1. In the 1700s, China enjoyed a favorable balance of trade.

2. Mandarin with Opium Pipe
The Power of Opium
By 1779, the British East India Company was importing opium into China
Within a generation, opium addiction in China became widespread
Mandarin with Opium Pipe

3. The East India Company’s opium factory stacking room

4. China and Britain Clash over Opium
In 1839, a Chinese official demanded that the opium trade in Guangzhou (Canton) stop. The British refused, and war ensued.
Chinese unloading opium from a British ship

5. The British navy attacks
The Opium War: 1839–1842
The British navy attacks

6. The Treaty of Nanjing Britain gained Control of Hong Kong
The right to trade in five major cities
Extraterritoriality
The legalization of opium in China
The signing of the Treaty of Nanjing
aboard the British ship Cornwallis

7. Treaty Ports

8. U.S. Secretary of State John Hay
The Open Door Policy
Turmoil in China
“Spheres of influence”
“Open Door” policy formulated by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay
No nations formally accepted Hay’s proposal, but they didn’t counter the Open Door policy’s provisions either
U.S. Secretary of State John Hay

9. Catholic cathedral in Shanghai

10. American, Japanese, and British troops storming Beijing
The Boxer Rebellion, 1899
American, Japanese, and British troops storming Beijing

11. Signing of the Boxer Protocol
China was forced to sign the Boxer Protocol
Required to pay damages to Europeans
Forced to allow foreign soldiers to live in Beijing
Signing of the Boxer Protocol

12. Chinese Nationalism
Nationalism increased in China as groups fought to not only rid China of foreigners, but to end centuries of imperial rule.