Soon after assuming charge as Imperial Commissioner of Canton, Lin sent a note to all Chinese middlemen and foreigners asking them to surrender all their existing stocks of opium and give a guarantee that in future they would not import the drug to China. The note ended with an assertion that he would not leave his post until the traffic had been stamped out.
The foreigners who had been given to such threats in the past did not pay much heed to Lin’s warning. However, Lin was quite serious. He proceeded to blockade the ships in which the foreigners were living so that they could not have any communication with their ships. In view of this strictness the English Superintendent of Trade (Charles Eliot) handed over all the stocks of opium to the Chinese authorities.
However, he refused to give an undertaking to discontinue the traffic and withdraw to Macao. It is said that over twenty thousand chests of opium were surrendered to Lin. The opium thus surrendered was thrown into pits, mixed with quicklime, salt and water and then flushed into the sea.
This operation lasted for twenty-three days. When the Chinese Emperor learnt of the remarkable success of Lin, he wrote to him “Your loyalty to your prince and your love of your country are now revealed for all to see, both within the Empire and in the regions abroad outside the boundaries of civilization.”
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This success of Lin, however, did not mean that mission had been fully accomplished. During the next year and a half preparations were made by the Chinese as well as the English for a final show down. Lin closed the approach to Canton by river and strengthened fortifications.
He also secured the help of the fishermen and boat dwellers living on the coast to check the smuggling of opium. On the other hand, the English, who had refused to give an undertaking to discontinue the traffic in opium and retired to Macao, made preparations for a show down with the Chinese. In England, the Parliament accorded approval for the despatch of a British fleet to the mouth of Canton river with a view to demand compensation for the opium destroyed by Lin.
An expedition was sent to blockade Canton, but soon it moved northward. In July the English succeeded in landing at a defenceless place Tinghai, the administrative centre of Chusan. A little later the English fleet reached the entrance to the Paiho river, which leads to Tienstin. In the light of these developments, the Chinese Emperor decided to appoint Kishan, who had strongly opposed restrictions on import of opium, as new Commissioner of Canton to effect necessary change in the Chinese policy.
Kishan pulled down all the defence works on which Lin had spent much money and energy and disbanded the local militia recruited and trained by Lin. Kishan hoped that all these measures and payment of some indemnity would satisfy the foreigners.
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However, the British demanded outright cession of the island of Hongkong and the opening of the ports of Amoy and Foochow in the neighbouring province of Fukien to the English merchants. In early January 1841, the British captured the forts at the mouth of the Canton river. In view of these successes of the English, Kishan accepted their terms.
In the meanwhile, the Emperor issued an edict asserting that the insolent barbarians were to be crushed. Troops from all over the country assembled at Canton and their command was entrusted to Emperor’s cousin Kishan. When the Emperor learnt of the surrender by Kishan he became furious and ordered him to be brought to Peking in chains. He also confiscated all the possessions of Kishan,
When the British learnt about the news from Peking, they resumed hostilities outside Canton. The Chinese offered vigorous resistance and used their canons against the English. However, their canons proved quite ineffective because the cannon balls failed to hit the foreign ships and fell short of the targets. On the other hand, the English canons proved more effective.
They hit the targets more accurately and caused much loss to the property on the coast. As the artillery of the British was pouring fire on the city Kishan was also obliged to come to terms with them and offered a ransom of six million silver dollars. The local defence organization, however, did not feel happy about the surrender of government forces, which they described as betrayal. They successfully inflicted a defeat on a detachment of the British soldiers at Sanyuan-li.
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On the other hand, the authorities at London were also not quite happy with the terms extorted so far from the Chinese. In August 1841, the British government decided to send another fleet under Sir Henry Pottinger. The fleet occupied Amoy, Singhai and Ningpo in quick succession. In the summer of 1842 the English fleet entered Yangtse. Shanghai was captured by the English in June 1842, and Chinkiating in July 1842.
The capture of Chinkiang which was a vital line of communication between the capital and the wealthiest provinces of the south, provided a great set back to the Chinese. Thereafter the British proceeded towards Nanking and threatened it. In the war which ensued the Chinese could not match the technological and tactical superiority of the British forces and China was obliged to sign Treaty of Nanking in 1842.
According to the authors of Civilization Past and Present it would be a mistake to view the conflict between the two countries simply as a matter of drug control. In fact, as one Chinese historian has observed “The war between China and England, caused superficially by the problem of opium prohibition, may actually be viewed as a conflict of Western and Eastern cultures.”