18:39 and some chap has just ordered the destruction of some opium lin seshu was the name of this man a Chinese official who'd confiscated the opium from a man called Charles Eliot the British had been making a lot of money selling it to the Chinese because opium is incredibly addictive the Chinese government had banned its import and sale because it was ruining the country but that didn't stop the British because money seshu had hoped that this open display of defiance would deter the British from continuing to sell opium to China he was wrong as a result Eliot who oversaw all British trade with China ordered the withdrawal of all British men and ships from Canton and out of the country the British were furious that the Chinese thought that they were allowed to tell them what to do in China and so they mobilized the Royal Navy for war seshu wasn't concerned about war since he felt that the British would only win at sea but on land the Chinese were safe the British fleet arrived at the island of Joe shown here in 1814 demanded that it surrender the inhabitants said no and dug in for a long siege on July the 5th of 2:30 the Royal Navy began its bombardment by 239 the bombardment was over and the islands defenses were completely destroyed the British then took the island with no further resistance the First Opium War had begun in earnest the Chinese led by the daoguang emperor of the Ching dynasty didn't take the war the British very seriously at first a part of this came from the entrenched Chinese belief that all foreigners were barbarians who were destined to live under the rule of the Emperor this is demonstrated by the fact that during the war they referred to the British not as foreigners but as rebels the British under the leadership of Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston expected the war to be a difficult one it was about two things the first was obviously the right to continue selling opium to the Chinese the second was to end the idea of Chinese superiority and to be seen by the imperial court as equals in all things anywho while sailing up the Chinese coast the Royal Navy had attempted to deliver a letter of their peace terms to the Emperor the Emperor largely ignored these demands and instead decided that Britain would be happy if Flynn seshu was removed he had him replaced with the man called ki Shan who met Elliott in late 1840 to discuss terms hisham promised that a peaceful solution could be found and told the Brits to simply wait until the Emperor date to reply to them months passed and the British were unhappy to wait anymore so in early 1841 back to fighting the British were victorious at the Battle of Chimpy in ki Shannon Eliot meant to discuss terms in late January Eliot demanded Hong Kong the reopening of the opium trading can't on a bunch of cash and for the British to be recognised as equals the Emperor said no and hurty sham arrested and placed him with two men the emperor's cousin yi Shan and the general could yank Fang the task was simple crushed the British entirely the intensity of fighting picked up soon after this and by March the British were sitting outside of Canton yank Fang agreed to allow the British to trade their again in return for the soldiers leaving which they did the Emperor was furious and removed yang Fang and demanded that ye shall now destroyed the British because that's how that worked Canton was reinforced while the British took defensive positions around the city he shall attacked the British on the 21st of May he was repelled and about a week later the city was captured by the British and looted during this battle the Qing forces outnumbered the British about fifty thousand to six thousand so why did the British win the two main reasons were technology and training whilst China had been the birthplace of gunpowder most Qing soldiers were equipped with Spears or bows and those that had guns had old matchlock muskets whereas the British had much newer weaponry and their soldiers were also very well trained and were often veterans of other conflicts unlike the Ching who were mostly peasant conscripts who sometimes fought bandits this discrepancy was much larger at sea where British warships were of much better quality than the Chinese ships could junks that they faced the British had also brought with them a brand new warship the HMS nemesis which was an iron hold steam-powered warship which outlast anything the Ching could throw at them the pattern of a much larger Qing force being defeated by a small yet technologically superior British force continued throughout the rest of the war over the next year the British captured many coastal cities and forts amid 1842 the British captured cinque yang which meant that they could blockade the Yangtze River in China's Grand Canal which meant the food couldn't be shipped across the Empire the Emperor thus decided to sue for peace with Britain and they both signed the Treaty of Nanking the terms were that trade would now go through these cities as well as Canton and that this trade would include opium that China would pay Britain what is technically known as a boatload of money and that Hongkong would be ceded to Britain as well in return the Chinese got sweet nothing in this treatise referred to as the first unequal treaty for China the Treaty of Nanking marks the beginning of a period known as the century of humiliation in which China would suffer internal rebellions in degrading foreign interventions one of which was the Second Opium War but that's for another video I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching and a special thanks to Winston Kay with James Bissonnette ozark a flash Henry Robin Adam Harvey and Skye Chappell if you'd like to learn more about the First Opium War then there are some book recommendations in the description below