nanjing

Redirected from Treaty ports

The Treaty of Nanjing is the agreement which ended the First Opium War between Britain and China.

Signed in 1842 onboard the British warship HMS Cornwallis, the treaty had China agree to cede Hong Kong to the British Empire. The ports of Canton (Guangzhou), Amoy (Xiamen), Foochow (Fuzhou), Ningpo (Ningbo) and Shanghai were opened for foreign trade and were known collectively as Treaty Ports. The treaty also ensured the continuance of the opium trade, which was profitable for the English and which many historians believe to have been devastating to the Chinese.

In June 1858 the first part of the Second Opium War ended with the Treaties of Tianjin[?], to which France, Russia, and the United States were party. These treaties opened eleven more ports to Western trade. They were ratified by the emperor in the Beijing Convention in 1860, after the end of the war.