18:56 and Britton is unhappy with China the reason for this was the China having recently been defeated in the previous opium war was supposed to give concessions to Britain which had yet to do another issue was that British consumption of tea was so great that Britain was operating a huge trade deficit with China the only thing salvaging British finances was the continued sale of opium into China from British India another problem was that China was currently dealing with the Taiping rebellion whose leaders kept destroying opium wherever they found it the sale of opium into China was vital for balancing Britain's finances and so it had to keep flowing in late 1856 the governor of count on Yi Ming Chen impounded a Chinese operated ship that he believed was committing piracy or at least was working on behalf of the rebels one problem though the ship was registered in Hong Kong now a British territory and as a result the British were furious frankly the British consul to China Harry Parkes was hitching for another war there because he wanted to make a name for himself he offered to give the sailors back but Britain said no and sailed the Royal Navy up the Pearl River and shelled Canton back in Britain Parliament was fiercely against any war with China but the Prime Minister Lord Palmerston was very much for it parliament voted against any further action mostly because of the outbreak of a major mutiny in India in 1857 as a result Palmerston called an election and after denouncing the Chinese as barbarians to the British people he won and so war it was an alliance was built with the French because they also wanted to trade with China but the Americans after taking the fort in late 1856 declared the neutrality and Russia wanted nothing to do with it because they were still recovering from the Crimean War so the war in China the Second Opium War followed a similar path to the first the Royal Navy used their ironclad steam-powered warships to obliterate the Chinese wooden ships called junks wherever they met in late 1857 anglo-french forces captured Canton and captured Yi he was then imprisoned in India after this the British and French Navy's made their way up the coast of China harassing the defenders and smashing forts as they went the Chinese emperor the Jian Feng emperor of the Ching dynasty soon after opted to suit for peace the negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Tianjin which gave France Russia the US and Britain the right to trade and for their citizens to freely travel throughout China the US and Russia were allowed to get in on the action despite not fighting because it meant that if China backed down on their agreements it would risk retaliation from all four powers plus Russia had just negotiated the transfer of this territory the Ching didn't want another front to fight on one problem when they go haters went to Beijing to ratify this truce in 1859 they were kidnapped and tortured by the Chinese government this for the British was proof that their opinion of the Chinese as being little more than barbarians was justified the commander of the British forces in China the Earl of Elgin was actually against the war but after the capture of the negotiators he felt that he had to retaliate to protect Britain's honor the British and French then landed their forces in the north and captured many forts on the way to Beijing they soon clashed with a large Qing army at the Battle of pala cow they saw her over a thousand Chinese casualties compared to about 50 on the anglo-french side the Chinese had now lost the will to pursue the war mostly because of again the ongoing Taiping rebellion after the battle the Emperor fled Beijing leaving his brother Prince gong to negotiate with the Europeans anglo-french forces there moved on Beijing which opened its gates to them after which the most famous event of the war happened the Allied soldiers forced their way into and looted the Emperor's Summer Palace and when Elgon found out the Chinese had killed many of the envoy's he ordered it burned to the ground the Chinese then signed the 1860 Treaty of Beijing which did several things it confirmed the 1858 treaty increased the reparations that China would pay gave Russia more territory and also saw Britain gain slightly more land around Hong Kong interestingly this war is called the Second Opium War but OPM's role was largely secondary this time it was about enforcing open trade and demonstrating to China that Europeans were now the dominant ones in the region I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching and a special thanks to all of these patrons you see on screen for their generosity in supporting the show and a particularly special thanks to James Bissonnette party-boy Co Michael Reynolds Gustav Swann Winston Cawood Skye Chappell Adam Harvey Gable airy and azekah flash you