In 1840, the First Opium War broke out between the English and the Chinese. The military weakness of China led to their defeat.
The British traders forced opium on the Chinese people in its worst form. The Chinese Government issued order prohibiting the import of opium. But the British continued to smuggle opium, which led to the opium wars.
allowed the west to import their goods although China had never needed them before.
The treaty stated that free trade was allotted to the west and Britain had control over Hong Kong as well as other Chinese ports for 120 years
signed on board a British warship by two Manchu imperial commissioners and the British plenipotentiary
In addition, Britain was to have most-favored-nation treatment, that is, it would receive whatever trading concessions the Chinese granted other powers then or later.
When Mao Ze Dong stood at Tiananmen in 1949 and declared the People’s Republic of China, his gestures symbolized the end of the Century of Humiliation; China had “stood up” and foreign incursions into Chinese territory ended.
the Treaty of Nanking ushered in a 100-year period of diplomatic and international humiliation; a weak China could not prevent Western nations from demanding and winning concessions that challenged China’s national sovereignty.
The Treaty of Nanking forced a weak China to end government controlled trade with the West, to open five treaty ports and foreign concession areas within its national boundaries, to pay $6 million indemnity to Britain for opium the Chinese government had seized, and to cede Hong Kong to Britain.
It was the first of what the Chinese called the unequal treaties because Britain had no obligations in return.
The Treaty of Nanking (also spelt Nanjing in pinyin) was a treaty signed on 29 August 1842 to mark the end of the First Opium War (1839–42) between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Qing Dynasty of China.